The German New Year's Eve television tradition is the British comedy sketch Dinner for One.
The sketch features an elderly woman, Miss Sophie, celebrating her 90th birthday with a dinner for four absent friends. Her butler, James, serves each course and repeatedly drinks the guests' toasts, becoming increasingly unsteady as the meal continues. The recurring line “The same procedure as every year” is central to the performance.
Although the sketch is British and performed in English, it became an unusually strong New Year's Eve tradition in Germany and several other European countries. A German television recording first broadcast in 1963 helped establish its holiday status.
The title can cause confusion because the program is commonly treated as a German New Year institution, even though its setting, language, and performers are British. It is a sketch rather than a feature film or a New Year's countdown show.