Dinner for One (Der 90. Geburtstag) – Nostalgia Central

1 9 6 3 (Germany)
1 x 18 minute episode

Recorded (in English) by German TV station NDR in the Theatre am Besenbinderhof (Hamburg) on 8 July 1963 and first aired as a filler on German television, the short comedy sketch Dinner For One was shown four times between 1963 and 1972 before it finally got its first now-famous regular New Year’s Eve airing in 1972.

The show became a national institution in Germany and is now shown multiple times on New Year’s Eve so that everybody can watch it, when it best fits their schedule (in 2003, it aired a total of 19 times on different stations in Germany).

Although virtually unknown in America, Canada and Britain (it aired in the UK for the very first time on New Year’s Eve in 2018), the sketch is also shown on New Year’s Eve in many other countries, including Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Austria.

Upper-class Englishwoman Miss Sophie (May Warden) hosts a celebration dinner every year on her birthday for her friends, Mr Pommeroy, Mr Winterbottom, Sir Toby, and Admiral von Schneider.

Unfortunately, Miss Sophie has outlived all of her friends, and so for her 90th birthday dinner, her equally aged butler James (Freddie Frinton) must fill in for her four departed friends in turn. And that includes lots of drinks before every course.

Miss Sophie chooses appropriate drinks to accompany each course on the menu: With the Mulligatawny soup, Miss Sophie orders dry sherry; the North Sea haddock is served with white wine; the chicken is paired with champagne; and the fruit, served for dessert, is accompanied by port.

All the drinks are served by James, who downs each absent guest’s drink across four courses (four times per course), resulting in his growing difficulty pouring the drinks (or distinguishing wine glasses from vases of flowers) and his random bursts into song.

Even before the alcohol takes effect, he keeps tripping over the head of a tiger skin lying on the floor between the dinner table and the buffet.

At the close of the sketch, James asks his employer, “By the way? Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?”, to which she responds, “Same procedure as every year, James”.

James hesitates for a moment before saying, “Well, I’ll do my very best!” with a bawdy wink, and the pair rush up the stairs to the bedroom. The end.

Over the years, people have objected to its depiction of heavy drinking, its whiff of nonagenarian sex, and even the tiger skin rug on the floor.

But there is no stopping Der 90. Geburtstag.

Freddie Frinton did not live to see Dinner for One become a huge success. He died in 1968 at the age of 59.

James
Freddie Frinton
Miss Sophie
May Warden
Narrator
Heinz Piper

Video