On Thursday 14th December we inaugurated our new home at the Jávea School of Bridge premises in the Centro Comercial La Plaza with a critique of some of the TV ads this year, and a selection of members’ favourite YouTube clips.
We started with members’ musical picks – and quite varied they were!
The first was: The Duchess of Cambridge (on the piano) & Tom Walker (vocals and guitar) – ‘For Those Who Can’t Be Here’ Christmas 2021 :
The second was the late great Freddie Mercury with Montserrat Caballé singing Barcelona (Original David Mallet Video 1987 Remastered)
The next was something much quieter ! Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) | BYU Noteworthy (Chris Tomlin A Cappella Cover) 2015
We then moved on to some humourous clips : Trigger warning! some of these clips may offend people of a sensitive (or woke) disposition. There’s also un-bleeped bad language!
The first is unlikely to offend anyone except husbands: Pam Ayres – They Should Have Asked My Husband – Live at Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham in 2010
The next is definitely not for genteel folk – warning! Bad language – and bad dancing. Fascinating Aïda (British comedy singing group and satirical cabaret act, featuring Dillie Keane, Adele Anderson and Liza Pullman) performing “Down With The Kids” (2012) – their new song on “AI” was deemed to be too rude for the current audience!
Since Christmas was approaching we thought we’d get some background info about Jesus’ life from Peter Cook & Dudley Moore discussing the Nativity and Life of Jesus. Filmed during the duo’s “Behind The Fridge” tour in Australia in 1971 at the GTV9 studios. (they don’t make humour like that anymore….)
Finally we got around to the main act of the day – viewing some of the top UK Christmas TV adverts – and seeing which of them we liked …if any.
They were not very impressive, and the messages less than clear (apart from encouraging us to eat loads at Christmas) The shorter the better – Most people record programmes these days and whizz through the adverts in any case!
Finally, Chris showed” Dinner for One, “also known as The 90th Birthday (German: Der 90. Geburtstag, Swedish: Grevinnan och betjänten) This is a two-hander comedy sketch, written by British author Lauri Wylie for the theatre. After featuring on the stage, the German TV broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), recorded the sketch in 1962 as an 18-minute black-and-white videotape recording, performed in English by British comedians Freddie Frinton and May Warden.[1] The sketch begins with an introduction in German, followed by the main act in English, and is available online.[2]“
“It has become traditional viewing on New Year’s Eve in European countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia,[3] or on 23 December in Norway, and, as of 1995, was the most frequently repeated television programme in Germany.[4] Despite starting on the British stage, the sketch has only recently started to gain recognition in the UK. It was broadcast on New Year’s Eve in Britain on Sky Arts from 2018 to 2020.[5][6]“” (From Wikipedia)
Miss Sophie, an elderly Englishwoman, is celebrating her 90th birthday. Since the guests she is expecting are all dead, her butler decides to impersonate each of the four guests and give her company.
Here’s the original German TV version with the introduction in German. The sketch begins at 2mins 27 seconds. We enjoyed the show with a glass of cava and some nibbles – Enjoy!