"Dinner for One": A German New Year's Tradition?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

See here.

I seem vaguely to recall this sketch. Is this REALLY a big deal in Germany, though?

From the website:

"It’s a bit bizarre when you think about it. A short British cabaret sketch from the 1920s has become a German New Year’s tradition. Yet, although ‘The 90th Birthday or Dinner for One’ is a famous cult classic in Germany and several other European countries, it is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, including Britain, its birthplace.

“Although newer versions have been produced (including a Plattdeutsch radio version and CD versions in other dialects), every year around Silvester (New Year’s Eve), German television broadcasts the classic, black-and-white English-language version filmed back in 1963 in Hamburg. All across Germany, from the 31st of December to January 1st, Germans know it’s the beginning of a new year when they watch this annual event.”

2

I’ve heard this too, and am curious to see whether it’s real.

3

Earlier thread.

And it was shown again, as usual, on television on New Year’s Eve in Australia in 2007.

4

I sent the link in the earlier thread to a friend that had lived in Sweden for 20+ years. He confirmed that it is a tradition, and thanked me for the link.

5

In Norway, for equally inexplicable reasons, it is always shown as part of an otherwise live television program on December 23rd - a day referred to as “Little Christmas Eve”. One year NRK showed it earlier in the program than usual. The switchboard got slammed with calls from people who discovered they’d missed it and weren’t happy about that - so they squeezed it in again at the very end of the show!

6

The wife of a friend of mine is German, and she insists on watching it every Christmas (or New Year, I’m not sure). She says it’s a very strong tradition in Germany, and that she would feel sad if she didn’t get to watch it each year.

I’d never heard of the thing until I met her.

7

It’s also a tradition in Denmark.

8

Yup, we really do watch it.

In fact, this year I spent New Years with friends at a new apartment, where we discovered the TV wasn’t working. We went into freak-out mode until we figured out how to stream the 23.45 broadcast off the computer.

Bliss.

9

Thanks all for the confirmation. (Sorry I did not see the previous thread.)

10

Yep, watched it again this New Years. We brought it with us to our friends’, and everyone thought it was hilarious.

This Slate article gives more of the history of it.

I still wish we could find the official German version on DVD as linked to in that other thread. It may be the most frequently replayed television program in history, but you can’t buy the dang thing – frustrating!