People all over the world watch “Dinner for One” on New Year’s Eve

https://amp-economist-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.economist.com/prospero/2020/12/30/people-all-over-the-world-watch-dinner-for-one-on-new-years-eve
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zVd_VLO9xcc (skip 3m)

“DINNER FOR ONE” is watched all over the world on December 31st. The 18-minute British comedy sketch, recorded in 1963, holds the Guinness World Record for the most frequently aired television programme. It is a particularly crucial part of Germany’s festive programming, where it has been broadcast on Das Erste, a public television channel, since 1972. Around half the population still tunes in on New Year’s Eve to watch it; some Germans recreate the meal served in the skit. In 2018 the German Post Office unveiled a set of commemorative stamps featuring its characters. One of its lines—“the same procedure as every year”—has become something of a catchphrase in the country. So enduring is “Dinner for One” that in 2016 Netflix released a parody.

Filmed in grainy black-and-white, the routine involves Miss Sophie (May Warden), who is celebrating her 90th birthday with James, her butler (Freddie Frinton). She has outlived her four closest friends and so insists that James impersonate them all in turn.