What Richard Did is a 2012 Irish drama film directed by Lenny Abrahamson and written by Malcolm Campbell [de; nds].

The film is loosely based on Kevin Power's Bad Day in Blackrock, a 2008 novel inspired by the real-life death of Brian Murphy in 2000.

[5] Richard Karlsen, a charismatic and confident young man, leads a privileged life on Dublin's Southside.

A former rugby player for his exclusive fee-paying school's Senior Cup team, he and his friends are enjoying their last summer before university.

Richard, Lara, Cian and Stephen leave and observe Conor attempting to stagger back towards the party.

Lara reassures Richard that she lied to Garda investigators to protect him, telling them that they left the party before the brawl broke out.

A few days later, Peter has ascertained through contacts that the Garda investigation is focusing on the gatecrashers, and that there are no separate inquiries or suspects.

Unlike Abrahamson's previous two films, the screenplay for What Richard Did was not written by Mark O'Halloran but by Malcolm Campbell [de; nds].

The director worked with the cast for a full year in advance of production while script development was ongoing, holding a series of workshops in an effort to make successive drafts more reflective of contemporary Irish youth culture.