A peculiar thing happens in a number of European countries, mostly (but not all) German-speaking, on or around New Year\u2019s Eve. The TV stations begin showing the same brief comedy sketch again and again. What\u2019s truly unusual about this is that the sketch is in English \u2014 recorded nearly 50 years ago in front of a German audience \u2014 and has since become a cult classic. For a surprising number of German-speaking people, the words \u201cSame procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?\u201d are not only the English-language phrase they know best, but are held in the same kind of humorous context as the phrases \u201cNo one expects the Spanish Inquisition!\u201d or \u201cIt is an ex-parrot!\u201d<\/p>\n
The sketch \u201cDinner for One\u201d \u2014 the German name of the sketch translates as \u201cThe 90th Birthday\u201d \u2014 doesn’t really have anything to do with New Year\u2019s (though one \u201cvirtually present\u201d character does say \u201cHappy New Year\u201d at one point, which may be the source of the confusion). It tells the story of a birthday party. Miss Sophie (played by actress May Warden,<\/a> who later appeared on Doctor Who<\/em> and in A Clockwork Orange<\/em>) is 90, and the table is set for herself and her four friends: Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr. Pommeroy, and Mr. Winterbottom. Unfortunately time has taken its inevitable toll, and of the five of them, only Miss Sophie is still alive.<\/p>\n Assisting at dinner is James, Miss Sophie\u2019s butler (played by veteran British comedian Freddie Frinton).<\/a> It falls to him not only to serve dinner, but to impersonate the four missing dinner guests for a lady who may or may not be entirely clear that they\u2019re no longer among the living. As part of the act, James has to drink their traditional toasts to Miss Sophie \u2014 all of them \u2014 and becomes progressively more sloshed and goofy as dinner progresses. But he just keeps soldiering on — serving dinner and “channeling” the four missing guests, while also locked in silent battle with the tigerskin that lies in wait for him every time he makes another circuit of the table.<\/p>\n The sketch is a tremendous showcase of Freddie Frinton\u2019s complete mastery of comic timing, and for a long time we were forced to simply describe it at one remove to people who hadn’t been in a country where and when it was being aired. But time has moved along, taking “Dinner for One” with it into the new century, and the whole business is now happily viewable on YouTube — both in its original black and white, and in a newer colorized version.<\/p>\n I prefer the black and white version, and the link to that is here.<\/a> It’s also embedded below. (Note that the original German version starts with a gentle intro by a German-speaking host, who explains what’s forthcoming to those who haven’t seen it before, and more or less reassures the audience that it’s okay to find this poor dotty old lady a bit amusing. If you prefer to skip the intro, advance the video to about the 2min:25sec stage.)<\/p>\n