European New Year's Eve TV staple Dinner For One to get prequel treatment

A British music hall sketch that has sunk into obscurity in its country of origin but is an indispensable New Year's Eve ritual in swathes of continental Europe will be given a new lease of life, after the German production powerhouse UFA announced this week it would start filming a six-part prequel next year.

This is the first UK airing of a 10-minute British sketch recorded in 1963, which is now a German TV institution, despite being unknown over here. It is an odd mixture of slapstick and melancholy, involving Freddie Frinton's drunken butler gamely playing the parts of the long-deceased guests of his mistress at her 90th birthday party.

The English comedy spices up German New Year

Raise a glass on a German New Year's Eve and you'll likely encounter this toast: "The same procedure as last year?" "The same procedure as every year."

Freddie Frinton skit to air on UK TV for first time

Dinner for One sketch was instant hit when it aired in 1972 and has achieved cult status.

How Dinner for One became a German tradition

Dinner for One is watched every year in Germany, but it is virtually unknown in Britain.

Dinner for One: British skit that conquered Europe

The wobbly British comedy skit that conquered Europe.

Dinner for One to be screened in Britain for first time

Odd story of the British comedy classic which has never been screened in Britain. Until now.

Blue plaque unveiled in tribute to Freddie Frinton

A blue plaque has been unveiled to Grimsby-born actor, writer and comedian Freddie Frinton. Born in 1909, as Frederick Bittiner Coo, he is best known for his roles in Dinner For One (which is played every year on New Year's Eve in Germany) and Meet The Wife, and remains a household name in much of Germany, Scandinavia and various parts of the rest of the Europe.

The "G"-series topic this week was "Germany", with guests Jo Brand, Rob Brydon and Sean Lock joining regulars Alan Davies and "QImaster" Stephen Fry. The juice of QI isn't as succulent as it once was, but you're always guaranteed some eyebrow-raising trivia and a few good moments of comedy banter. I'm frankly bemused Jo Brand still gets work (because she's like a comedy blackhole to me), and this episode wasn't helped by weaker than usual turns from Brydon and Lock.

Still, "Germany" was a topic that particularly interested me, as I used to live in Germany and once worked with a Germany lady living here in England, so cultural differences and Anglo-German relations is something I've discussed many times. It's certainly interesting subject matter for Brits, who have a strange relationship and perception of our European neighbours. In this edition of QI we learned that Germans don't care that England beat them in the 1966 World Cup, that they're unaware their countrymen have a reputation for rudely claiming sun loungers with beach towels while on holiday, and that they broadcast an old Freddie Frinton and May Warden comedy sketch called Dinner For One every New Year's Eve (simulteneously, on every channel).