On 23 September 2009 Guinness World Records was present on BAFTA award-winning The Paul O'Grady show for a host of record attempts throughout the programme. The Guinness World Records adjudication team of Ralph Hannah, Mariamarta Ruano-Graham and Amarilis Espinoza invigilated three record attempts and even had time for a special certificate presentation to one of Britain's most popular sportsmen.

The first group of record breakers were the unsuspecting audience who had been handed a skeleton costume and mask on their arrival to the studio! Only a handful of the audience declined to take part which left 197 people dressed up as skeletons which was enough to set the new Guinness World Records record for the largest gathering of skeletons.

London-based fireman Lee Phillips was the next record aspirant but he wasn't wearing a costume, in fact he was only wearing a pair of underpants. All that was about to change over the course of the show as he tried to set the record for the most underpants worn in one hour - needing to surpass more than 100 pairs of underpants to set the record!

As Lee was attempting his record, under the eagle eye of adjudicator Mariamarata, a third record attempt was being prepared. Anton, Patrick and James all members of the Paul O'Grady team had lined up for a head-to-head attempt to break the record for the fastest time to eat three pickled eggs. To eat three pickled eggs at all is hard enough especially if, as Patrick admitted to adjudicator Ralph, you have "just eaten a massive dinner" but these guys had to try and do it in under 1 minute 9 seconds! The three attempts can only be described with one word "FAILURE" as Patrick cheated by throwing the egg on another plate, Anton was having difficulties swallowing and while James did swallow all three eggs unfortunately he just couldn't keep them down! All three were officially disqualified by Amarilis, no new Guinness World Records record here.

Lee on the other hand was doing very well and after 45 minutes had flown past the 100 mark but he still had some pants to put on. By the end of the show (also the one hour mark) Lee had managed an incredible 144 pairs of underpants the second new record of the day!

The final person to receive a certificate was none other than the undefeated boxing world champion, the "Pride of Wales" Joe Calzaghe who holds the record for the most consecutive defences of a World super-middleweight boxing title with an incredible 21 straight defences, the last coming in 2007 against Mikel Kessler. He seemed delighted to receive his certificate for the record which can be found in the 2010 edition of Guinness World Records. Overall a brilliant record-breaking show!!

To find out more about the Paul O'Grady show click here

24 September 2009