Why is Dinner for One so popular in Germany?

Every New Year’s Eve, millions of Germans watch an 18-minute English sketch about a geriatric woman who has no living friends to attend her birthday party, and laugh their heads off. How did Dinner for One become so popular in Germany?

Same procedure as every year?

“Saym preseacher az every year?” you might hear a German enthusiastically cackle around Christmas, and wonder, “What on Earth are they talking about?” They are telling you a joke.

The line is one of the most quoted from Germany’s favourite TV sketch, Dinner for One. Written by Lauri Wylie, an actor and author born to Prussian immigrants in England in 1880, Dinner for One was first performed on the En Ville Ce Soir London revue stage in 1934.

The plot of Dinner for One

It’s the evening of Miss Sophie’s 90th birthday and her butler, James, is on hand to make sure the annual party goes off without a hitch. There’s only one problem: Sophie’s regular guests, Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr Pomeroy and Mr Winterbottom, have all kicked the bucket before her. 

James entertains the old lady's delusions and pulls out his best impressions of all her guests. As Sir Toby, Admiral von Schneider, Mr Pomeroy and Mr Winterbottom, James toasts Miss Sophie over and over, first with sherry, then white wine, champagne and port. James' service and impressions decline in quality as he becomes increasingly drunk, tripping over, spilling drinks, taking giant gulps straight from the bottle.

How the comedy sketch came to Germany

In 1945, comedians Freddie Frinton and May Warden began performing the sketch on the stages of England’s beach resorts, and when Wylie died in 1951, Frinton inherited the rights to Dinner for One.

The story goes that, in 1962, German comedian and TV personality Peter Frankenfeld caught Frinton and Warden’s Blackpool run and was implored to bring the hilarity to German TV screens.

The following year, Frankenfeld told Frinton and Warden to pack their bags for Zürich, where they would film the sketch at Studio Bellerive.

Dinner for One captures the German imagination

The sketch was in the can, but initially enjoyed little glory, filling empty broadcasting slots on ARD and NDR. That was until 1972, when NDR boss Henri Regnier looked in the archive to pick some more filler for New Year’s Eve. But this time, the filler became a big success.

Throughout the 80s and 90s, “Same procedure as last year?” started to ring out in living rooms further afield. In Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Australia and Estonia, broadcasters all began showing the sketch on December 31. 

The sketch is not popular in the UK

By 2003, Dinner for One had been broadcast on German TV no fewer than 231 times, but the Brits were singing Auld Lang Syne and were still none the wiser about their treasured export.

A 2007 article in the Daily Telegraph eventually drew attention to the phenomenon, and on December 31, 2018, the sketch was finally shown on TV in Britain. It was broadcast again on New Year’s Eve in 2019 and 2020, but never caught on. 

Germany didn’t let Britain’s apathy rain on its parade. Today, Dinner for One is one of the few programmes broadcast on German TV with the original dialogue in English. NDR has a poster of drunken James, which true fans can print out and put on the wall. If you want to step further into the DFO world, you can even find full recipes for the five-course meal that James serves up during the sketch.

The wonders of the ARD Mediathek mean a colour version of the original sketch is also available. But nothing scratches Germany’s New Year’s itch like the original. Happy New Year, Miss Sophie!