Created in 1963. Miss Sophie (May Warden) is celebrating her 90th birthday. Like every year, she invited her four closest friends to a birthday dinner: Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr. Pommeroy and Mr. Winterbottom. However, they have all long since passed away - the last one 25 years ago - which is why Miss Sophie sits alone at the table while her butler James (Freddie Frinton) steps in for the guests one by one.
Even my grandparents saw Diner for One every year on New Year's Eve. My parents watch it every year, my friends watch it every year and I watch it every year.I think this is the most successful and cheapest TV production in German history.
She didn´t lost her mind she simply just outlived all her friends BUT she is keeping her birthday tradition regardless and her Butler has to step in impersonating all her lost friends for that occassion while serving her birthday diner.
Freddie Frinton was my Scotish Granpa's favorite comedian and he was amazed to discover this sketch when he came to visit us in Germany one year, since it had been produced specifically for German public broadcast and probably never really shown in Britain. t's just one of those inexplicable cult things, I guess, but it is a stone-cold New-Years classic here in Germany.
The original (The version they broadcast every year at New Years Eve - and YES its a tradition to watch it every year!) has a short intro where the setting is explained. All of her closest friends are already dead - but Miss Sophie likes to have them all for her birthday party - so her Butler James represents all of them for her.
Imagine to watch this in a group were everybody knows every little detail of that. It is soo funny. I'm in my 40s now and I can't remember one year were we haven't watched this mutiple times at new years eve and it's the same for almost everyone in Germany. Greetings from Berlin 😎
Hallo D! I was Born in 1968. As long I can remember watching TV I knew Dinner for one. I think it was in the early 70s that this was showed in german TV. And from this time we are watching it at every new years eve. The acting of the two brilliant acters is sooooooo good. You know every step and every hit at the tigers head and you can talk the sentences by your self but every year you have to laugh. Now, the reason why it will be every new years eve in german TV, I think, is the sentence "The same procedre as every year". Fun Fact: you see this show in original language, meaning english. And today, when something is happening again and a other person ask what to do, we say in Germany "The same procedre as every year". In this meaning I am waiting to do the same procedre: watching your next Video on TH-cam! 😆 Many greatings from Duisburg in Germany!
In the German version, it is explained in advance that Miss Sophie celebrates her 90th birthday today and that her dear friends have passed away in the meantime, but she celebrated her birthday like every year before. Ever since I was a teenager, I've always wondered who she had done her last procedure with earlier. 😜
@@lannifincoris6482 If you look closely, in many European countries everyone knows May Warden and Freddie Frinton through the two recordings from Switzerland and Germany, and we love them. How many people in the UK still know them today?
All those fourr best friends, then three of her best friends plus James, then two of her best friends and so an. Anyway, within the last 25 years it has only been poor James to do his very best, four times.
I know this genius video for over five decades already. We used to see this every new years eve. It was broadcasted on german tv bt we could see it too in the Netherlands. I still look at it every year.
The story behind the sketch: 1. An English author wrote the sketch. It was never a New Year's Eve sketch, it was a 90th birthday sketch. Which can happen any day of the year. 2. Freddie Frinton paid the author a fee for each performance on british stages. 3. He later bought the rights to the sketch outright. 4. Freddie performed the sketch with May Warden on british stages. But he wasn't the only one. And in other countries the sketch was also performed on stages. For example: 1959 in Munich, Germany. 5. Members of a German TV station saw the sketch at a theater performance in 1961 in England. 6. They made Freddie an offer to come to Germany to perform the sketch in a TV Entertainment Show. 7. Freddie did not like the Germans “shortly after the world war”. 8. He agreed when he was offered a good fee and to perform the sketch in English. 9. On December 09 1961, the sketch was performed LIVE in a german TV Entertainment Show. It was not recorded. (For those who are interested: 1961, in a TV live show presented by Evelyn Künneke). 10. Two years later, 2 German members of the German TV station NDR (Hamburg) traveled also to England. (For those who are interested: one was Peter Frankenfeld, a famous german entertainer) These two had obviously not realised that the sketch had already been shown on another German entertainment show in 1961. 11. They invited Freddie, who then performed the sketch with May Warden live in german TV in 1963. From a theater. Peter Frankenfeld presented the live TV show. Again without a recording. 12. A few weeks later, they invited Freddie again, this time to make a television recording. For this purpose, a theater stage and audience seats were recreated in a studio of the TV station (NDR). 