Which German television sketch is famously broadcast around New Year's Eve?

“Dinner for One” is the German television sketch famously broadcast around New Year’s Eve.

The English-language comedy sketch 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 intoxicated. The recurring line “The same procedure as every year” became closely associated with the broadcast.

The sketch was written by British author Lauri Wylie and originally performed in English. German television recorded it in 1963 with Freddie Frinton as James and May Warden as Miss Sophie. Although relatively obscure in Britain, it became an annual television institution in Germany and several other European countries.

Its New Year connection comes from scheduling rather than story: the plot concerns a birthday, not New Year’s Eve. That distinction is a frequent source of confusion. The program’s repeated annual airing is itself the tradition viewers recognize.