During the Second World War he made a moderate breakthrough as a Comedian. In 1945, Frinton first performed the Sketch Dinner for One in Blackpool. As he had to pay a royalty every time he performed the Sketch, he bought the rights to Dinner for One in the 1950s, which turned out to be a very prescient decision.
In 1963, Frinton's Dinner for One was recorded by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) German television station, and watching the unsubtitled English language Sketch on television has subsequently become a German, Austrian and Swiss New Year's Eve tradition, with the short seeing multiple repeats every year from 1972 onwards. The role of Miss Sophie was played by May Warden.
At the age of 55, Frinton became a belated success as the plumber husband in the popular television sitcom Meet the Wife, which ran for 40 episodes (the wife was played by Thora Hird). The series is mentioned in the Beatles song "Good Morning Good Morning" with the line "It's time for tea and Meet the Wife". In October 1968, at the age of 59, Freddie Frinton died suddenly from a heart attack in London. He is buried in City of Westminster Cemetery, Hanwell.
The television cult also caught on in Scandinavia and Dinner for One has been a hugely popular institution on Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Estonian and Swedish television on New Year's Eve for many years, as well as in Belgium in the original version. It became so popular that a Dutch version was made with the Dutch actor Joop Doderer for Dutch viewers. It is shown every 23 December on Norwegian television (NRK since 1980), and has been shown on the Australian SBS television network on New Year's Eve for at least the last fifteen years. In South Africa the SABC likewise aired it every New Year's Eve, making it a family tradition during the 80s and 90s. The programme and its main actor Frinton are far less well known in Britain than in any of these countries.
Frinton was married twice – firstly, in 1931, to Maisie Basil, and secondly to Nora Gratton, in 1945. He had a son by his first marriage, and four further children by his second – two daughters and two sons.
