A TV sketch of a British woman and her drunk butler thrills millions of Germans every New Year's.

Millions of Germans and other continental Europeans will settle down in front of their TV sets on New Year's Eve for what has become an annual ritual - the showing of an aged British comedy sketch starring a long-dead music-hall comedian called "Dinner for One."

The 15-minute sketch, acted by Freddie Frinton and May Warden, will also be televised by every other major regional public-TV channel in Germany and by at scattering of commercial networks.

The black-and-white British slapstick sketch, totally unknown in the English-speaking world, has become the highest-rated TV show inGerman history, and has spawned fan clubs and a cult following of viewers who stage parties to recreate the sketch at home.

In a nation not exactly known for its ribaldry and thigh-slapping humor, the New Year's Eve showing of "Dinner for One" never fails to bring down the house. There are viewers who have memorized every gesture, every line of the English-only sketch.

Same procedure

The mere mention of the tag-line, "same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie" will break the ice with the sternest of stern-faced Germans. Mention that line, regardless of the situation, and be prepared for the stern-faced German to reply with, "Same procedure as every year, James," and then collapse into a hysterical laughter.

It is a phenomenon that has become ritualized into tradition. "The Dinner for One" sketch was originally performed in the 1920s in British music halls. This 15-minute TV adaptation is performed by 1950s British TV comedian Freddie Frinton and his stage partner May Warden.

In the early 1960s, a German television producer had caught the stage act at Blackpool and invited Frinton to fly back to Hamburg with him to tape the sketch for one-time broadcast in 1963.

Studio employees and in-house secretaries served as the live audience for the sketch about a butler who gets riotously drunk while serving food and drinks to his employer, Miss Sophie, and her guests on her 90th birthday.

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