Something unusual happens in a number of European countries, mostly (but not all) German-speaking, on or around New Year’s Eve. The TV stations begin showing the same 20-minute comedy sketch again and again. What’s truly unusual about this is that the sketch is in English — recorded 40 years ago in front of a German audience — and has since become a cult classic. For a surprising number of German-speaking people, the words “Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?” are not only the English-language phrase they know best, but are held in the same kind of hilarious context as the phrases “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!” or “It is an ex-parrot!”
The sketch “Dinner for One” — the German name of the sketch translates as “The 90th Birthday” — has nothing in particular to do with New Year’s (though one “virtually present” character does say “Happy New Year” at one point). It tells the story of a birthday party. Miss Sophie (played by actress May Warden) is 90, and the table is set for herself and her four friends: Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr. Pommeroy, and Mr. Winterbottom. Unfortunately, the ravages of time have taken their toll, and of the five of them, only Miss Sophie is still alive.
Assisting at the dinner is James, Miss Sophie’s butler (played by veteran British comedian Freddie Frinton). It falls to him not only to serve dinner, but to impersonate the four missing persons for a lady who may or may not be entirely clear that they’re no longer among the living. As part of the act, James has to drink their traditional toasts to Miss Sophie — all of them — and gets progressively more sloshed as dinner progresses. But he just keeps soldiering on, despite that pesky tiger skin….The sketch is a tremendous showcase of Freddie Frinton’s mastery of comic timing. We finally managed to score a good quality tape of it last year, to our great pleasure.
Now, though, I see from the “Dinner for One” section of the NDR website that a documentary called “40 Years of ‘Dinner for One'” aired yesterday. German-speaking blog-readers — did anyone get a recording of that thing? If you did, please get in touch: we’d dearly love to see it.
(PS: Turns out the Guardian did a small piece on “Dinner for One” a couple of years ago; and this year another one, with a slightly different focus (i.e., why don’t the British find this funny?).)
With that: you can view “Dinner for One” in its entirety here at the NDR website. (They also have the colorized version.)
