The final hours of the Daily Star's puckish political livestream which pitted a head of state against a head of lettuce

Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss will forever be synonymous with the image of a wilting lettuce, dressed in a wig, with googly eyes and Mr. Potato Head limbs.

By the end of September 2022, Truss was less than a month into her premiership but had a lot of pressure after a drastic mini budget was widely criticised. On 14 October, British tabloid newspaper The Daily Star began livestreaming an iceberg lettuce, purchased from Tesco, across YouTube and Twitter, posing the question “LIVE: Can Liz Truss outlast a lettuce?” By 20 October they had their answer: Liz Truss resigned, the lettuce still intact. Three years later, in 2025 the BFI acquired the Twitter stream of the lettuce, and the UK’s shortest reigning Prime Minister became subject of the longest moving image held in the BFI National Archive.

The audacious satirical stunt was a fast-moving response to political news, yet rolling livestreams have a long history. Since the University of Cambridge’s Trojan Room coffee pot webcam in the early 1990s, live online video streaming has found delight in everyday experiences. From an archival perspective, such long yet ephemeral videos are challenging and at risk of becoming inaccessible.

This broadcast covers day seven into the eighth and final day of The Daily Star’s viral livestream of a lettuce placed next to a portrait of then Prime Minister Liz Truss, with the onscreen caption: “Can Liz Truss outlast this lettuce?”. This broadcast began at 7:44 a.m. on 20 October 2022.

The lettuce starts the broadcast with disco lights, a teddy bear featuring the distorted face of British musician and composer Aphex Twin (taken from the cover of his 1995 album I Care Because You Do), a blanket, figurines of characters from the animated show Adventure Time (TV series, 2010–2018), two Union Jack flags and a sleep mask covering its googly eyes. These are swiftly removed and replaced with Marmite on toast and a cup of coffee.

The text at the bottom of the screen now reads: “Breaking: As the government collapses, Lizzy Lettuce has made a statement telling the UK, ‘Lettuce prevail.’”

Around 1 p.m., breakfast is removed and replaced with a sausage roll from British bakery chain Greggs and a mug saying “Keep Calm and Carry On,” a phrase popularised in a motivational poster produced by the Government of the United Kingdom in 1939 in preparation for the Second World War.

At 1:26 p.m., the text at the bottom of the screen changes to read: “Breaking: Downing Street statement expected at 13:30.” A few minutes later, this message is amended to say “13:30ish.”

At 1:33 p.m., a video stream of Liz Truss speaking outside 10 Downing Street is introduced. She proceeds to resign as Prime Minister. As the broadcast returns to the livestream, the national anthem of the United Kingdom, “God Save the King,” begins to play. A golden crown is placed on the lettuce, and the portrait of Liz Truss is turned face down. The main text on screen changes to: “This lettuce outlasted Liz Truss.”

Over the next few hours, the disco lights return, along with music, bottles of wine, champagne, and gin, various fruits and vegetables with googly eyes, the Adventure Time figurines, and the teddy bear with the distorted face of Aphex Twin. The text at the bottom of the screen changes to read: “Breaking: The lettuce will give a speech to the nation at 18:00.”

At 6 p.m., an image appears on screen: a lettuce with a wig and googly eyes overlaid onto a still of Leonardo DiCaprio in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film The Great Gatsby, with fireworks in the background. The caption reads: “LETTUCE THANK YOU.”

The stream continues with this message for another 22 hours, with a brief interlude in the early hours back to the “Lettuce Cam.” The table now has one final addition: a handwritten note that simply says “Thanks.”