The Rest is History Episode 583 The Lion, the Priest and the Parlourmaids: A 1930s Sex Scandal The story of Harold Davidson, the Rector of Stiffkey (sometimes pronounced ‘stuckey’ for some insane English reason) challenges you as a listener to either judge him with the obloquy he deserves, or to take a more ‘charitable’ view of him as a naive man mis-cast into the clerical profession, who had been framed and punished unjustly. He was a Church of England minister who took an intense interest in young girls of easy virtue, and he became known as the ‘Prostitutes’ Padre’. He ended up being defrocked, after the Bishop of Norwich launched proceedings against him for immorality. His courtcase revealed multiple occasions of pestering, but there was only one main witness against him. Always a frustrated stage-performer, he spent the rest of his life as a Blackpool showman trying to raise the money to appeal his case, ending up being mauled by a lion as part of the sideshow. Tom and Dominic become a little silly during this episode, but it does lend itself to farce.
History’s Heroes. I must admit that I’m a bit wary of any podcast that proclaims to deal with ‘heroes’, but I was interested in the story of NZ plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, the subject of Saving Face with Harold Gillies, a two-part episode. Born in New Zealand, he trained and lived in England, and when World War I broke out, he went to the front where he worked on men who had suffered the appalling facial injuries, many of which were sustained when raising their heads above the trenches. World War I changed the nature of war: 300 men in 1914 were equivalent to 60,000 in Napoleon’s time. On the front, he recognized the importance of the work of dentists, who were better at facial reconstruction than doctors were, He pioneered the use of the ‘flap’, where skin from one part of the body was reattached to other parts of the body over a long series of surgeries (although looking at the Wikipedia entry, I don’t know that the results of the flap were much better than the original surgery). In fact, the results are so poor that perhaps Harold Gillies could be considered by the The Human Subject podcast, which looks at some of the barbarities that were carried out in the name of science. After the war, he moved into cosmetic surgery and gender reassignment surgery – indeed he carried out among the first female-male and male-female surgeries. The second episode features interviews with his son and grandson, who query somewhat the heroic status awarded to Harold Gillies, while still maintaining pride in their connection to him.
El Hilo. I’ve been appalled looking at the prison regime introduced to El Salvador by Nayib Bukele, and this 6-part series does a really good dive (if very critical) into Bukele and his policies. I’m listening to it in Spanish, and reading the Spanish transcript. However, it is possible to get an English translation of each episode here. Episode 1: Someone Like Bukule (link is to the English translation) goes to his childhood as the grandson of Palestinian immigrants, and the son of a politically engaged businessman and commentator. His political career started off with a mayoral position in Nuevo Cuscatlán, before moving on to become the mayor of San Salvador. Episode 2 Move Fast and Break Things (Muévete rápido, rompe cosas) (I don’t think there’s an English transcript) follows his career as he becomes the President, breaking the hold of the Left on the presidency by presenting himself as an outsider to the political system (even though he had been involved in mayoral politics). Despite making many populist promises during the campaign, then warns of “bitter medicine” required to solve the economic and social problems of El Salvador.
Global Roaming (ABC) And blow me down if Geraldine and Hamish don’t devote this week’s episode to Nayib Bukele as well. Meet the ‘World’s Coolest Dictator’ features an interview with Vera Bergengruen who is one of the few Western journalists to have interviewed Bukele for a TIME profile. She emphasizes Bukele’s ‘poster child’ status amongst other Latin American countries moving to the right, and his stratospheric popularity, even among families that have a family member incarcerated in his terrible prison system. Good, but it lacks the depth of the El Hilo series (only to be expected as this is a single half-hour episode compared with six one-hour episodes)
Missing in the Amazon (Guardian) Episode 5: The Fightback. In Lula da Silva’s first presidency, there had been a 50% reduction in deforestation. When he returned to the presidency in 2023, it was the closest election result in Brazilian history. After Bolsonaro had given carte blanche to illegal operations in the Amazon, Lula reactivated the special forces to apprehend the mining barges and illegal fishing. However, poverty, the size of the Amazon and organized crime mean that there are low sentences and big money. Pelado was a mid-level commander in an operation conducted by Ruben Villar (there are different versions of his name) AKA ‘Colombia’, a warlord withh strong political connections. Will he ever face court? (update as of 22/7/25- The Federal Court of Amazonas has accepted the prosecutors’ case against ‘Colombia’ ) Episode 6: The Frontline In June 2025 Dom’s book How to Save the Amazon was published. Ironically, despite Lula, it is just as dangerous today and if Dom and Bruno embarked on the same expedition, there would probably be the same result. His friend Betto thinks that Lula has squandered the opportunity to confront organized crime, while others are more optimistic, hoping that Lula wins the next election in 2026.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 