Today marks 60 years since Butler James encounters the tiger (and we still love it)

A birthday party without guests, a not-quite-drinking butler and an unfortunately placed tiger skin – these are the ingredients for the success of the television classic ‘Dinner for One’. The fifteen-minute cult program has been flickering on television for sixty years.

The broadcast of the classic also fits in with the New Year’s Eve tradition in Switzerland (on December 31 at 7:05 PM on SRF 1). You can’t start the new year without “Dinner for One” – true to the now famous motto “Same procedure as every year”. However, the sketch did not even have its German TV premiere on New Year’s Eve. But in March.

The black-and-white production with the two actors Freddie Frinton and May Warden was first broadcast on March 8, 1963 in the German program “Guten Abend, Peter Frankenfeld”. The sympathetic butler James and his mistress Miss Sophie were so well received by the German public that “Dinner for One” was recorded in English on NDR a few weeks later in Hamburg.

Frinton had been performing the sketch in England for over ten years with varying partners.

The mini theater piece found more and more fans over the years. However, ‘Dinner for One’ did not become an established tradition on New Year’s Eve until 1972. Since then, it has only been shown around New Year’s Eve and no longer just to fill program gaps on German-language television. The sketch also had fans in many other countries – only in Frinton’s homeland did the performance remain unknown for decades.

The story: Miss Sophie wants to celebrate her 90th birthday with her friends in the old tradition. All men. However, they have long since passed away. No reason to cancel the party. So the butler – “like every year” – takes on the roles of Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr. Pommeroy and Mr. Winterbottom at the festive table. However, he only steps in to toast the fantasy guests before each course, as food – namely soup, haddock, chicken and fruit – is only available to Miss Sophie. James is correspondingly drunk after the second, third and fourth rounds – no wonder after four glasses of sherry, white wine, champagne and port.

For example, he trips flawlessly – eleven times in total – over the tiger skin that is in the way, breaks his heels during Admiral von Schneider’s military salute and at one point even drinks from the flower vase. Language skills and a dignified attitude noticeably deteriorate.

The famous duo did not make the sketch rich. According to the NDR, they received 4,150 marks (2,120 francs at the current exchange rate) for it. (yam/sda/dpa)