13. As German viewers hardly spoke any English at the time, there is a German introduction. It is explained that the 4 friends of 90-year-old Miss Sophie have been dead for 25 years. But Miss Sophie (demented we would say today) wants to celebrate her birthday as she used to. Butler James plays the 4 roles at all. Including at last: 4 times sex. 14. A few days after this recording in Hamburg, Freddie and May traveled to Switzerland, also for a TV recording. 15. This Swiss version was shown here. 16. The German version from broadcaster NDR will be deleted by YT as soon as they know that someone has uploaded it. Reason: Copyright. Who lives in Germany (or with VPN from outside) can watch the sketch in the ARD mediathek the whole year. 17. In addition to the introduction (item 13), the German version also contains an additional sketch part comparing to the swiss recording. And the stage set is slightly different (longer staircase, other back wall). 18. The version of the German TV station was initially broadcast in summer 1963 once in the normal program. 19. It was then ONLY broadcast as an intermission filler. 20. It has been shown regularly at New Year's Eve each year since 1972. But the sketch isn't written as a New Year's Eve sketch. It's simple a birthday sketch. 21. In Germany the recording is shown throughout the New Year's Eve day by various regional broadcasters. Some stations show it up to 3 times at different times of the day. 22. In many other European countries and beyond, a tradition similar to that in Germany has developed. 23. In some countries the german version is shown, in others the swiss version (that one Joel has presented). 24. The BBC was never interested in recording the sketch. That is why British TV viewers were unaware of the sketch until 2018. 25. In 2018 "Sky Art" broadcast the german TV version sketch for the british. Since it hardly found any viewers, it disappeared from the program again.
This is also a new year's tradition here in Sweden I always watch it and even when I was little and didn't know English I still enjoyed the great physical comedy 😝
Tradition here in Finland also 🎉😂 Every year 🥂 Also, every now and then at parties, you might have a competition to see who is the quickest to remember the names of all the guests 😉
As a Brit of a certain age, I well remember Freddy Frinton and his infamous 'drunk' act. I used to regularly visit friends in Germany who were shocked to hear that I did not possess a copy of this video. Needless to say, on my next visit I was presented with a copy.
Speaking as a German, what amazes me is that this sketch is so underappreciated in England, when it's a piece of the most English slapstick I've ever seen. And yes it's turned into a New Year's ritual for us to watch it for some reason. Xd
I live in South Australia and it was a tradition every New Years eve at home to watch this on our non commercial channel ABC2, and we are not Germans. We have a Welsh and English background.
In 1961, the sketch was produced for television in black and white by NDR (nothern germany broadcasting station) and was first shown in the programme. The sketch was shown on 8 March 1963 in the programme "Good Evening", Peter Frankenfeld, also produced by NDR and directed by Heinz Dunkhase, although Frinton was the actual creator of the production.
No, he bought the sketch from another comedian. The two of them played the sketch from the 1940s on. Frinton is not entirely forgotten in Britain, he had his own TV-series in which he played a clumsy plumber, and some Brits know that he toured the amusement piers and small theatres around the coast to play sketches like this one. It was in Blackpool that Dunkhase and Frankenfeld saw them. May Warden was older than he was but outlived him for many years.
Oh my god! How I love this sketch! I've been watching "The 90th Birthday" several times every New Year's Eve for over 50 years now - and I laugh my ass off every time... I know every gesture, every stumble, every "don't stumble" and every single word by heart ^^ I laughed the hardest when my then 4 year old son started acting out the whole sketch with his little table and chair and a teddy as Miss Sophie and the kids' crockery while it was on TV! The cutest thing I've ever seen ^^ (thank goodness I have it on video; now watching THIS version is also a firm tradition in our family...) I'm in tears every New Year's Eve: first from laughter, then from sheer emotion ^^ I love it!
On this past New Years Eve, this could be watched at different times between 4PM and just before midnight on several German TV channels. In addition, regional channels put on dubbed versions in various German dialects ...
I think, this is thf version done for swiss TV. In the version done for getman TV, there is a host explaining the back story and when James has to play Admiral von Schneider, he always asks "Must I, Miss Sophie" refering to kick his heels together. And Miss Sophie answers "Just to please me, James."
Fun fact: The show was banned in Sweden until 1969 due to the massive alcohol consumption. 😀 I can't remeber a New Year's Eve where I didin't watch the show. And I'll always enjoy it. They even tried to recolorize the show, but the real fans didn't like it. We prefer the black and white version. 🙂
It's HER 90th birthday and all other "guests" are passed long time ago, but never mind.... - Poor Butler James takes the part... :D First shown in 1963 in a German Live-TV Show, 1972 first shown on New Years Eve and since then it's a CULT in Germany, showing this sketch in German TV EVERY New Years Eve several times. - Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie? - Same procedure as EVERY year James.... ;)
The version made for German televsion, is slighty better, and there is one woman in the audience laughing so heartly ... also in my family it is a tradtion to watch it every Silvester..
