From getting drunk with Monty Python to meeting bloke who eats planes… inside wacky world of Guinness World Records boss

CRAIG GLENDAY has seen it all in the wacky land of Guinness World Records.

The tome’s editor-in-chief has witnessed thousands of crazy attempts, superhuman feats and all sorts of celebrity antics — not to mention the cheats.

Guinness World Records keeper and editor-in-chief Craig Glenday[/caption]

And as the fascinating annual celebrates its 70th birthday this week, he recalls some of the most incredible challenges from across the decades.

The big book has sold 155million copies and spawned hit kids’ TV show Record Breakers, originally hosted by Roy Castle and featuring the McWhirter Brothers, whose knowledge of records was outstanding.

Originally called The Guinness Book Of Records, it was founded in Ireland in 1955 as a ploy to sell more Guinness stouts, and originally distributed to 18,000 pubs — roughly half the UK’s boozers — for free.
But after copies kept getting swiped — forcing the introduction of slips urging “please don’t steal this” — it was pitched to WHSmith.

The bookseller originally agreed to order just SIX copies for the whole of the UK, Craig tells us.

But soon after reading it, they bought in 5,000. By the end of the week, they needed 50,000.

The book topped the charts by Christmas, and by 1975 had become the best-selling copyrighted book in history after selling 23,950,000 copies.

Craig, who has been at the helm for 23 years, recalls one raucous session with the Monty Python team, who had just nailed a record for the largest coconut ensemble — featuring 5,877 people clunking the fruit shells to Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life in April 2007.

‘Real-life heroes’

“We got really drunk after and ended up storming the stage of Spamalot [Monty Python musical], which was being performed nearby, with our coconut band, which they didn’t have approval to do,” Craig, 52, tells us.

He also became “quite good chums” with legendary actor Christopher Lee — hailed as cinema’s best Dracula — who was named the “most connected actor”, based on an algorithm that mapped working relationships between stars of stage and screen.

The record debunked a myth that it was actor Kevin Bacon who should hold the title.

Recalling his first encounter with the Lord Of The Rings icon Christopher, Craig said: “I remember vomiting before meeting him. I had a hangover from the night before and walked past a freshly-glued carpet, which smelled really disgusting.

“I walked into a dressing room and saw this old man in his underpants. I thought, ‘Who is he?’, and it was Christopher Lee. We once had a sword fight with props from The Lord Of The Rings films, in which he played Saruman, because we could.

“He liked to challenge me on golfing records to settle bets. He would phone me and say, ‘Who hit the longest shot or best shot?’. I’d tell him, hear him swear and hang up.”

Christopher, who died in 2015, also boasted records for tallest leading actor at 6ft 5in, most films with a sword fight (17), oldest video game voice actor, which he achieved twice, and most screen credits.

Records boss Craig has also hung out with stars such as singer Katie Melua and actors Hugh Jackman, Jim Carrey and Bob Hoskins.

He once considered a request from The Sun to name serial cheat Darren Day the world’s biggest love rat, but decided it was too hard to verify.

Roy Castle hosted TV’s Record Breakers with the McWhirter twins[/caption]

Astronaut Tim Peake ran the fastest marathon in space[/caption]

Legendary actor Christopher Lee — hailed as cinema’s best Dracula, held a string of titles[/caption]

But for Craig, the big showbiz names are less interesting than the real-life heroes and determined individuals who attempt to break records.

His favourites are fingernail growing feats, because he finds it fascinating that someone would allow their talons to reach a “debilitating” length.

Among them was American Lee Redmond, who, in 2008, was declared the woman with the longest finger nails ever. They racked up a combined measurement of 8.65metres, but were broken in a car accident in 2009.

Craig reveals: “Lee couldn’t fit in a toilet cubicle plane. Our new male record holder, Luu Cong Huyen, is so scared they’ll fall off, he hasn’t washed his hands for 34 years.”

Craig weighed Manuel Uribe — recognised by Guinness World Records in 2006 as the world’s heaviest man — and described him as “a big lad” at 88 stone, before quipping it was nice to not be the largest person in a room. Manuel died in 2014, aged 48.

Craig has also pondered the logistics for the world’s tallest man — a title held by 8ft 2.8in Turkish farmer Sultan Kosen — who could not sit in a plane seat so had to lie flat.

“The cabin crew had to hold up coats while he peed across the aisle into the cubicle,” Craig says. “It’s questions like these that are fascinating, like how does the tallest man wee?”

