Nicolas Sarkozy gives Angela Merkel sterling service in remake of TV sketch

THOUGH starring British actors, Dinner for One is a German Hogmanay classic, being shown on the nation’s television screens every year.

In it an increasingly drunken waiter tries to keep up with the demands of his mistress. And now it has been reworked to feature German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

The duo, ill at ease with one another but forced to rub along as they battled to save the euro, mimic the roles made famous in 1963 by English duo Freddie Frinton and May Warden.

The original is the most watched TV programme in Germany and is set to pull in millions more viewers tonight. But it now has a rival on the internet featuring Europe’s unlikeliest allies.

Satirist Udo Eling reworked the original for broadcaster ARD, putting Mr Sarkozy’s head on James the butler’s body and Mrs Merkel’s on Miss Sophie. Renamed The 90th euro rescue summit or euros for no-one, the sketch also has new dialogue.

Mrs Merkel follows the original Miss Sophie in assuming her long-dead friends are there – whose drinks are all necked by the butler – but talks of former Greek premier Georgios Papandreou and former Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. She also reprimands an absent David Cameron that “German will be spoken at the dinner”.

True to the original, Mr Sarkozy the butler drinks for all his mistress’ guests and gradually becomes inebriated, prompting Mrs Merkel to say: “Nicolas, think of your credit rating!” – a reference to the downgrades looming over France.

At the end he helps her upstairs for what in the original is referred to as “the same procedure as every year”. In the satirical version Mr Sarkozy promises to give Mrs Merkel his “triple A”.

The three-minute clip – in German – has been watched more than 200,000 times on YouTube since being posted just before Christmas.

Frinton and May first performed Dinner for One in Blackpool in 1962. The German entertainer Peter Frankenfeld, discovered the duo, brought them to Germany and the sketch was first seen on his show a year later. It was recorded in Hamburg and remains in the original English. It beats the German chancellor’s New Year’s Eve speech in the ratings by a mile and its catchphrase – “same procedure as every year, James” – is known by most Germans over the age of five.