Freddie Frinton s Dinner For One
When is a British comedy legend not a British comedy legend? The answer, as far as the case of Freddie Frinton is concerned, is when you are British and a comic legend in most places except Britain.
Freddie Frinton is quite an obscure figure these days in the country of his birth. In the 1960s, however, he was one of Britain s most popular comic performers, co-starring with Thora Hird in a sitcom, Meet The Wife, that was such a fixture on television in those days that it became immortalised by John Lennon in one of the tracks -
It is one of the all-time classic moments in British comedy: André Previn is trying to conduct a special pre-decimal arrangement of Grieg s Piano Concerto, with Eric Morecambe as his soloist, and it is not going at all well.
Morecambe has already called him by the wrong name ( Ah, Mr Preview - how are you? ); insulted the members of his orchestra ( I ve seen better bands on a cigar! ); made an ill-judged claim about his own musical credentials ( You re now looking at one of the few men who has actually fished off the end of Sir Henry Wood Promenade! ); lectured him on how to do his job ( In the second movement - not too heavy on the banjos ); asked him to lengthen the introduction by about a yard ; suggested that they phone Grieg himself in Norway for some musicological clarification ( Mind you, you might not get him - he could be out skiing ); and coaxed the conductor into leaping high up in the air so that his cue can be seen from over the lid of the piano.