Dinner for One, also known as The 90th Birthday (German: Der 90. Geburtstag), is a two-hander comedy sketch, written by British author Lauri Wylie for the theatre. After featuring on the stage, the German TV broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) recorded the sketch in 1962 as an 18-minute black-and-white videotape recording, performed by British comedians Freddie Frinton and May Warden.
It has become traditional viewing on New Year's Eve in European countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Estonia, or on 23 December in Norway, and, as of 1995, was the most frequently repeated television programme in Germany ever.
Despite starting on the British stage, the sketch has only recently started to gain recognition in the country. The show is now broadcast every New Year's Eve in Britain on Sky Arts with its first national broadcast there airing in 2018.
The line "The same procedure as every year" (in the original English) has become a very popular catchphrase in Germany. The phrase has entered everyday vocabulary, and is used in newspaper headlines and advertisements. This is also the case in Norway, Denmark and Sweden where the phrase has become a running joke about Christmas itself.
Now that you know about "Dinner for One", when you're asked what you do this New Year's Eve, simply say, "The same procedure as every year!"
