STEPHEN FRY

as far as i know it is true.
i vividly remember watching a documentation about dinner for one. it was recorded in germany for german tv and even though there are today versions in other countries we germans sorta were the first.
funny isn't it?
we're also nearly the only nation whi finds mr bean funny, sad but true...

german wiki says:
[...]Der Autor des Sketches ist Lauri Wylie, der ihn in den 1920er-Jahren geschrieben haben soll. Nach einigen Quellen führte Freddie Frinton das Dinner for One bereits ab 1945 im englischen Varietee-Theater Winter Gardens auf und zahlte entsprechend Gebühren an Wylie. 1950/1951 habe er dann Wylie alle Rechte abgekauft. Offiziell wurde das Stück 1948 im Londoner Theater Duke of Yorks uraufgeführt.

Schwierig zu erklären ist jedoch, wie dies mit der Tatsache vereinbart werden kann, dass das Stück unter anderem 1953 in einer Revue aufgeführt wurde, dem John Murray Anderson's Almanac, am Imperial Theatre am Broadway London (mit Hermione Gingold in der Rolle der alten Dame, Billy DeWolfe als Butler und offenbar fünf verstorbenen Freunden) – der Show, in der auch Harry Belafonte in der Anfangszeit seiner Karriere erschien.

Frinton hatte mit diesem Sketch in England großen Erfolg und tourte mit verschiedenen Partnerinnen durchs Land. Pointen und Handlung verbesserte er im Laufe der Jahre.[...]

[...]In England selbst wurde Dinner for One nur bruchteilhaft ausgestrahlt und ist dort bis heute weitgehend unbekannt. In anderen Ländern, zum Beispiel der Schweiz, Österreich, Norwegen, Schweden, Südafrika, Australien, Dänemark, ist Dinner for One jedoch ähnlich wie in Deutschland ein alljährliches Kult-Ereignis. In Schweden wurde die Aufzeichnung allerdings zuerst für sechs Jahre, bis 1969, auf Eis gelegt. Sie galt als ungeeignet, da James im Sketch zu viel Alkohol trank.[...]
whole source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_one

my apologies to all non german speakers if anyone wants a translation give me a holler

Can't say I've ever heard of it either (just read the article NHStress mentioned though and it sounds intriguing!)

Is it scary that having never read German before I understand a considerable amount of the German wiki reference?! I would suggest it's something to do with having learnt French, Italian and Spanish but none of them are anything like German. Hmmm...

thanks for the information! So my newspaper did'nt just make a premature April Fool ... but it's hard to think that famous Sir Toby, Mr. Pomeroy, dear Mr. Winterbottom have to do in their own country without the recognition they deserve i(Admiral von Schneider perhaps is not british...).

But this

Sie galt als ungeeignet, da James im Sketch zu viel Alkohol trank.[...]

is really really weird!

I agree with soupy twist concerning the estimation of the sketch - I would'nt say it's typical british (though I'm really not sure to know what is meant by "typical british") but to me it's funny that here everybody knows a british sketch (many people even know the dialouges by heart) which is nearly unknown in its country of origin.
I also agree concerning the snogging ... seems to be an exaggeration. Or I only know the false kind of germans.
The fireworks? Hmm, yes, I liked them when I was a child, but by now: nothing to me.
In fact you would hate all the private little infernos if you had a dog - like we do. We are lucky, because our dog just gets angry about that noise all around, but I have seen many dogs getting panic attacks, trembling, whimpering, trying to hide under the sofa ... .

And masquerade, maybe you're just very talented!

evening
to make it short here's a link for the english wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_one

i can't be bothered to translate all that stuff today, i am starving ....

here's a link to the actual sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6UtT8NDW8Q
(not the german version)

well for the rest:
masquerade, french, italian and spanish??? these languages have the same origins and to be honest even though i learned spanish aswell a few years back when it comes to reading i mix those three up all the time.
and my spanish by now is limited to ordering food and swearing like a fishwife
no se comprender

german isn't that difficult once you got the hang of it. and most britts have an adorable accent when talking german *g*

as for the german traditions.....
no snogging for me and no fireworks, i hate them!
this year i'll spend my new years eve on my couch with a bottle of rioja and at least 2 glasses of absinthe, and several old horror films.... i don't mind what as long as they have either vincent price, boris karloff or peter cushing in them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Ma7bZ2dH0

round midnight i'll get behind the piano and play auld lang thyme, just because i can

and i will watch dinner for one. i never really considered it to be typical brittish humour, there is no such thing. but it is a ritual and as the obsessive-compulsive person i am, i love my rituals
i remeber as a child i was allowed to watch dinner for one and then go to bed till midnight.
it brings back fond memories.
tis 20 minutes of the evening i spend smiling with freddy frinton (who actually ever drank as much as a sip of alcohol in his whole life)
i can't say i laugh my butt off but it's okay and as i said tis a ritual.

