Dinner For One - International Broadcasts

International Broadcasts

It is a curiosity that this sketch has become a tradition in Germany, where up to half the population may watch it every year, but it is relatively unknown in Britain and has never been seen on television in Canada or the United States. It is also shown on New Year's Eve in many other mainland European countries, particularly Nordic countries, and also screens on SBS in Australia. In Norway, however, it is shown every year on the evening of December 23. It is known as far away as South Africa where it is also broadcast on New Year's Eve. In Sweden, the show was put on hold for a period of six years, deemed "unsuitable" because of James's heavy drinking. However, the TV network then relented to popular demand and brought it back. In 1985 the Danish television network, DR, decided not to broadcast the sketch. However, the network received so many complaints, that they had to show it the next New Year's Eve. With this single exception, Dinner for One has been shown on DR every December 31 since 1980.

Although the sketch is most popular in non-English speaking countries, it is typically shown in the original English without dubbing or subtitles. It is easy to understand with even a basic knowledge of English due to the general physical nature of the comedy. The performance remains practically unknown to the English speaking world, and British people are surprised when encountering fans' ability to quote dialogue. Although a small clip was broadcast in an edition of QI in January 2010, it has not been broadcast in its entirety on British TV for at least 30 years. It has never been shown in North America.