Sunday, December 31, 2017

Dinner For One

If you're not familiar with this 1963 British comedy sketch, it's because you're not from Germany, Austria, South Africa and virtually all of the Scandinavian countries. Traditionally shown on New Year's Eve, the Guinness Book of World Records listed it as the Most Repeated TV Program. 

According to Wikipedia:
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 has outlived all of her friends, and so her equally aged manservant 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 dry 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.

The 17:32 version (with a 2:20 German introduction) can be found here.


(Thanks, Miss C!)


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