Germany is the country especially associated with New Year’s Eve broadcasts of Dinner for One.
The 18-minute comedy sketch was written by British author Lauri Wylie and performed in English by Freddie Frinton and May Warden. German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk recorded the best-known television version in 1963, with a German introduction and the main sketch in English.
The program became a German New Year’s Eve institution after repeated broadcasts, especially once it gained a regular holiday place in the 1970s. Viewers know its recurring drinking ritual, the butler James’s repeated trips around the table and the catchphrase “Same procedure as every year.” The sketch is typically shown several times across German television channels on December 31.
A common mix-up is assuming that the tradition is primarily British because the performers and language are British. In fact, it became far more culturally prominent in Germany than in the United Kingdom, where it remained little known for decades. Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and other countries also broadcast it, but Germany is the country most strongly identified with the New Year’s Eve tradition.