Everything about Dinner For One totally explained
Dinner for One, also known as
The 90th Birthday, or by its corresponding German title,
Der 90. Geburtstag, is a comedy sketch written by
British author
Lauri Wylie for the theatre in the
1920s.
German television station
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (
NDR) recorded a performance of the piece in
1963, in its original English language. This short comical play subsequently went on to become the most frequently repeated TV programme ever (according to the
Guinness Book of Records,
1988-
1995 eds.; later editions no longer have the category).
The 18 minute
black-and-white 1963 TV recording featuring British
comedians
Freddie Frinton and
May Warden has become an integral component of the
New Year's Eve schedule of several German television stations and
Danish national television. It has also been a
cult television classic in
Germany,
Norway,
Sweden,
Finland,
Faroe Islands and
Austria: On New Year's Eve
2003 alone, the sketch was broadcast 19 times (on various channels). As of
2005, the sketch has been repeated more than 230 times. It is famous in other countries as well — including German-speaking
Switzerland and
South Africa. It is a New Year's Eve staple in
Australia on the
SBS network. In 2003 The Danish TV producer Paul Anthony Sørensen produced and directed an international documentary about the sketch. In the documentary we meet the relatives of Freddie Frinton (the butler James) and May Warden (Miss Sophie) and get to know about the whole story behind the sketch. The documentary was nominated for the Rose d'Or 2004.
Story line
The sketch presents the 90th birthday of elderly upper-class Englishwoman Miss Sophie, who hosts a dinner every year for her close friends Mr Pommeroy, Mr Winterbottom, Sir Toby, and Admiral von Schneider to celebrate the occasion. (Note that the plot has nothing to do with New Year's Eve, as is often incorrectly stated. There is a "Happy new year" toast, but this is purely a reference to Miss Sophie's anniversary.) The problem is that given Miss Sophie's considerable age, she's outlived all of her friends, and so her equally aged butler James makes his way around the table, impersonating each of the guests in turn. Miss Sophie decides on appropriate drinks to accompany the menu of the evening, consisting of
Mulligatawny soup (Miss Sophie orders
sherry), North Sea
haddock (with white wine), chicken (with champagne), and fruit for dessert (with
port) served by James, and so he finds himself raising (and emptying) his glass four times per course. That takes its toll, increasingly noticeable in James' growing difficulty in pouring the drinks, telling wine glasses from vases of flowers, and refraining from bursting into song. Even before the alcohol begins to exert its influence, he's trouble coping with a tiger skin sitting on the floor between the dinner table and the buffet.
The crucial exchange during every course is:
» James:
The same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?
Miss Sophie:
The same procedure as every year, James!
After the dinner, Miss Sophie indicates to a very drunk James that she wishes to retire to bed, to which James responds:
» James:
By the way, the same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?
Miss Sophie, delightedly:
The same procedure as every year, James! » James:
Well, I'll do my very best!
Origin of the sketch
Wylie is said to have written the sketch in the
1920s. Some sources indicate that Frinton performed
Dinner for One on stage with Warden on Britain's seaside piers as early as
1945, paying royalties for performing it to Wylie until buying the rights in the early
1950s. However the sketch was also staged elsewhere, for example in
1953 in
John Murray Anderson's Almanac (the show that also featured
Harry Belafonte in the early days of his career) at
Imperial Theatre with
Hermione Gingold playing Miss Sophie,
Billy DeWolfe as the butler, and apparently featuring four dead friends.
In
1962, German entertainer
Peter Frankenfeld and director
Heinz Dunkhase discovered
Dinner for One in
Blackpool. The sketch was staged in Frankenfeld's live show shortly thereafter, and recorded on
July 8 1963 at
Theater am Besenbinderhof in front of a real audience. It was one of the first
magnetic tape recordings in German television. The introductory theme was composed by
Lew Pollack and recorded by the
Mantovani orchestra. According to the NDR, Frinton and Warden were paid
DM 4,150. The show was re-run occasionally until it got its fixed spot on New Year's Eve in
1972.
International broadcasts
It is a curiosity that this sketch has become a tradition in Germany, where up to half the population may see it every year, but it's almost totally unknown in Britain. It is also shown on New Year’s Eve in many other mainland
European countries, particularly
Nordic countries, and also screens on
SBS in
Australia. In Norway, however, it's shown every year on the evening of
December 23. It is known as far away as
South Africa. In
Sweden, the show was put on hold for a period of six years, deemed "unsuitable" because of James's heavy drinking. However, the TV network then caved in to the popular demand to have it back.
Although the sketch is most popular in non-English speaking countries, it's typically shown in the original English without dubbing or subtitles. Curiously, the film remains practically unknown to the English speaking world. It hasn't been broadcast on TV in Britain within the last thirty years, possibly more and has never received the recognition found elsewhere.
Since the mid-1980s, German television channels have been available to British analogue satellite viewers, meaning that the new year screenings of
Dinner for One could be seen in the UK by those few people who had access to German TV schedules. The replacement of analogue services by digital has seen a decline in viewers of traditional satellite television, but those who still own a receiver can tune in.
Different versions
The NDR television channel recorded several versions in 1963. Most well-known is the 18 minute version of the sketch traditionally shown in Germany. It has an introduction in German language by narrator
Heinz Piper and an audience laughing in the background. Every year, there are normally about 15 rebroadcasts of the show on all of Germany's
ARD-owned regional stations like
MDR,
WDR,
NDR or
BR and others.
Danish TV shows a recording made on the same stage where no audience is heard. A third, 11 minute version was recorded by the
Swiss television; this version is also available on
VHS and
DVD in Germany. (Many Germans who bought the DVD/VHS tape were disappointed when they discovered that what they'd purchased was "not the 'correct' version".) In
1999, the NDR released a post-processed coloured version.
In
Denmark, a parody of the sketch was filmed with the subtitle "The 80th Birthday" in which Miss Sophie's friends are still at the table (that the last of Miss Sophie's friends actually died 25 years ago is only known to those who have seen the NDR-version, where this is mentioned in the intro). Other versions include one in
Low German, various re-enactments or parodies by different comedians, and a version featuring the famous German
puppet character
Bernd das Brot (
Bernd the Bread).
Catch phrase: “Same procedure as every year”
The line “Same procedure as every year” has become a very popular catchphrase in Germany, according to Tim Gruhl, the programme editor at the Hamburg-based television Channel NDR. The phrase “has made its way into everyday vocabulary, and even crops up in newspaper headlines and advertisements.”
“Same procedure as every year”
German narrator Heinz Piper originally made a grammatical mistake in his introduction to the 18 minute version: He misquoted Warden’s line “Same procedure as every year” as “Same procedure
than every year”. While the mistake appears to have gone unnoticed initially, it later prompted annual protest letters to the NDR, most notably from German teachers of English. The NDR eventually responded by editing the recording slightly, substituting a small bit of its audio track with audio recorded during one of the rehearsals. Thus, in 1988, the error had been edited out and Piper could be heard to correctly say “Same procedure as every year”. This in turn annoyed some purists who would rather respect the original.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Dinner For One'.
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