A Voice For Richard

Imagine if you could see and hear King Richard III speaking his own words. Imagine if you could see him thinking, breathing and effectively brought back to “life”.

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 (22nd 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.

The mortal remains of King Richard III were reinterred within a tomb in Leicester Cathedral in March 2015. The discovery and reburial of the king was watched by an estimated global audience of over 366 million. Today, the replica human remains and facial reconstruction are housed at the Richard III Visitor Centre, very close to Leicester Cathedral. 

What started for Yvonne Morley-Chisholm, voice teacher and specialist vocal coach, over ten years ago as an after-dinner entertainment to compare Shakespeare’s character 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 came together in a pioneering collaboration to build the vocal profile.

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

Some of the experts will be present to talk about their part in what is being called the new science of Historical Human Reconstruction or Historical Postmortalism. They will include the key expert and co- collaborator: Professor Caroline Wilkinson from Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University. 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 Channel 4 documentary.

Another key expert is Professor David Crystal O.B.E. who is the internationally recognised expert in Linguistics specialising in Original Pronunciation who worked to produce the phonology of King Richard's speech and has refined it to 95% accuracy.

You will also hear from Philippa Langley M.B.E. historian, author and producer, who discovered the king’s mortal remains and Matthew Lewis, historian, author and podcaster for History Hits.

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 as well as researchers and historians using contemporary materials: documentation created during Richard’s lifetime including the music, literature and the 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: an authentic, moving, breathing, speaking, 'living' face. It provides important educative value to scholars and to 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.