On the tractor ploughing on the night of the 30th I listened on the radio an account of a new year eve tradition from Germany where every year sometime during the evening on TV the same comedy routine will be screened based on a British music hall sketch with two English actors and filmed in Germany in 1963.
Photo sourced from here
Turns out it is not just the Germans that are hooked on to this comedy routine but also those in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, South Africa, Finland, Estonia, Faroe Islands and Austria. Here in Australian SBS One has also taken up the tradition of the annual screening of Dinner for One, this year at 8.30pm 31st December.
From this site there is a link to the script and it gives the following brief outline of the plot.
Complete Script (in English)
The British actor Freddie Frinton played the tipsy butler James in the 1963 German TV production. (Frinton died only five years after the Hamburg filming.) May Warden played the role of Miss Sophie, who is celebrating her 90th birthday. The only problem is... all of her party "guests" are imaginary friends who have died off. A German New Year's Eve just doesn't seem right without hearing the lines known to just about any living German: "The same procedure as last year, Madam? - The same procedure as every year, James."