When Craig first started, he was obsessed by Frenchman Michel Lotito, known as “Monsieur Mangetout”, which translates as “Mr Eats-All”. He held records for his bizarre diet.

‘Very high standards’

“He would eat metal and glass, and supposedly ate a Cessna 150 Aircraft over a two-year period,” Craig says. “His diet was ridiculous and included eating a shopping trolley.”

Meanwhile, Craig admits it’s “a horrible thing” to break the news that people have failed in their attempts, and some take it very badly.

He says: “We’ve had adjudicators’ stories of being offered bribes, which they refuse, or locked in rooms until they give the records. It can be scary, but we get trained to deal with all scenarios. If you feel in danger, give the record, get out of there and then disqualify them from the safety of the taxi on the way home.”

Others have tried to distort the facts, including one wannabe world’s tallest man who refused to meet adjudicators after submitting video evidence.

Manuel Uribe was the world’s heaviest man at 88 stone[/caption]

Lee Redmond with her incredible talons[/caption]

Colin Craig-Brown’s giant potato turned out to be a gourd[/caption]

“I was very suspicious and he kept dodging us and knocking back the trip,” Craig says.

“Eventually, I found a photo of him standing next to a famous politician.

“From that, his height was easy to determine using photoshop. He was 7ft 2in or 7ft 4in, but claiming to be 8ft 5in — the world’s tallest.”

Another suspicious record attempt involved a man trying to balance the most pint glasses on his chin.

Craig says: “The previous record got beaten by 25 pint glasses, which seemed really difficult due to the weight on the jaw.

“We noticed the location, which was a baseball diamond. You wouldn’t want smashed glass there in the middle of a match. It turned out the claimant used plastic glass, not glass.”

Then there was Dug the giant spud from New Zealand — tipping the scales at 17.4lb — which was thought to be the world’s largest but deemed to be “suspiciously big and a massive jump” from the previous record.

Craig explains: “We arranged to have a sample of the core sent to a lab in Edinburgh, which confirmed genetically it was not a potato.

“It was a type of gourd. It seems a bit insane sending a potato across the world, but it’s worth going that extra mile to get 100 per cent proof of whether it had broken the record.

“A similar one was a giant beetroot which smashed the record. We tested it and it was a form of animal beet not for human consumption and not the right species for the record. I’m not saying everyone means to cheat the system, but sometimes people misunderstand the rules and we have very high standards.”

Craig has also had the pleasure of meeting astronaut Tim Peake, who set the record for the fastest marathon in orbit, on a treadmill aboard the International Space Station, in 2016.

‘Childlike wonder’

Using a harness to keep him grounded in the zero-gravity environment, he finished in 3 hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds.

The Sun’s Josh Saunders attempts to break four world records at the Guinness World records HQ in London[/caption]

The first edition of the book[/caption]

The 70th anniversary edition of the iconic publication[/caption]

“Astronauts are an amazing category of human beings who literally have a different view of the world,” says Craig.

The original Guinness Book of Records idea was born in Ireland, when Sir Hugh Beaver wanted to settle a debate during a 1951 duck hunt about what was the fastest game bird.

No one could agree and no encyclopedia had the info, so the annual was born and given out free in boozers.

Craig says: “The publishers wanted a presentation of facts based on superlatives for the working man — the highest paid footballer, the longest bridge, something to chat and care about. It has led to records from the most Harlem shuffles to measuring fidget-spinning abilities.”

The brand also sparked the long-running BBC children’s show, Record Breakers, which ran for 29 years from 1972, fronted by Roy Castle. Cheryl Baker and Kriss Akabusi later hosted.

While the annual has changed over the years, it has stuck to the fun and frivolity which has kept it at the top of the bestseller list — punting 1.7million last year alone.

But Craig believes its success lies in the variety, lauding athletic titans alongside the fastest bouncer on a spacehopper.

“It should all be celebrated, it’s encouraging and inspiring people by doing things that are fun,” Craig says.

“Record breaking is a fundamentally human thing. It’s a snapshot of humanity. From the first edition of the book, you can map the development of space travel, exploration, telecommunications. You can use the book to look through 70 years of history and how we have evolved.

“It’s all positive and returns you to the mentality of being 14, having a childlike wonder of the world.

“It’s the fun things humanity has achieved that we stick in the book, it helps people not worry about the horrors happening around the world.”

‘Love rat’ Darren Day missed out[/caption]