Steve Coogan Pays Substantial Damages to Academic Over Defamatory Film Portrayal

Steve Coogan and two production companies have agreed to pay substantial — reportedly six‑figure — damages to Richard Taylor, now chief operating officer at Loughborough University, after the High Court found his portrayal in the 2022 film The Lost King had a defamatory meaning. The film, co-written by Coogan and about Philippa Langley’s role in finding Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park in 2012, was ruled in June by Judge Jaron Lewis to have depicted Taylor as having “knowingly misrepresented facts” and as “smug, unduly dismissive and patronising.” Taylor said the film made him appear “weasel‑like” and “misogynistic,” caused serious harm to his reputation and caused him great distress; the parties settled ahead of a full trial. As part of the settlement, the defendants have agreed to pay damages and legal costs and to edit the film to withdraw the defamatory portrayals, a result hailed by Taylor’s lawyers as a warning against marketing dramatizations as unquestioned “true accounts.”