Re: new & original Audi 1991 videotape FS

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <852566C7.00445A9E.00@usboxmta.ne.3com.com> Glen_Powell@ne.3com.com writes:

> *****NOTE: THIS IS A EURO-FORMAT PAL VIDEOTAPE*****
>
> Original official Audi videotape NIB (New In Box) - this is NOT a copy:
>
> "The same procedure as last year"

This is an 'in' German joke.

Bizarre, but true - every 'Silvester' (31 December) all of the German
3rd television stations show a short play entitled "Dinner for one".

It was recorded in the 1960s, in Munich, in English.  A German presenter
(on the original black and white recording) explains the situation in
German - the lady was once well known in society and had an annual
dinner party.  Over the years, the guests have all died - and so the
butler now plays their roles.  The butler, in this case, is a man
known on stage as "Freddie Frinton" - he had walk-on or stagger-on
roles in British television variety shows for _years_.  He always
appeared in evening dress, with his collar disarranged and a broken
cigarette dangling from his fingers.  "Frinton" is a uniquely British
insider joke - he chose (as a drunk's stage name) the name of the only
village in England with a total alcohol ban.

Anyway, he plays the butler and the butler plays all the roles - an
officer, a German nobleman, a rather coarse businessman, etc.

Drinking the toasts for each of them gets him rather drunk - there's
a cameo piece with him tripping over an animal skin rug with the head
still attached.

At the end, the lady (I've forgotten the actress' name - most Germans
would know it - the character is Lady Sophie) gets up from the table to
go up to bed.  Frinton offers to help her up the stairs, and they lurch
up a few steps.

Then he says: "Same procedure as last year, madam?"

And she answers: "Same procedure as _every_ year, James."

And he drags her off upstairs.

In the early 1980s, our landlord let me loose on the antenna farm in the
loft of the flats we lived in.  After a week or so's work, we could get
Hessen 3, Bayern 3, and two different SWF 3s.  In 1984, the TV timetables
being propitious, we successfully watched "Dinner for one" _FOUR_ times
on the same evening.

--
 Phil Payne
 Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 01536 723021
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