luckily i may add my cats ignore the fireworks, usually they don't even bother to wake up


PS damn i inhaled a box of sweets whilst typing this.....

i do not inhale guinnes, i savour it and take a little sip and usually the minute the first drops of liquid touch my tongue a wormhole opens on the bottom of the glass and all the guinness is gone
inhaling isn't the right word for guinnes i think absorbtion is more fitting
gosh i love guinness....

i inhale sweets, and pizza, and stuff my mum cooks in general.
but i guess you could call inhaling sweets my hobby.
it's been 2 1/2 hours since i came home and i still haven't eaten (except the sweets...) i posted here, i checked another forum i am active in, took about 4 phonecalls and was generally busy. and all i wanned to do was flop on my couch and watch tv,
i just hate it having my office at home....

i am not _just_ a bookseller

1. selling books is just my part time job (to pay the rent) my real job is more stupid and less paid.... but tis fun anyways and i can behave like a complete arse cause everyone expects it

2. whilst selling books i offend customers, bore them with useless facts, tapdance and sing. and occasionally yell at them...
(on 1 occasion even i scared a customer away by explaining schroedingers cat and asking her if i could borrow her yorkshire terrier....)

3. if you have ever worked as a salesman/woman you would never use the word <just> it's a mean world and customers are from hell itself.
one day i'll write a book on the most stupid requests i got in my career...
and "i'm looking for a book i don't know author or title but it is blue" is one of the more harmless

*giggles*
you may stop kneeling and woshipping me
on the absorbtion part.... i finally managed cooking dinner
the second best chili con carne in all of germany and a part of chile, near santiago
it kinda grew out of proportion and will safely see me through new years YAY
just have to empty that bottle of tabasco

btw
we're really off topic now

*snicker*
you may find it weird but the "it is blue" comment is usually followed by a short describtion about content or topic. and if we have it in stock i usually find it.
i think tis a memory issue with me, the way i remember stuff. nowadays i barely see the new shipments but back when it was my duty to unpack and store the shipments i knew what every book looked like.
some customers made it a hobby coming in and asking for a special book.
i'd close my eyes, picture the book, think a bit and then say things like. in the garden section, third rack second shelf outer right corner it's yellow with a rubber boot on it...

i remember where i put things by the way they look. and i quite quickly take in surroundings and details.
my friend calls it the most useless superpower, cause my flat seems to be made of kryptonite for i never can find my car keys, glasses, cell phone, wallett...(the keys to my motorbike are always in the right pocket of my leather jacket cause if i put them else where i have to search for a week)

perhaps tis cause you're more alert when outside of the safety of your own flat. it works great in other peoples homes. i come in and usually take a close look arround, tis a habit. (i'm not raiding the flat, i just sit down and look around the room whilst talking...) my best friend called me up several times saying things like "you were here yesterday did you see the keys/dvd/book/whatever and when i know how the object looks, like remembering the cover of the book or dvd, i remember where i saw it last. sometimes it pisses her off, she bought a jigsaw a few years back in the store where i work and i knew the picture cause, obviously, i had sold it a dozen times. a year later she finally started the puzzle and told me that there was this weird shaped piece with a fried egg on it and she had no idea where in the very detailed picture it belonged.
my comment was "left lower corner just beneath the horses hind legs."
2 days later she phoned me "i hate you" i was right on spot with the jigsaw piece :D
sadly i have no photographic memory, having that would be cool, i more or less have a pile of paper memory mostly remembering the most useless things. dates and appointments are lost with me when you want to meet with me you have to tell me date and time twice at least and never do things like "let's meet on the third" and then tell me "see you thursday" cause i would never compare the name of the day to the actual date. i usually remember my birthday because when leaving my flat i usually step onto a present on the way out. my art deco wine glasses were saved only because the light reflected in them and i saw them before i stepped out...
but to come full circle
when you come to the store and tell me you're looking for a blue book and you faintly remember it was a murder novel and the inspector was a woman in madrid, i would start picturing the book in my head, sometimes clearly enough so i can read the title. if i read the book i could possibly tell you a bit of the content to veryfy if it's the right one. and then i would direct you to the shelf or fire up the computer to order it

my boss usually keeps me busy cause when i get bored at work i tend to do stupid things like sorting the dvds by colour.... (been there, done that)
yesterday i sorted cds.... they were just piled into the racks and i sorted them by genre after my boss dismissed the idea of sortimg them by total playing time, or most stupid looking fellow on cover
i admitt it would be difficult to explain that system to a custommer....