The Lost King subject says she fought to get story told

A woman whose story lies at the centre of a new film about the search for Richard III has said she faced a fight to get her story told.

The Lost King focuses on the story of Phillipa Langley, whose quest to find the last Plantagenet monarch prompted his discovery, by academics, in 2012.

The filmmakers claim the University of Leicester marginalised Ms Langley's role in the amazing find.

However the university said its academics had been unfairly portrayed.

Ms Langley and The Lost King's producer Dan Winch made the comments at an event at the Richard III Visitor Centre, in Leicester, to mark the king's birthday.

She said she had felt marginalised and was particularly disappointed not to feature more prominently at a press conference, where news that the remains were indeed Richard's was confirmed.

She said: "I was thirteenth in a list of 13 people. That was really hard.

"I have had to fight to get my story told and the film does this.

"The film is my story. Everything you see on screen is documented and supported by original materials and eyewitness testimony."

Steve Coogan, who co-wrote the film and plays Ms Langley's husband, has previously told the BBC Ms Langley was "incensed" by how she had been treated by the university.

Mr Winch said the film was an attempt to give Ms Langley, who is played by actress Sally Hawkins, the credit she was due.

He said: "The film sets out to tell the extraordinary discovery of Richard from Phillipa's point of view and seeks to clarify where credit is rightly hers by finally giving her a voice.

"This has been eight years of Phillipa's work and eight years of our script work, based on research and fact and everything in the public domain, that we can hook our story on to and build it around."

He added the filmmakers had had contact with the university, despite the institution claiming otherwise.

"We did interviews. We subsequently had contact through the course of pre-production," he said.

"We don't want to sound desperately defensive. It just did happen.

"We were very courteous and respectful but we explained if we were to engage too far over the line then it wouldn't be the story we wanted to tell - that's Philippa's story.

"It wouldn't be the film we wanted to make.

"We couldn't be more proud of our film.

"People need to remember it is a film not a documentary."

However, the university pointed out that the film's marketing claims it is a true story.

"No University of Leicester staff were interviewed for the film," a spokesperson said.

"We offered to help the film-makers and were ignored and have the correspondence to prove it."

Academics and university staff have said the film wrongly portrays them as being patronising and dismissive of Ms Langley and said it is littered with inaccuracies.

"We worked closely with Philippa Langley throughout the project, and she was not sidelined by the university," it added in a statement.

"Indeed, she formed part of the team interview panel for every single press conference connected to the king."

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