Dinner for One is the TV comedy sketch that became a New Year's Eve tradition in Germany and several other European countries. The 18-minute performance follows Miss Sophie and her butler James during her 90th birthday dinner.
The sketch was written by British author Lauri Wylie and performed in English by Freddie Frinton and May Warden. Norddeutscher Rundfunk recorded the best-known black-and-white version in 1963, with a short introduction in German.
It was not originally created specifically as a New Year's program. After repeated broadcasts, the recording gained a fixed New Year's Eve place in Germany in 1972. It later became customary viewing in Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Luxembourg, among other countries.
The central joke is that James repeatedly serves four absent guests, drinking each guest's toast himself and becoming increasingly unsteady. The catchphrase “Same procedure as every year” is especially associated with the tradition. Despite its British origin, the sketch has historically been far less familiar in Britain than in Germany.