Buried Alive World Record Part 1
From the collection of
From the collection of
Meet the pub landlord who goes underground for fun and glory.
Chat show presenter Gerry Kelly welcomes viewers and explains that a man is trying to break a world record of 141 days for being entombed underground. Geoff Smith, a pub landlord from Mansfield, wants to add another nine days to the record.
Gerry is able to speak to Geoff via a camera which has been set up in his underground chamber seven feet beneath the surface. He explains he is on the 42nd day and that the chamber is only two and a half feet wide and high and seven feet long. He also discusses how he is fed, breathes and goes to the toilet.
Geoff says that his mother was a previous holder of the record but when an American took the record away from her he set out to win it back. Geoff has a mini TV, CD player and a phone to entertain him on his long stint. Guinness had said that they wouldn't recognise the record (in order to discourage people from endangering themselves) but that he was happy to do it anyway.
Kelly was the flagship chat show on Ulster Television from 1989 to 2005. Its host, Gerry Kelly, had a long career in local television dating back to the late 1970s presenting segments for the nightly news programme, Good Evening Ulster. After the Kelly show ended he went onto have a long career on BBC Radio Ulster.