'It's like Richard III wanted to be found'

Screenwriter Philippa Langley, creator of the Looking For Richard project, explains her lifelong passion for the monarchSince Philippa Langley, an Edinburgh-based screenwriter and producer, read a biography of Richard III 15 years ago, the last Plantagenet king has dominated her life.She is now a leading member of the Richard III Society, and was the originator of the Looking For Richard project, which after years of research and fundraising led to the exhumation of bones from a Leicester car park – now confirmed by the local university as those of the 15th-century monarch.To the embarrassment of her teenage children, she was seen weeping at several points in the Channel 4 documentary tracking the project. Here she explains her involvement with the search for Richard."I really think it's a justice thing. It began for me when I read a biography of him, Paul Murray Kendall's book, in about 1998, and it just blew me away. I thought, this is a man whose real story has never been told on screen, never."He was always real to me, he was always a real living breathing man from the get-go, and there was something really quite heroic about him."There are two sorts of primary sources: people who knew of him and people who actually knew him. Those who actually knew him describe a very particular kind of man, who was no saint but who was loyal, brave, pious and just. He was 30 when his brother died: you just don't change character at the age of 30."When you're writing a screenplay, you ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian University of Leicester Archaeology Richard III Features UK news Monarchy Science Source Type: news