The German New Year's Eve television tradition centers on the sketch “Dinner for One.”
The roughly eighteen-minute English-language comedy features an elderly woman, Miss Sophie, celebrating her birthday with an imaginary dinner for four absent friends. Her butler, James, serves each course and repeatedly drinks the guests' toasts, becoming increasingly unsteady.
Although it was produced in Britain, the sketch became far more famous in Germany and several other European countries than in the United Kingdom. German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk recorded and broadcast its version in 1963, and repeated holiday airings turned it into a major New Year's Eve ritual.
The catchphrase “The same procedure as every year” became especially associated with the program. The sketch is performed in English, usually with German subtitles, making it an unusual example of a British television comedy becoming a fixed German holiday tradition.