Fifteen years ago a German friend and her English husband asked us round for New Years Eve. Another German couple in attendance plus a South African fellow, his Romanian girlfriend, my South African wife and me.
“We’ll eat and then We can watch ‘Dinner for One, Hans has brought a video over from Germany”
We all looked blank, we’d never heard of it. She went on to explain how just about everyone on Germany, like 90% of the population would be watching it that night, a national shared cultural institution. In English with German subtitles. We still looked a bit blank. She further explained that Germans held themed dinner parties where they all dressed up and assumed characters from the play - Admiral Von Schneider for example. We still looked bemused, but enjoyed a lovely meal, then settled down expectantly to watch the video
It’s a fine performance. Freddie Frinton is very good, a great comic act. The Germans all knew it literally word for word, they’d watched it maybe 30 or more times. Quite bizarre. The non-Germans watched, found it amusing, entertaining, but not the greatest show on earth. I’ve watched it once again since, still don’t understand the obsession.
Cultural Imperialism. We’ll conquer the world.
