Living in Germany for several years, I learned from my neighbors and friends that a New Year's Eve tradition was to watch "Dinner for One" on the television, and several networks broadcasted it that evening. They could not believe I'd never heard of it. I could not believe a German tradition was watching a very short movie which was entirely in English!
Dinner for One, also known as The 90th Birthday, was a popular British vaudeville sketch that gained world fame after being recorded for German television in 1963. While they were at it, the same actors also made a version for Swiss television, with only a few modifications.
This short comical play subsequently became the most frequently repeated TV program ever, according to the Guinness Book of Records. The 18-minute single take black-and-white 1963 TV recording featuring British comedians Freddie Frinton and May Warden has become an integral component of the New Year's Eve schedule of several German television stations. Versions of the sketch are also shown by Danish, and Swedish channels, a December 23 staple on Norwegian national television, and a cult television classic in Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, the Faroe Islands and Austria; on New Year's Eve 2003 alone, the sketch was broadcast 19 times (on various channels). As of 2005, the sketch has been repeated more than 230 times. It is famous in other countries as well including German-speaking Switzerland and South Africa. It is likewise broadcast on New Year in Australia.
It has never been shown in either Britain or the US.
The sketch presents the 90th birthday of elderly upper-class Englishwoman Miss Sophie, who hosts a dinner every year for her close friends to celebrate the occasion. The problem is that given Miss Sophie's considerable age, she has outlived all of her friends, and so butler James makes his way around the table, impersonating each of the guests in turn. The introduction and credits are in German but the sketch itself is in English.
Watch the video (Related Web Page) and answer the following questions:
A = Number of courses served to Miss Sophie.
B = Number of candles on the table.
C = Number of imaginary guests
The cache may be found at:
N 34° 19.(2A)(A-C)(A+C) W 111° 16.(C/2)(B)(B/2)
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.