Germany's famous New Year's Eve television sketch about an elderly woman and her butler is Dinner for One.
The short English-language comedy features Miss Sophie celebrating her 90th birthday with a formal dinner. Her four invited guests are absent, so her butler, James, impersonates them and drinks each guest's toast. The repeated line “The same procedure as every year” became closely associated with the sketch.
Although the actors speak English, the program became a major German New Year's Eve tradition after German television broadcasts. It is also popular in several northern European countries, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, though broadcast schedules and titles differ.
The sketch was written by British author Lauri Wylie and first performed in British variety entertainment before being filmed for German television in 1963. Its fame is unusual: a British stage routine in English became one of Germany's most recognizable annual television rituals.