Categories
David

Same procedure as every year

In Germany, New Year’s Eve, Silvestro or St Sylvester’s Day, is usually celebrated with a lot of alcohol, a lot of fireworks let off everywhere at midnight, but also with a now long established ritual of watching a long TV sketch, “Dinner for One”.

During the day, most if not all TV channels broadcast at least one version. Mainly the original, performed by the sketch’s creators, Freddie Frinton and May Warden, in a version recorded by a German TV channel back in 1963. It’s normally shown with its original English-language soundtrack, without subtitles.

This version is now available on YouTube in many different uploads, including this one.

Sometimes local TV channels will put on German version; theatrical performances, before a live audience, originally broadcast live. Here’s one filmed in Frankfurt for the local channel for Hesse.

Taking things even further, a recreation in local dialect. Plat Deutsch (Low German) is the version of the language from the north of Germany, a version which some believe is under threat. Here used in “Dinner for One” from a Mecklenburg TV channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSxZFih-YsY