A birthday party without guests, a more or less hard-drinking butler and an unfortunately placed tiger skin – these are the ingredients for the success of the television classic “Dinner for One”. The 18-minute cult program has been flickering on TVs in Germany for 60 years.
In many families, the sketch is a New Year’s Eve tradition. You can’t start the New Year without “Dinner for One” – true to the now famous motto “The Same Procedure as Every Year”. The sketch didn’t even have its German TV premiere on New Year’s Eve. But in March.
The black and white production with the two actors Freddie Frinton and May Warden was first broadcast on March 8, 1963 on the program “Good Evening, Peter Frankenfeld”. The likeable butler James and his mistress Miss Sophie were so well received by the German audience that “Dinner for One or The 90th Birthday” was recorded in English in Hamburg on NDR a few weeks later. Frinton had been performing the sketch in England for more than ten years with changing partners.
New Year’s Eve tradition since 1972
The mini-theater piece found more and more fans over the years. However, “Dinner for One” was not established as a New Year’s Eve tradition until 1972. Since then it has only been shown at the turn of the year and no longer just to fill program gaps on German television. The sketch also had fans in many other countries – only in Frinton’s home country did the performance remain unknown for decades.
The story: Miss Sophie wants to celebrate her 90th birthday with her friends in the old tradition. All men. However, they have long since passed away. No reason to cancel the party. So the butler – as every year – takes on the roles of Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr. Pommeroy and Mr. Winterbottom at the festive table. However, he only steps in to toast the fantasy guests. Stomach-filling food – namely soup, haddock, chicken and fruit – is only available for Miss Sophie. James is correspondingly tipsy after the second, third and fourth round – no wonder after four glasses of sherry, white wine, champagne and port.
So he stumbles unerringly – eleven times in total – over the tiger skin lying in the way, breaks his heels during the military salute from Admiral von Schneider and at one point even drinks from the flower vase. Language skills and a dignified demeanor noticeably decline.
Fun for generations
It’s actually always funny – even if you’ve seen the sketch dozens of times. Several generations laugh at the little jokes, running gags and routines of the timeless show in German living rooms – young and old. The well-known duo didn’t make the sketch rich. According to NDR, they received 4,150 marks for it.
If you can’t get enough of Miss Sophie and her butler James on December 31st, you’ll have 16 opportunities on New Year’s Eve to watch the two of them at the old lady’s 90th birthday party. In four cases, the actually English-language piece can even be heard in Low German, Hessian or Kölsch. Several million people watch the show every year.
There will also be a cult program this year – “60 Years of Dinner for One – the Anniversary Show” (December 31st, 8:15 p.m., NDR and SWR). The host is not Miss Sophie (she would be 150 years old), but Bernhard Hoëcker and he has invited four real guests. Wigald Boning, Katrin Müller-Hohenstein, Jens Riewa and Axel Prahl sit with him around the festively set table.
The focus of the program is exciting stories about the famous short comedy, which are also told by Freddie Frinton’s children, as NDR announced. There will also be quizzes, chats, games – and of course a drink or two.