This was recorded in 1963 with May Warden and Freddie Frinton in a studio in Hamburg for the NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk). The laughter is from the actual audience back in 1961. This video is missing the German introduction by a speaker/conférencier. He said that all friends of Miss Sophie already passed away and her butler James is trying to make the birthday for her as nice as possible (The same procedure as* last year? - The same procedure as every year!). So he doesn't just have to serve but also to drink for her 4 deceased friends. 🤭 * This got its way into the German language - everyone knows where it comes from. 😉
@@Humanrebel The Swiss TV is using the same recording from 1963, like most TV stations around the world. The difference in the annual Swiss and German broadcast is the introduction. It's a German speaking conférencier. Other TV stations use other or no introductions at all. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One
@@u.e.u.e. You are complete wrong. Two different TV recordings. One in Germany with the explaining host, the other in Switzerland without a host. Different stages.
Oh yes, dinner for one. I love it. I really enjoyed it on television on New Year's Eve 1977/1978. It then became a New Year's Eve ritual. Even when I celebrated New Year's Eve with friends, I always managed to watch Dinner for one on New Year's Eve. I think I realized when I was 23 that I hadn't missed a single New Year's Eve since I was 9 years old. Then it became a bit of a challenge, and in a few years I'll be watching my 50th show without having missed a year. Incidentally, this recording is virtually unknown in its country of origin, England. In Germany, on the other hand, it is still very popular today.
New Years Eve classic 😂 and a big tradition in Germany. I'd say NYE is incomplete if you miss out on it. (My family, friends and) I've been watching this for the past 30 years or lil more. I'd have to say my sisters kids are not into that humour as well as the kids of friends of mine. 😅 So yeah, sometimes I keep wondering if we can keep this tradition up. I believe it's from 1963.
Freddy Frinton took the tiger rug everywhere he was perfoming, because his musclememory was trained exactly on the hight of this tigerhead to stumble correctly.
It's true, it's a tradition to watch this on new years eve since many generations.... I'm 40 yrs old now, and even when I was a kid we watched this.... and so today... For sure not every single new years eve, but still I can't count how often I've watched it. And before I forget.. this is the only film that is on TV since years, that was never dubt... and we germans normaly love to dub everything.
For me personally, it is an absolute tradition to watch this clip on TV and smoke a cigar afterwards. (The clip is shown every year on New Year's Eve.)
It isn't the version shown on TV (on every channel, you could start watching at 18:00 and watch the reruns till midnight by channel surving) during New Years Eve. The backdrop is more elaborate and has much more details.
While James has to make his round, fill and empty the glasses... Miss Sophie must not be unactive. That is why she gets real food in that sketch and eats it. James would not have any time to do so.
This is a recording from a different angle. I think the one broadcasted on German television has a "nicer" angle from the front. It's also available colorized. It also starts with a (German) host explaining the situation. He explains (in short): "It is Miss Sophie's 90th birthday, and she always has a birthday party with her four dearest friends. There is just one little problem with that. Miss Sophie outlived them all by many years already. So her butler James has to take the role of all four of them. It went well all those years and it will go well this year, too."
Lot of reactions on this one... but it is not the version that is actually shown on german TV every year. i actually saw this the fist time in a reaction video.
This is a German tradition to watch on New Year's Eve. This year a friend and her husband from Texas celebrated with us, he was a bit confused. Greetings from Germany!
The German television was looking for a film to fill the break. However, the reporter came back from London. There he saw the performance in a small theater. So the program director traveled to London and watched the performance. Immediately after the performance, they hired the actor for a recording in the Hamburg studio. Swiss television also showed interest and offered a recording in Basel. So the actor went on tour through Germany and Switzerland. The two TV recordings were made. But unfortunately he didn't have the rights to the play, so he had to give up a large part of his income. A few years later the show was shown on German TV on New Year's Eve and this became a tradition. The artist remained unknown in England.
Peter Frankenfeld and Hans Dunkhase watched Frinton in Blackpool. That seaside-resort was and still is famous for its vaudeville theatres and small stages that we would call "Kleinkunst" or "Varieté".
The introduction is cut out by means, only TH-cam can understand. So, of course, seeing it the first time, it is not abundantly clear, that her friends are deceased and she celebrates with their ghosts.
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
That's a different version. Not that, what we see everey new years eve in TV. The angle of the camera ist way to left, the "Admiral" always asks "must I, Miss Sophie?", the audience, specially the laughter, is extremly different.
