But nostalgia is, by definition, wanting to repeat and return to something that's outdated, in an idealized, simplified version - which makes the sketch a perfect candidate for a reassuring end-of-year ritual.Īhead of the UK cinema premiere, the son of comedian Fred Frinton offered his explanation for the German tradition: "I think they see it as quintessentially English," Mike Frinton told the Scottish newspaper The Herald. Its slapstick style is meanwhile outdated and the whole structure is, by today's standards, simple and repetitive. Merkel and Sarkozy's heads were used in one parody of the sketch Image: WDRĪnyone who didn't grow up with the tradition might find it difficult to understand why this particular sketch became so popular. In 2016, Netflix released its own parody to promote its shows the absent guests of the elderly woman who is celebrating her 90th birthday in the skit are Frank Underwood ( House of Cards), Pablo Escobar ( Narcos), Saul Goodman ( Better Call Saul) and Crazy Eyes ( Orange Is The New Black). The skit has been parodied hundreds of times, whether as a reenactment using Lego bricks, a Norwegian punk version or a German-Turkish one, called Döner for One.Ī 2011 version called Euros for No One features a digital version of German chancellor Angela Merkel and then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, about the Eurozone debt crisis. The 18-minute slapstick sketch, acted by Freddie Frinton and May Warden, has become the highest-rated TV show in German history, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most repeated television program ever. Despite being in English, it is broadcast without subtitles. Every year it is screened, usually several times, by most of Germany's regional public TV channels. Millions of Germans take part in this New Year's Eve ritual: watching a black-and-white English-language television sketch called Dinner for One, or the 90th Birthday that was recorded in 1963. Now, it will premiere on UK TV on December 31 at 6:10 p.m., on the Sky Arts channel. The "most British" German film had never been shown in a British cinema until November, when it got its UK premiere at a comedy film festival in Campbeltown, Scotland, as part of the Scottish Comedy Film Festival's Slapstick Weekend. In a bid to make casual conversation, a German might ask "Same procedure as last year?" referring to the film's most famous line. But English-speaking visitors to Germany will be simply confused by continual references to this obscure sketch. In Germany, as well as in different European countries, it has cult status. It's a sketch that's totally unknown in the English-speaking world, despite its origins in British music halls.
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