No new record for radio’s Hannah

WITH an unusually shaky voice, Hannah Murray opened her programme on Talk Radio Europe today with the news that she would be celebrating Guinness World Record Day by attempting to break a record, live on air!

Joined on the telephone by Guinness independent adjudicators, Gaz Deaves and Manu Gautami, a nervous Hannah explained her massive task which was to name as many worldwide capital cities as she could within one minute.

When she accepted the challenge on a programme broadcast earlier in the year, a bubbly Hannah had sounded confident she could learn the 192 capitals and smash the record of 33 correct answers. But just a few hours before her attempt, she received news that the record had already been broken, and the new target to beat was 50 correct answers!

Demonstrating her sense of humour, Hannah played Europe’s The Final Countdown and then, after a quick recap of the rules, it was time. As the adjudicator began to read out the country names for Hannah to answer, it was clear to listeners that she wasn’t the only one suffering from nerves. There was a tense moment when the adjudicator stuttered and stumbled his way over the second country name and unfortunately there was no way that he or Hannah could make up the time.

Hannah was clearly disappointed when she answered only 23 capitals correctly despite having managed 49 in rehearsals. Steve Gilmour, CEO of Talk Radio Europe appealed to the organisers who agreed that Hannah could have another go but her rhythm had clearly been broken and she managed only 15 in the second attempt.

Hannah was at huge a disadvantage by attempting to break the record over the telephone rather than face to face. Hopefully she won’t be put off future attempts for although she was unsuccessful, it made great radio and support shown towards her by listeners was phenomenal.

Better luck next time Hannah!