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
As far as I know it's a roughly 100 year old British skit, according to Wikipedia Freddie Frinton bought it and successfully toured with it all over Britain as early as the 1940s. And finally some German TV executive saw it and hired him to do it for a German TV production.
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
I don't know why everybody in Germany knows that but no one in Britain knows it. 😂 And my parents and grandparents can't even speak English but they watched it back in the day nearly every year on Silvester. 🎉
Nope, ishe not lost her mind , its cos all of these her persons are paßt away & that she not must feel so alone they todo as they would still there,i think. Dont know exactly but i think so, cos she is the only one who becomes serve the food , the other imagination friends becomes just the drinks (maybe for later having privste fun with her butler ;) )^^
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
It is from 1963 and we in Austria have something else. At first we have "Ein echter Wiener geht nicht unter" translation more or less: A true Viennese does not give up. You can not truly translate it, but something like that. (at least until 2016 it was like that, I do not live in that country anymore), which is an Episode out of a series. It is about a working class family and he and his pale get so wasted, that when it is time to shot the fireworks, they shot of course one of it in the flat of the neighbours. It is the satire look into the working class society of the 1970s and well, there is a lot of funny things happening, but I guess, it is only when you are an Austrian, that you understand it, not only because of it's special dialect. Germans and Austrians are different and so I am sure many Germans would not understand that kind of "black humour". At midnight, when America has a look at Time Square with the dropping ball, Austrians have a look at the cathedral St. Stephan in Vienna, where a massive Bell is ringing for several minutes and the Staatsopernbalette (Ballet of the state opera) is dancing do the blue Danube from Johann Strauss Sohn. I have to say, I do not watch TV anymore, because I did not buy a new one in 2014 as the other one broke. I could not watch the program of Austria anymore (also because I do not live there anymore), because I get bored fast. "Dinner for one", is alright for one or two times, but I do not have to watch it every year, that fore it is somehow too long and not really funny in my opinion, because I saw enough drunk once in real life, I do not need it here as well. Germans hate me for way more than this, so I do not care to get more hate, because I do not like their "precious tradition". I admit it was funny to see you reacting to it.
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
Created in 1963.
Miss Sophie (May Warden) is celebrating her 90th birthday. Like every year, she invited her four closest friends to a birthday dinner: Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr. Pommeroy and Mr. Winterbottom. However, they have all long since passed away - the last one 25 years ago - which is why Miss Sophie sits alone at the table while her butler James (Freddie Frinton) steps in for the guests one by one.
Even my grandparents saw Diner for One every year on New Year's Eve. My parents watch it every year, my friends watch it every year and I watch it every year.I think this is the most successful and cheapest TV production in German history.
It is a tradition on new year in most of europe.
They tried to cancle it here in Denmark one year, that went very bad for them. 😂😂😂
Jeg husker!!, hvor sur jeg var det år!! de sendte en dokumentar omkring 90 års fødselsdagen, men ikke selve 90 års fødselsdagen
I thought it was just in Germany. Greetings to Denmark 😀
She didn´t lost her mind she simply just outlived all her friends BUT she is keeping her birthday tradition regardless and her Butler has to step in impersonating all her lost friends for that occassion while serving her birthday diner.
And not just for toasting to her. Four times, and he will do his very best.
Freddie Frinton was my Scotish Granpa's favorite comedian and he was amazed to discover this sketch when he came to visit us in Germany one year, since it had been produced specifically for German public broadcast and probably never really shown in Britain.
t's just one of those inexplicable cult things, I guess, but it is a stone-cold New-Years classic here in Germany.
It is really a german Tradition, i grow up with it. Now i am 49 and still watch it every Silvester. 😂 You can't do without it ❤
Mal gespannt wann es hier verboten wird wie viele deutsche Traditionen.
The original (The version they broadcast every year at New Years Eve - and YES its a tradition to watch it every year!) has a short intro where the setting is explained. All of her closest friends are already dead - but Miss Sophie likes to have them all for her birthday party - so her Butler James represents all of them for her.
And from now on, you will have to sit down and watch this every Sylvester at 6 PM with friends and / or family, every Sylvester.
Silvester is 'New Years Eve' in English.
@@DerEchteBold so he has to sit down every New Years Eve, rather than when he meets Mr. Stallone.
@@Why-D
Haha, exactly!
Imagine to watch this in a group were everybody knows every little detail of that. It is soo funny.
I'm in my 40s now and I can't remember one year were we haven't watched this mutiple times at new years eve and it's the same for almost everyone in Germany.
