'Dinner for One': the drunken butler who speaks for us all

Rebecca Davis explains why an old black-and-white movie skit is central to the human condition

It was with a sense of growing disbelief that I scanned the TV lineup for the New Year period. There seemed an omission so obvious that I am still hoping the error is mine. You see, I could find no evidence that any channel, either local or satellite, would be broadcasting Dinner For One.

Dinner For One is like the Rodriguez of festive programming, by which I mean it's only popular in South Africa and about two other countries, one of which is Estonia. The Wikipedia entry for the sketch will inform you that it "remains practically unknown to the English-speaking world", although simultaneously the most frequently repeated TV programme ever. When I tried the other day to describe it to someone who had never seen it, I found myself faltering halfway through.

"It's hilarious," I had confidently begun. "It's this black-and-white skit. There's an old lady, and a butler who's serving her dinner." It was at this exact point that I began to lose steam a bit. "He gets really drunk," I continued. "And, er, that's it."

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At this point my companion was eyeing me with deep scepticism. And I had to admit, when you break Dinner For One down to its constituent parts, it doesn't exactly sound like comedy gold. I wondered if I was remembering it wrong. Maybe the passage of time had imbued it in my mind with unwarranted nostalgia. To make sure either way, I watched it again.

And you know what? It's still deeply funny. The progressive tipsiness of James the butler! The way he sometimes trips over the tiger skin carpet, and somehow miraculously doesn't! The impersonations he gives of Miss Sophie's dead friends! And that classic payoff line: "Same procedure as every year!"

What I was not expecting, however, was to find it strangely moving. Viewed from another perspective, the sketch is also a meditation on ageing and loneliness. We will all outlive some friends, although we may not all be lucky enough to have a manservant willing to masquerade as them when required.

It's curious that the sketch has become so synonymous with New Year's Eve because there's nothing intrinsic to it which suggests the action is taking place on December 31. When Danish broadcasters chose not to show it on New Year's Eve in 1985, they received so many complaints it's been on air every year since.

In the worst-case scenario, you can buy the DVD of Dinner For One on the internet, or watch it online. I cannot in good conscience recommend any other New Year viewing. Here's to 2017 being a year as jolly as James the butler after his 16th drink.