A university executive who won damages over his portrayal in Steve Coogan\u2019s film The Lost King has urged Ofcom to strengthen regulation of fact-based drama, after what he described as a three-year \u201canxious, stressful and hurtful\u201d ordeal.<\/p>\n
Richard Taylor, formerly deputy registrar at the University of Leicester, sued Coogan as well as the film\u2019s production company, Baby Cow, and the distributor Path\u00e9 over his portrayal in the 2022 film about the discovery of Richard III\u2019s remains in a Leicester car park.<\/p>\n
The parties reached a settlement requiring damages<\/a>, a clarification to appear on the film, and an undertaking not to repeat the defamatory claims. A judge had found Taylor was shown in an \u201cunrelentingly negative and defamatory\u201d light.<\/p>\n Taylor said Ofcom<\/a> needed \u201cclearer guidance\u201d to stop similar misrepresentations happening in future. \u201cThey have a lot to say about news accuracy but much less about fact-based drama, which sits in a grey area,\u201d he said. \u201cOfcom should tighten that so people like me don\u2019t have to rush off to the libel courts when nonsense like The Lost King happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarding fact-based drama, he added: \u201cNot every single scene has got to be true, not every single conversation has got to be true, but if you\u2019re presenting it as a true story, it has got to be substantially true. And if it\u2019s not, you need to change the names of characters, change the names of organisations in it and tell the story in a very different way than if you are claiming it is a true story.\u201d<\/p>\n While stressing he did not want to \u201ctie writers up in knots\u201d, Taylor said the case should prompt Ofcom to act. \u201cThis outcome is potentially quite challenging for people writing these dramas now \u2026 but Ofcom stepping in would be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n Reflecting on the settlement, Taylor said he felt \u201crelieved and happy, regretful that I ever needed\u201d to bring the case, but that he remained frustrated that the film would continue to be shown. \u201cI\u2019d rather it was edited. I\u2019d rather the whole film was withdrawn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Under the settlement, a statement must appear for at least five seconds after the title card, clarifying that the \u201cMr Taylor\u201d depicted is a fictionalised character. \u201cIn effect, the film\u2019s going to have to say: \u2018based on a true story, but actually the main villain is completely made up because the real guy [of the same name] was acting with integrity\u2019. I think that\u2019s going to make the film pretty ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor, now chief operating officer at Loughborough University, also criticised the film-makers for \u201cnot checking the facts\u201d about events shown in the film. He said that, before the film\u2019s release, Coogan and his collaborators \u201cdidn\u2019t take me seriously\u201d when he raised concerns about being misrepresented.<\/p>\n \u201cMy view is that they were dismissive,\u201d he said. \u201cSteve Coogan\u2019s never anything other than certain of his own righteousness, and I think he still thinks he was right in doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n Coogan said in a statement that he would have \u201cpreferred\u201d for a judge to rule on the case, and that he was \u201chappy\u201d with the story the film told.<\/p>\n Taylor said the film-makers had failed to verify basic details, including claims that he had excluded The Lost King\u2019s protagonist, Philippa Langley, from press conferences. \u201cIf you\u2019re told Philippa was excluded, you go and check that,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s video on YouTube showing her quite clearly speaking at all of them. They didn\u2019t check the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Taylor described the experience of being falsely portrayed in a film as \u201creally hurtful\u201d, adding: \u201cThe problem is you don\u2019t know what people are saying about you, do you? My integrity is really important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI feel I should never have been in that position and to do all of that over a portrayal that was false,\u201d he said. \u201cFor the last three years it\u2019s been \u2026 moments where it\u2019s really quite intense and you feel quite anxious, quite stressed, quite worried.\u201d<\/p>\n A joint statement from Pathe Productions, Baby Cow Productions and Steve Coogan said: \u201cAs a distributor and producer recognised for bringing complex, real-life stories to audiences, we are deeply aware of the responsibility that comes with such portrayals and approach each project with care, integrity, and a commitment to authenticity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe remain incredibly proud of this film and are pleased this matter has now been settled.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A university executive who won damages over his portrayal in Steve Coogan\u2019s film The Lost King has urged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-533990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115453711114505401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}