Greetings from Berlin 😎
Hallo D! I was Born in 1968. As long I can remember watching TV I knew Dinner for one. I think it was in the early 70s that this was showed in german TV. And from this time we are watching it at every new years eve. The acting of the two brilliant acters is sooooooo good. You know every step and every hit at the tigers head and you can talk the sentences by your self but every year you have to laugh. Now, the reason why it will be every new years eve in german TV, I think, is the sentence "The same procedre as every year". Fun Fact: you see this show in original language, meaning english. And today, when something is happening again and a other person ask what to do, we say in Germany "The same procedre as every year". In this meaning I am waiting to do the same procedre: watching your next Video on TH-cam! 😆 Many greatings from Duisburg in Germany!
In the German version, it is explained in advance that Miss Sophie celebrates her 90th birthday today and that her dear friends have passed away in the meantime, but she celebrated her birthday like every year before.
Ever since I was a teenager, I've always wondered who she had done her last procedure with earlier. 😜
But, the version in Germany is in English.. so, not a German version, just a version for the German TV ;-)
@@lannifincoris6482
If you look closely, in many European countries everyone knows May Warden and Freddie Frinton through the two recordings from Switzerland and Germany, and we love them.
How many people in the UK still know them today?
All those fourr best friends, then three of her best friends plus James, then two of her best friends and so an. Anyway, within the last 25 years it has only been poor James to do his very best, four times.
i think it was "my dear friend" Mister Winterbottom
I know this genius video for over five decades already. We used to see this every new years eve. It was broadcasted on german tv bt we could see it too in the Netherlands.
I still look at it every year.
In Norway, it's been a tradition for years on December 23rd 😊.
The story behind the sketch:
1.
An English author wrote the sketch.
It was never a New Year's Eve sketch, it was a 90th birthday sketch. Which can happen any day of the year.
2.
Freddie Frinton paid the author a fee for each performance on british stages.
3.
He later bought the rights to the sketch outright.
4.
Freddie performed the sketch with May Warden on british stages.
But he wasn't the only one.
And in other countries the sketch was also performed on stages. For example: 1959 in Munich, Germany.
5.
Members of a German TV station saw the sketch at a theater performance in 1961 in England.
6.
They made Freddie an offer to come to Germany to perform the sketch in a TV Entertainment Show.
7.
Freddie did not like the Germans “shortly after the world war”.
8.
He agreed when he was offered a good fee and to perform the sketch in English.
9.
On December 09 1961, the sketch was performed LIVE in a german TV Entertainment Show. It was not recorded.
(For those who are interested: 1961, in a TV live show presented by Evelyn Künneke).
10.
Two years later, 2 German members of the German TV station NDR (Hamburg) traveled also to England.
(For those who are interested: one was Peter Frankenfeld, a famous german entertainer)
These two had obviously not realised that the sketch had already been shown on another German entertainment show in 1961.
11.
They invited Freddie, who then performed the sketch with May Warden live in german TV in 1963. From a theater. Peter Frankenfeld presented the live TV show. Again without a recording.
12.
A few weeks later, they invited Freddie again, this time to make a television recording. For this purpose, a theater stage and audience seats were recreated in a studio of the TV station (NDR).
13.
As German viewers hardly spoke any English at the time, there is a German introduction. It is explained that the 4 friends of 90-year-old Miss Sophie have been dead for 25 years. But Miss Sophie (demented we would say today) wants to celebrate her birthday as she used to. Butler James plays the 4 roles at all. Including at last: 4 times sex.
14.
A few days after this recording in Hamburg, Freddie and May traveled to Switzerland, also for a TV recording.
15.
This Swiss version was shown here.
16.
The German version from broadcaster NDR will be deleted by YT as soon as they know that someone has uploaded it. Reason: Copyright. Who lives in Germany (or with VPN from outside) can watch the sketch in the ARD mediathek the whole year.
17.
In addition to the introduction (item 13), the German version also contains an additional sketch part comparing to the swiss recording. And the stage set is slightly different (longer staircase, other back wall).
18.
The version of the German TV station was initially broadcast in summer 1963 once in the normal program.
19.
It was then ONLY broadcast as an intermission filler.
20.
It has been shown regularly at New Year's Eve each year since 1972. But the sketch isn't written as a New Year's Eve sketch. It's simple a birthday sketch.
21.
In Germany the recording is shown throughout the New Year's Eve day by various regional broadcasters. Some stations show it up to 3 times at different times of the day.
22.
In many other European countries and beyond, a tradition similar to that in Germany has developed.
23.
In some countries the german version is shown, in others the swiss version (that one Joel has presented).
24.
The BBC was never interested in recording the sketch. That is why British TV viewers were unaware of the sketch until 2018.
25.
In 2018 "Sky Art" broadcast the german TV version sketch for the british.
Since it hardly found any viewers, it disappeared from the program again.
