News of the World Shuts Down
History Daily
History Daily
4.4 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 7 July 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
July 7, 2011. A phone hacking scandal forces the closure of Rupert Murdoch’s long-running News of the World. This episode originally aired in 2023.
- Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.
History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.
Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad-free. |
| 0:04.1 | Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondry app. |
| 0:06.0 | As a member of NoisorPlus at noisor.com or in Apple Podcasts, |
| 0:10.6 | or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com. |
| 0:30.7 | Thank you. It's the morning of July 7, 2005, and the streets of London are busier than usual. |
| 0:37.1 | An hour ago, an incident involving the London Underground forced the evacuation of the entire network. At this stage, |
| 0:38.4 | no one's quite sure what's going on, but there are thousands of frustrated commuters |
| 0:42.9 | still spilling into the city's crowded sidewalks and then on to buses. As the number 30, |
| 0:49.0 | a bright red double-decker bus, pulls up to Houston Station, dozens get on. |
| 0:59.4 | And once the doors close, the bus's driver, George, pulls away from the station, steering back into traffic. |
| 1:01.1 | As he focuses on driving the bus, George can't help but wonder what's caused this morning's |
| 1:06.0 | chaos. In the distance, he can hear sirens, and some people on the streets seem frightened. |
| 1:11.6 | He's heard some chatter about explosions in the underground tunnels, perhaps caused by problems |
| 1:16.6 | with the power grid, but no one really knows for sure. |
| 1:19.6 | All anyone cares about now is getting places on time. |
| 1:22.6 | So George tries to shut out the noise of his crowded bus and concentrate on driving his passengers |
| 1:28.2 | to their destinations safely and efficiently. But only minutes into his journey, just as he |
| 1:33.9 | drives past the headquarters of the British Medical Association, George's world is torn apart. |
| 1:39.9 | An explosion on the upper level of number 30 blows the roof off the bus, sending twisted steel crashing into the street. |
| 1:47.7 | George is thrown forward by the force of the blast, but he's held safe by his seatbelt. |
| 1:52.7 | Many of his passengers, however, are not so fortunate. |
| 1:56.1 | As he looks around, disoriented and in pain, the veteran driver sees blood everywhere, on people's faces, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Daily, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Daily and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

