Essex boy sets record for most Harry Potter characters guessed from film quotes
He got 19 correct answers in 60 seconds, but says he could've guessed more
Last updated 27th Jan 2022
A schoolboy from Essex now holds the Guinness World Record for most Harry Potter characters guessed from film quotes.
Eli Chmelik, form Manningtree, correctly guessed 19 answers within 60 seconds and said it feels "very strange" to hold the record.
The 11-year-old first picked up a book from the iconic franchise aged six and "instantly loved the entire series", having now read them "dozens of times each".
"I'd been reading the books obsessively for several years, then I saw the same record but for Star Wars, and I thought I can do this for Harry Potter," he said.
To prepare for the challenge, it's no surprise that Eli "read the books at lot, for a start".
"I read them more than I normally do, which is saying something... I got people around me to test me occasionally."
But the pupil of Colchester Royal Grammar School said he could have done even better if his examiner was faster at reading the quotes:
"I think I could have got a lot more if they'd been very quick at reading it, because when I did it with my parents I got 40 quotes in a minute."
Having an 11-year-old son with a world record
Eli's mother, Bonny, said she was "so proud" of her son, and that she wasn't shocked to hear he wanted to go for the record.
"Eli's quite a self-starter and honestly when he said what about doing a world record I was like 'yeah go for it'," she said.
Bonny had to find two independent timekeepers, two witnesses and an independent question reader to stage the filmed record attempt, which Guinness World Records then verified.
Bonny had to choose 50 quotes, not more than four from each character, and not more than four words each - the final list was then randomised using a website.
A Guinness World Records spokesman said: "Congratulations to Eli on his new Guinness World Records title, an impressive achievement."
They said they were pleased he achieved the record as "a Guinness World Records title was on his bucket list".
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