As the highest court in the UK, the supreme court is usually the forum for proceedings of the utmost gravity. But last week, one hearing was momentarily interrupted by an unlikely and comic intervention.
As one legal professional addressed the bench, the voice of Tom Holland, host of the popular podcast the Rest is History, boomed out through the court’s microphone system, delivering a satirical impersonation of the late US president Jimmy Carter.
The intervention was caused when one of the judges inadvertently pressed play on an episode of the Rest is History on his phone, which then played into the courtroom microphones.
As proceedings were being recorded, the moment was captured and quickly circulated online. As the theme song plays and gets louder, the lawyer starts to laugh, while Lord Briggs, one of the judges, appears to look down to his phone.
“The Rest Is History. It was switched to silent, do carry on,” he said, prompting laughter in the courtroom.
The clip was quickly shared by the podcast’s social media team with the caption: ‘What was Jimmy Carter doing in the supreme court last week?’
A supreme court spokesperson confirmed that the video is genuine. They added: “Lord Briggs switched off his phone quickly and apologised to the court.”
The history podcast, hosted by both Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, has more than 600 main episodes. Holland’s enthusiastic and occasionally wayward impressions are a regular feature of the show, which has over 20m monthly downloads.
The Rest Is History podcast is hosted by Tom Holland, left, and Dominic Sandbrook, right. Photograph: Chris Floyd/PA
Fans reacted online to the unlikely appearance of Holland’s voice, posting on social media. One said: “Of ALL of the impressions that could’ve played, of course it was the most accurate one.”
Another user said: “They couldn’t have picked a better intro. Imagine their shock when they heard Jimmy Carter resurrected from the dead.”
The Rest Is History launched in 2020 when Goalhanger – Gary Lineker’s podcast company – approached Holland to make a history podcast.
“They couldn’t work out who I should be paired with and, idiotically, I suggested Dominic,” Holland said in an interview with the Guardian. Sandbrook replied: “Yeah, you regret that now, mate.”
Speaking about the popularity of the podcast, Sandbrook said: “The truth is, history is quite embattled as a discipline. Lots of historians would probably say anything that tries to spark public interest must be a good thing … we wouldn’t have the number of listeners we have if people didn’t find history completely gripping.”
Holland and Sandbrook’s project is part of a wider network of podcasts under the Goalhanger umbrella, including The Rest Is Politics, The Rest Is Science and The Rest Is Football.
Previous guests of The Rest Is History includes Stephen Fry, who spoke about his fascination with Greek mythology, as well as Michael Wood, Mary Beard, Sir Ian Kershaw, William Dalrymple, and Marc Andreessen.