This is also a new year's tradition here in Sweden I always watch it and even when I was little and didn't know English I still enjoyed the great physical comedy 😝
Tradition here in Finland also 🎉😂 Every year 🥂 Also, every now and then at parties, you might have a competition to see who is the quickest to remember the names of all the guests 😉
As a Brit of a certain age, I well remember Freddy Frinton and his infamous 'drunk' act. I used to regularly visit friends in Germany who were shocked to hear that I did not possess a copy of this video. Needless to say, on my next visit I was presented with a copy.
Speaking as a German, what amazes me is that this sketch is so underappreciated in England, when it's a piece of the most English slapstick I've ever seen. And yes it's turned into a New Year's ritual for us to watch it for some reason. Xd
I live in South Australia and it was a tradition every New Years eve at home to watch this on our non commercial channel ABC2, and we are not Germans. We have a Welsh and English background.
Interesting 🤔
I've seen it at least a hundred times and enjoyed it so much to watch you seeing it for the first time.
In 1961, the sketch was produced for television in black and white by NDR (nothern germany broadcasting station) and was first shown in the programme. The sketch was shown on 8 March 1963 in the programme "Good Evening", Peter Frankenfeld, also produced by NDR and directed by Heinz Dunkhase, although Frinton was the actual creator of the production.
No, he bought the sketch from another comedian. The two of them played the sketch from the 1940s on. Frinton is not entirely forgotten in Britain, he had his own TV-series in which he played a clumsy plumber, and some Brits know that he toured the amusement piers and small theatres around the coast to play sketches like this one. It was in Blackpool that Dunkhase and Frankenfeld saw them. May Warden was older than he was but outlived him for many years.
Oh my god! How I love this sketch! I've been watching "The 90th Birthday" several times every New Year's Eve for over 50 years now - and I laugh my ass off every time... I know every gesture, every stumble, every "don't stumble" and every single word by heart ^^
I laughed the hardest when my then 4 year old son started acting out the whole sketch with his little table and chair and a teddy as Miss Sophie and the kids' crockery while it was on TV! The cutest thing I've ever seen ^^ (thank goodness I have it on video; now watching THIS version is also a firm tradition in our family...) I'm in tears every New Year's Eve: first from laughter, then from sheer emotion ^^ I love it!
On this past New Years Eve, this could be watched at different times between 4PM and just before midnight on several German TV channels. In addition, regional channels put on dubbed versions in various German dialects ...
When I was a kid I laughed so much about that until my tummy ached.
It d fun to watch somebody watch it for the first time.
I think, this is thf version done for swiss TV. In the version done for getman TV, there is a host explaining the back story and when James has to play Admiral von Schneider, he always asks "Must I, Miss Sophie" refering to kick his heels together. And Miss Sophie answers "Just to please me, James."
Fun fact: The show was banned in Sweden until 1969 due to the massive alcohol consumption. 😀
I can't remeber a New Year's Eve where I didin't watch the show. And I'll always enjoy it.
They even tried to recolorize the show, but the real fans didn't like it. We prefer the black and white version. 🙂
We watch it every year. It's most enjoyable, of course, when someone is with us who hasn't seen it yet. Thanks for that!
This is hilarious 😂
It's a tradition to watch in Denmark new years eve :D
I haven't spent a new year's eve without watching Dinner for one. Watched it with my parents and now with my kid. Passing on the tradition.
This is the swiss version of the same sketch, performed by the same actors.
It's HER 90th birthday and all other "guests" are passed long time ago, but never mind.... - Poor Butler James takes the part... :D
First shown in 1963 in a German Live-TV Show, 1972 first shown on New Years Eve and since then it's a CULT in Germany, showing this sketch in German TV EVERY New Years Eve several times. - Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie? - Same procedure as EVERY year James.... ;)
Not gonna lie, this is a family tradition since 40years😂, looking it every year and laugh every year bc it never gets old
the second must see in Germany at new years eve is "Silvesterpunsch", an iconic episode of "Ein Herz und eine Seele"
Absolut 😂 "das ist Punch Du dusselige Kuh" 😂😂😂
The version made for German televsion, is slighty better, and there is one woman in the audience laughing so heartly ... also in my family it is a tradtion to watch it every Silvester..
This was recorded in 1963 with May Warden and Freddie Frinton in a studio in Hamburg for the NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk).
The laughter is from the actual audience back in 1961.
This video is missing the German introduction by a speaker/conférencier. He said that all friends of Miss Sophie already passed away and her butler James is trying to make the birthday for her as nice as possible (The same procedure as* last year? - The same procedure as every year!).
