The 1960s TV sketch airs in the UK for the first time, decades after it became integral to New Year’s Eve for Europeans

Ten years ago, on New Year’s Eve, my mother grabbed my English boyfriend’s arm and led him to the television. “It’s time for Dinner for One,” she said excitedly as the whole family gathered – as we do every year – to fall about laughing at an old British black-and-white comedy sketch.

As the opening credits appeared to the sound of a crackling string orchestra, my boyfriend was perplexed but too polite to ask what this was all about. The familiar elegant dining room came into shot with silver chandeliers on a white table cloth. We Germans started to giggle in anticipation of a scene we all knew so well.

“This is so funny, isn’t it?” my mother cried out to him. His response? “I have never come across it in my entire life,” he confessed. “We don’t watch this at home.”

That could change this year when, for the first time, Dinner For One is broadcast on British TV. Airing on Sky Arts on 31 December, the skit which holds the world record as the most repeated TV programme in history will finally be coming home. About time, too, many will say: while Britain has ignored this quirky cultural export for decades, it has been at the heart of the German New Year’s Eve ritual since 1972, a much loved overture to the celebrations.

The popularity of the sketch, filmed in 1963, is not impaired by the fact it is is shown in its original English language version (with a short introduction in German).

In 2017, more than 12 million Germans tuned in, accompanied by another 100,000 across Scandinavia, the Baltic countries and Switzerland. This year it will be shown 12 times on German public TV channels alone, starting at 10.30 in the morning and continuing until just before midnight. Much of the country will be transfixed, as ever, by the spectacle of James, the butler, serving dinner for Miss Sophie on her 90th birthday.

The sketch, starring Grimsby comedian Freddie Frinton and May Warden, has spawned extensive literature in Germany, from manuals to cookbooks and even a commemorative stamp.

And then there’s the sex: ever the most discussed topic, it repeatedly sparks a debate over whether Frinton and Warden had an affair in real life – they allegedly did. “Same procedure as every year,” mutters James as he accompanies Miss Sophie up the staircase at the end of the sketch.

Shot more than 50 years ago, it is an extremely basic plot with an air of silent-film slapstick.

Due to her mature age Miss Sophie’s illustrious guests – Admiral von Schneider, Mr Pomeroy, Sir Toby and Mr Winterbottom – are only imaginary having died years before. Good old James has the task of playing the parts of each of the four, making a toast at the start of each course.

Germans have a stereotypical idea of British society divided by class, with an establishment of eccentric individuals

“They are all here, Miss Sophie,” he says while serving mulligatawny and sherry, North Sea haddock and white wine, chicken with champagne, fruit and port. While carrying out his duties, the loyal but increasingly drunk James hilariously juggles expensive china plates on the taxidermy tiger rug.

The producer Peter Frankenfeld, one of postwar Germany’s most famous entertainers, first saw Dinner for One in the early 1960s while scouting in Blackpool for ideas for the market back home. Frinton, a former fish filleter, was performing the sketch in a comedy club and Frankenfeld immediately invited him and Warden to Hamburg where they staged it in front of a live TV audience. They shot the sketch in the studios of the North German Broadcasting Corporation.

What an irony that this famous piece of English humour makes its way back to Britain on the eve of the year the country will cut its most important institutional link with mainland Europe, although I find it hard to imagine that a new era of cultural self-definition will make Dinner for One top of the British comedy hit-list.

As Brexit looms a repeated question I get from people here is how Germans see the British. Watching Dinner for One might be a hint. Germans still have a stereotypical idea of British society being divided by class, with an establishment made up of eccentric individuals lost in a forlorn past. It is an impression not hurt by certain staunch Leave campaigners. Who knows if they will be tuning in tomorrow night?

Stefanie Bolzen is UK & Ireland correspondent for Die Welt