THIS IS THE LIVESTREAM. FOR THE IN-PERSON EVENT, CLICK HERE: IN-PERSON EVENT

Once you have bought your ticket, you will be emailed the full details of how to access the livestream in the week leading up to the event.

Richard III was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485 at the age of 32. He was killed at the Battle of Bosworth  (22 August 1485). He was the last King of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at Bosworth was the penultimate battle in the Wars of the Roses and ushered in the Tudor dynasty.

The remains of Richard III were discovered in 2012 under a car park in Leicester by Philippa Langley M.B.E. through her Looking For Richard Project. Philippa’s search for the King’s grave was the subject of the award-winning TV documentary: Richard III: The King in the Car Park. The remains of King Richard were identified using a range of scientific disciplines including DNA analysis.

What started for Yvonne Morley-Chisholm, voice teacher and vocal coach, over ten years ago as an after-dinner entertainment to compare Shakespeare’s Richard III with what we know of the real man, developed quickly into a research project with a unique focus: to explore the possibility of recreating a literal voice for a long-dead King. Experts from various fields helped put the pieces of a complex puzzle together.

Sunday 17 November 2024 is the international launch at York Theatre Royal.

Some of the experts will be present to share their part in what is being called the new science of Historical Human Reconstruction or Historical Postmortalism. They will include a key expert and co-collaborator: Professor Caroline Wilkinson from FaceLab at John Moore’s University, Liverpool. The Face Lab team will transfer the voice and movement to the King using CGI and motion capture software. This new work utilises the 3D digital model of King Richard’s head created by Prof Wilkinson in 2012 at the University of Dundee based on the evidence from his skull. This facial reconstruction process can be seen in the award-winning The King in the Car Park C4 documentary. 

Another key expert is Professor David Crystal OBE who is the internationally recognised expert in Linguistics specialising in Original Pronunciation who worked to produce the phonology of King Richard’s speech with a 95% accuracy.

You will also hear from Philippa Langley M.B.E. author and producer, who led the search to find King Richard’s mortal remains as presented in The King in the Car Park documentary and Matthew Lewis, Historian, Author and podcaster for History Hit.

A range of other experts were called upon to help flesh out the vocal profile including experts from the fields of otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat), speech and language therapy, dentistry, ethology (human behaviour from a biological perspective), genetics, physio-therapy, forensic-psychology, archaeology and researchers using contemporary materials, documentation and including the music, literature and religious practice of this King.

The event will cover how, after many years, the pieces have come together. How the latest state of the art technology is involved to create what has never been done before: a moving, breathing, speaking, “living” face. It provides important educative value to scholars and the public at large in understanding more about the last Plantagenet King of England.

After all the controversy surrounding this monarch and the questions raised about his actions and personality: was he a good man or murderous psychopath? In effect, King Richard III will speak for himself.

The schedule for the conference (subject to change)

12.00 – 13.30 first session: from the myths to the real man

13.30 – 14.30 lunch break

14.30 – 16.00 re-constructing Richard III: the experts share how

16.00 – 16.30 break

16.30 – 18.00 pm continuation culminating in “the reveal”