So he doesn't just have to serve but also to drink for her 4 deceased friends. 🤭
* This got its way into the German language - everyone knows where it comes from. 😉
I think this is the swiss version. James does not ask "Must I, Misx Sophie?" here.
@@Humanrebel The Swiss TV is using the same recording from 1963, like most TV stations around the world.
The difference in the annual Swiss and German broadcast is the introduction. It's a German speaking conférencier. Other TV stations use other or no introductions at all.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_One
@@u.e.u.e. You are complete wrong. Two different TV recordings. One in Germany with the explaining host, the other in Switzerland without a host. Different stages.
Oh yes, dinner for one. I love it. I really enjoyed it on television on New Year's Eve 1977/1978. It then became a New Year's Eve ritual.
Even when I celebrated New Year's Eve with friends, I always managed to watch Dinner for one on New Year's Eve.
I think I realized when I was 23 that I hadn't missed a single New Year's Eve since I was 9 years old. Then it became a bit of a challenge, and in a few years I'll be watching my 50th show without having missed a year.
Incidentally, this recording is virtually unknown in its country of origin, England. In Germany, on the other hand, it is still very popular today.
New Years Eve classic 😂 and a big tradition in Germany. I'd say NYE is incomplete if you miss out on it. (My family, friends and) I've been watching this for the past 30 years or lil more.
I'd have to say my sisters kids are not into that humour as well as the kids of friends of mine. 😅 So yeah, sometimes I keep wondering if we can keep this tradition up.
I believe it's from 1963.
oh todays GenZ would BARELY find that amusing - you may get a GRIN and thats it lol
My kids (Gen Z) don‘t laugh about it as much as I do, but they do enjoy the tradition to watch it together. So I have hopes that they‘ll carry it on.
Freddy Frinton took the tiger rug everywhere he was perfoming, because his musclememory was trained exactly on the hight of this tigerhead to stumble correctly.
Thank you 😂🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤
1963, älter als ich! LOL 🍾🍷
It's true, it's a tradition to watch this on new years eve since many generations.... I'm 40 yrs old now, and even when I was a kid we watched this.... and so today... For sure not every single new years eve, but still I can't count how often I've watched it.
And before I forget.. this is the only film that is on TV since years, that was never dubt... and we germans normaly love to dub everything.
For me personally, it is an absolute tradition to watch this clip on TV and smoke a cigar afterwards. (The clip is shown every year on New Year's Eve.)
It isn't the version shown on TV (on every channel, you could start watching at 18:00 and watch the reruns till midnight by channel surving) during New Years Eve. The backdrop is more elaborate and has much more details.
Yes, the here shown is the swiss version.
this has been a cult classic for a long time on New Year's Eve in germany german greetings
Love it ❤❤❤❤❤
While James has to make his round, fill and empty the glasses... Miss Sophie must not be unactive. That is why she gets real food in that sketch and eats it. James would not have any time to do so.
Yes every year.......this and eckel Alfred
This one is a Must to look...
Tradition also in some household....drinking the same at the same time...😂...I can recommend it 😂🎉
Awesome drinking game. Every time he drinks, everybody takes a shot. Every time he stumbles over the cat, everybody takes a shot.
This is a recording from a different angle. I think the one broadcasted on German television has a "nicer" angle from the front. It's also available colorized. It also starts with a (German) host explaining the situation. He explains (in short):
"It is Miss Sophie's 90th birthday, and she always has a birthday party with her four dearest friends. There is just one little problem with that. Miss Sophie outlived them all by many years already. So her butler James has to take the role of all four of them. It went well all those years and it will go well this year, too."
Its her Birthday but everyone is Dead :D
Freddy Frinton is and stays iconic! 😂
Lot of reactions on this one... but it is not the version that is actually shown on german TV every year. i actually saw this the fist time in a reaction video.
This is a German tradition to watch on New Year's Eve. This year a friend and her husband from Texas celebrated with us, he was a bit confused. Greetings from Germany!
James must drink for every Friend of Miss Sophie, because all of them are dead...
Sie feihert Ihren Geburtstag !Egal ,auch wenn die Gäste schon lange tot sind !Der arme Diener ,muss die Gäste ersetzen ! 🤣👍
The German television was looking for a film to fill the break. However, the reporter came back from London.
There he saw the performance in a small theater. So the program director traveled to London and watched the performance. Immediately after the performance, they hired the actor for a recording in the Hamburg studio.
Swiss television also showed interest and offered a recording in Basel. So the actor went on tour through Germany and Switzerland. The two TV recordings were made.
But unfortunately he didn't have the rights to the play, so he had to give up a large part of his income.
A few years later the show was shown on German TV on New Year's Eve and this became a tradition.
