The UK’s biggest podcast festival recently came back with a bang for its’ second year, where over 20,000 people enjoyed live podcast shows across comedy, politics, sports, culture and everything in between. Crossed Wires 2025 was packed with ‘you had to be there’ moments; an on-stage wedding proposal, a world first Python performance and a Jordan North strip tease.
It’s only year two, but Crossed Wires is now officially the biggest podcast festival in the world, here’s everything you may have missed from the weekend:
Monty Python’s Michael Palin performing a deleted scene from The Life of Brian for the first time ever
For the first time in over a decade, Michael Palin performed Monty Python material on stage in his hometown to a packed audience for Nobody expects The Michael Palin Podcast! hosted by long-time fan Greg James.
Palin treated Sheffield to a world-exclusive reading of a deleted end scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Titled ‘The Martyrdom of St. Brian’, Palin struggled to get through the scene without laughing at Brian’s “fingers full of naughtiness”, which led to roars of laughter from the crowd.
Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker reading the Shipping Forecast for a special 100th year anniversary show for the BBC
Just hours earlier, Jarvis Cocker delivered an unforgettable moment as he lent his voice to a centenary edition of the BBC’s Shipping Forecast, recorded exclusively for Crossed Wires. The forecast, played during a live session at the Cole Brothers building, was followed by a tongue-in-cheek live “Sheffield Forecast” performed by Radio 4 announcers Lisa Costello and Viji Alles, featuring references to ‘arctic monkey conditions’ and ‘occasionally chundery’ festival-goers.
“The Shipping Forecast is technically a weather guide for sailors, but it helps people navigate in other ways,” said Cocker. “For insomniacs, it’s a mantra to help drift off to sleep.”
A live on-stage proposal at Help I Sexted My Boss with Jordan North and William Hanson
At the second day of the Crossed Wires Podcast Festival (Sat 5th July), headliner Help I Sexted My Boss raised the roof with an on-stage proposal. Organised between William Hanson and the doting proposer in the interval, Tristan knelt on one knee as his now-fiancé Shona jumped with delight, before recounting the day he confessed his feelings in Wetherspoons as Jordan North ran around the stage with uncontrollable excitement.
The Full Monty performed by Help I Sexted My Boss
Taking an unexpected turn in the second half, Jordan and ‘producer Ben’stripped into gold hot pants for a Full Monty parody before William ‘stripped’ into a custom made Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday hybrid kit. A crowd sing-along to I Will Survive had all hands in the air, exuding true Saturday night fever from over 2,000 people at the sold-out show. On Instagram, fans are calling it the ‘best night ever’.
Pulp’s Nick Banks as the special guest for Drunk Women Solving Crime
Following Jarvis Cocker’s special recording for Crossed Wires to mark 100 years of The Shipping Forecast, a second Pulp member graced Sheffield for a somewhat different live show. Drummer Nick Banks joined Drunk Women Solving Crime hosts Hannah George and Taylor Glenn to don his detective hat and dissect a crime set in Sheffield over a century ago. The room was filled with plenty of laughs and audience participation as they tried to work out what happened between two famous rival gangs that led to public outrage.
After a jam-packed weekend, Crossed Wires took to Instagram after this weekend’s excitement to tease 2026:
“We’re already working on making Crossed Wires 2026 even bigger and better! To be the first to find out who’s joining us, sign up to our mailing list at crossedwires.live.
See you next year!”
