How the former footballer's production company became the number one (and number two, and number five, and number nine and number 12) name in British

The Rest Is Not Even Close: Inside Gary Lineker's Goalhanger Revolution

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2024-11-07 23:00:03

How the former footballer's production company became the number one (and number two, and number five, and number nine and number 12) name in British podcasts

It’s a cloudy evening in the middle of June and thousands of people are swarming the grounds of Hampton Court Palace. The England football team is about to kick off its European Championship journey, and in this old quadrangle, deep rows of plastic chairs have been parked in front of a large screen that hangs above a stage. The queue for the bar is long, and expectations are high.

But nobody is here for the match. Gareth Southgate’s brave boys will just have to wait. Because for the next 90 minutes, all eyes will be on two middle-aged men cracking wise about the Tudors.

The Rest is History, hosted by Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, both popular historians and bestselling authors, is the most subscribed-to podcast in Britain. It is also the most popular history podcast in the world, a globetrotting live show and the MVP of Gary Lineker’s all-conquering Goalhanger network.

Co-founded six years ago with former TV and radio execs Tony Pastor and Jack Davenport, the studio’s line-up of shows — including The Rest is Politics, presented by former New Labour press secretary Alastair Campbell and former Conservative minister Rory Stewart, and The Rest is Football, anchored by Lineker himself — hold permanent residence at the top of the UK charts. According to the company, Goalhanger’s 10 podcasts collectively achieve more than 40 million downloads a month.