The artist remained unknown in England.
Peter Frankenfeld and Hans Dunkhase watched Frinton in Blackpool. That seaside-resort was and still is famous for its vaudeville theatres and small stages that we would call "Kleinkunst" or "Varieté".
The introduction is cut out by means, only TH-cam can understand. So, of course, seeing it the first time, it is not abundantly clear, that her friends are deceased and she celebrates with their ghosts.
I think it's the other version that has the introduction.
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
That is not the original. And the explanation for the sketch is missing.
That's a different version. Not that, what we see everey new years eve in TV. The angle of the camera ist way to left, the "Admiral" always asks "must I, Miss Sophie?", the audience, specially the laughter, is extremly different.
Yes, here we see the Swiss TV version. The other is the german TV version.
Just great 😂
I recommend Staplerfahrer Klaus 😂
I look this every year and the ...Weihnachten bei den Hoppenstedt, thats are from the one and only LORIOT 🤩🥰💖
Am I wrong or is this a different shorter version with different camera angles, the tablecloth is missing etc.?
It's the Version on swiss TV, not the german one from NDR
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
It is a German production and was done in 1962 or 1963 and was ment as persiflage on English snobyness. Who says that Germans have no humor?
As far as I know it's a roughly 100 year old British skit, according to Wikipedia Freddie Frinton bought it and successfully toured with it all over Britain as early as the 1940s.
And finally some German TV executive saw it and hired him to do it for a German TV production.
That one shown here is the Swiss TV production.
That's not the version we watch every new year eve in Germany
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
A must in Germany on every Sylvester. As Child it was a Nightmare :D
This is not the german version, I think it is made for austrian tv. German version is slightly differend, differend camera ancels and a tablecloth
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
Inzwischen gibt es auch eine Version mit zwei deutschen Comedians (Ralf Schmitz und Anette Frier)
I don't know why everybody in Germany knows that but no one in Britain knows it. 😂 And my parents and grandparents can't even speak English but they watched it back in the day nearly every year on Silvester. 🎉
Solution: The BBC has never recorded the sketch.
Nope, ishe not lost her mind , its cos all of these her persons are paßt away & that she not must feel so alone they todo as they would still there,i think. Dont know exactly but i think so, cos she is the only one who becomes serve the food , the other imagination friends becomes just the drinks (maybe for later having privste fun with her butler ;) )^^
It's filmed in 1963 ....
Its sad that everyone reacts to the Swiss version of Dinner for one. The German version is way better, its longer and the set is much more detailed.
I was going to write the same. The German "original" really is a lot better.
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
That´s my killer every year :-)
That's the Version of swiss TV, the version of the german TV NDR is better.
Ach, ist schon wieder Silvester?
The german Version is better.
It is from 1963 and we in Austria have something else. At first we have "Ein echter Wiener geht nicht unter" translation more or less: A true Viennese does not give up. You can not truly translate it, but something like that. (at least until 2016 it was like that, I do not live in that country anymore), which is an Episode out of a series. It is about a working class family and he and his pale get so wasted, that when it is time to shot the fireworks, they shot of course one of it in the flat of the neighbours. It is the satire look into the working class society of the 1970s and well, there is a lot of funny things happening, but I guess, it is only when you are an Austrian, that you understand it, not only because of it's special dialect. Germans and Austrians are different and so I am sure many Germans would not understand that kind of "black humour". At midnight, when America has a look at Time Square with the dropping ball, Austrians have a look at the cathedral St. Stephan in Vienna, where a massive Bell is ringing for several minutes and the Staatsopernbalette (Ballet of the state opera) is dancing do the blue Danube from Johann Strauss Sohn. I have to say, I do not watch TV anymore, because I did not buy a new one in 2014 as the other one broke. I could not watch the program of Austria anymore (also because I do not live there anymore), because I get bored fast. "Dinner for one", is alright for one or two times, but I do not have to watch it every year, that fore it is somehow too long and not really funny in my opinion, because I saw enough drunk once in real life, I do not need it here as well. Germans hate me for way more than this, so I do not care to get more hate, because I do not like their "precious tradition".
I admit it was funny to see you reacting to it.
Jööö, da Mundl! Mei Bier is ned bled! 🤣🤣🤣
@@mammamiamikamoby Da Mundl is uebereu vatreten. Auwa wo a recht hod, hod a recht, as Bier is sicha ned bled. 😉
It's not the one they show at TV every year. Pfui ☝
Copyright problems. The shorter Swiss TV version is free. The longer German TV version with a host at the beginning is not free, so YT delete all videos using the the german one.
i… should not watch this now. It is September!…. (and not the 31.12. …9