The Lost King (aka Richard III: The King in the Car Park: THE FILM)

[Finn]

Perhaps my favourite bizarre real-life British story of the last decade or so has now been turned in to a film, and it's out now in the UK.

It's very much not a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it overall. But having watched the amazing C4 documentary that followed it all as it unfolded, it does feel like there'll be a better film to be made about this in 50 years or so, when everyone involved is dead.

This version has been made with Philippa Langley herself (i.e. the Richard III obsessive who spearheaded the campaign and found him under the carpark) and it's based on her book and she's listed as one of the executive producers. I expect this was necessary to get it made, but I think it does make this a sanitised account? In the doc she came across as sweet enough but also ABSOLUTELY CRACKERS, and curiously that second element is missing here (even though it DOES show her having visions of the dead King Richard III himself). I guess it's nice for her though.

I was also a bit sad that the documentary element isn't covered, as that was another point of interest. When Channel 4 commissioned it they clearly thought it was going to be a comedy doc about a mad lady and her friends who all thought Richard III was buried under the 'R' spot of a car park in Leicester - to the extent that C4 got Simon Farnaby off Horrible Histories to present it, rather than a serious history expert. And then they had to casually turn it into a more serious doc when it turned our Richard III actually WAS under the 'R' spot of a car park in Leicester.