“Dinner for One” is Germany's famous New Year's Eve television sketch about Miss Sophie and her butler.
The black-and-white comedy features an elderly woman, Miss Sophie, celebrating her 90th birthday with a formal dinner. Her four regular guests are absent, so her butler, James, serves each course and repeatedly impersonates them while drinking their toasts. The recurring line “The same procedure as every year” became strongly associated with the sketch.
The routine was written by British author Lauri Wylie and performed in English by Freddie Frinton and May Warden. German television recorded its best-known version in 1963. Although the performers are British and the dialogue is in English, the sketch became a major German New Year's tradition.
It is broadcast in several European countries, especially around the end of the year. The program's popularity has sometimes surprised audiences in Britain, where it was far less central to New Year's viewing. The sketch's humor depends on repetition, escalating drunkenness, and the contrast between formal manners and chaotic service.