SINCE the post EU referendum silly season started – three long years ago, now – the word unprecedented has been used an unparalleled number of times. But a Chancellor of the Exchequer resigning on live television?

Okay, it was not quite the political equivalent of the moon landing, and Philip Hammond’s unhappiness with the prospect of a Boris Johnson premiership has scarcely been a secret. Nevertheless, setting out his resignation timetable on The Andrew Marr Show was still remarkable.

There was a giddy, “school’s (almost) out” air across all the Sunday shows. If British politics was a bog standard comprehensive there would be a sports day to mark end of term, maybe a trip to the cinema. Instead, Westminster will unveil the new Liberal Democrat leader today and the new head of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the UK tomorrow. Parliament then rises for the summer on Thursday. Brexit crisis, what Brexit crisis?

READ MORE: Hammond set to resign

Mr Hammond will resign after Theresa May finishes her final Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, and before she makes that last lonely trip to Buckingham Palace.

It was almost as if the Chancellor had given a lot of pleasurable thought to how he could spoil the new PM’s first day.

Several of the Sunday papers had photos of Mr Hammond putting suitcases into the boot of his car as though his evacuation of Number 11 had already begun.

Sorry to disappoint, he told Marr, but he was only doing what he did every week, heading home with a suitcase (full of washing one presumes, though he did not say), and he would be heading back with the same one come Monday morning. It was a big case for a few bits and bobs. One of the advantages of being on the backbenches, Mr Hammond will discover in time, is that no-one will ever again find his luggage interesting.

Though he was shortly to be out of the job of Chancellor, Mr Hammond was as chipper as any man who has a few million quid in the bank and does not need to worry about his next mortgage payment. The Chancellor’s mood set fair, Marr tried a joke. Known to date by the nickname of “Spreadsheet Phil”, did Mr Hammond fancy changing to something racier to go with his future as a backbench rebel? How about Phil Guevara, Marr suggested? Mmm. Wisely, the Scot stopped there before he could go on to propose Phil Trotsky or Phil Danton.

After the resignation announcement, the rest of the interview was about Phil-ing time, although there was one moment when Marr asked if Mr Hammond would go against the Government in a no confidence vote. He did not rule it out, but he did not rule it in either. Mr Johnson might call this a have cake and eat it position; the rest of us would say it was a politician being a politician.

READ MORE: No deal Brexit trouble for everyone

Marr had by far the best line-up yesterday, with Ridge on Sunday reduced to talking to Adam Price, the Plaid Cymru leader, about the alliance between Remain parties in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election. The most memorable takeaway from the encounter was the chilling notion that sideburns are still considered fashionable in Wales.

Otherwise, Sophy Ridge’s guests included Richard Burgon, the Shadow Justice Secretary. The two got into a spat over whether she had read a speech in full. She had, she informed him, looking rather miffed. As well she might. Since Andrew Neil and Boris Johnson’s tussle over paragraphs 5b and 5c in GATT 24 (what do you mean you were asleep by then?) politicians and presenters have taken to trying to trip each other up on details. It will end in tears, but they will not be those of Ms Ridge, who does her homework.

Elsewhere, the Sunday shows were all about jobs. Not the possible 55,000 that could be lost in Ireland should there be a no deal Brexit, according to Simon Coveney, the Irish deputy PM and guest on Marr, but the vacancies in the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.

READ MORE: SNP 'beacon of hope'

Iain Duncan Smith was introduced on Marr as the man being tipped as deputy PM to Boris Johnson. IDS insisted he had bid for nothing, asked for nothing, and if he got nothing he would still be a happy man. On Sunday Politics Scotland, Jo Swinson was similarly sunny, smiling gamely when presenter Gordon Brewer said she had been seen as a shoo-in for LibDem leader but some reports on postal votes suggested the contest with Sir Ed Davey was closer than expected. No votes had yet been counted, she said, she remained hopeful, but was not taking anything for granted. Would this outbreak of optimism never end?

The SNP’s Westminster leader was up next and he was in a good mood, too. Ian Blackford may have given the impression a few weeks ago that all was lost on blocking a no deal Brexit, but yesterday his tail was up – actually make that two tails – about the prospect. Something to do, perhaps, with the unexpectedly large majority last week against proroguing parliament. Now, Mr Blackford was “pretty convinced” something could be done to take no deal off the table, even though it might only have a few days to get the job done. That was enough time, he said.

With that it was cheerio from Sunday Politics Scotland, which after a special show on Wednesday, will be back on September 15. Marr will return on September 1. By which time everything will have been sorted out. Won’t it?