Spaghetti-tree hoax

{{short description|1957 April Fool's hoax report broadcast on BBC}}  {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Use British English|date=July 2013}} thumb|A recreation of a scene from the report, showing a woman harvesting cooked spaghetti from the branches of a tree

The '''spaghetti-tree hoax''' was a three-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current-affairs programme ''Panorama'', purportedly showing a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a "spaghetti tree". At the time of the report's broadcast, spaghetti was relatively unknown in the United Kingdom, and a number of viewers contacted the BBC afterwards for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees. Decades later, CNN called this broadcast "the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled".<ref>{{cite web|first= Saeed |last= Ahmed | title= A nod and a link: April Fools' Day pranks abound in the news |publisher=CNN|date= 1 April 2009 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/01/april.fools.pranks/index.html |accessdate=2010-01-25}}</ref>

==Broadcast== The news report was produced as an April Fools' Day joke in 1957, and presented a family in the canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland gathering a bumper spaghetti harvest after a mild winter and "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil". Footage of a traditional "Harvest Festival" was aired along with a discussion of the breeding necessary to develop a strain to produce the perfect length of spaghetti. Some scenes were filmed at the (now closed) Pasta Foods factory on London Road, St Albans, in Hertfordshire, and at a hotel in Castagnola, Switzerland.

''Panorama'' cameraman Charles de Jaeger dreamed up the story after remembering how teachers at his school in Austria teased his classmates for being so stupid that if they were told that spaghetti grew on trees, they would believe it. The editor of ''Panorama'', Michael Peacock, told the BBC in 2014 how he gave de Jaeger a budget of £100 and sent him off. The report was made more believable through its voice-over by respected broadcaster Richard Dimbleby. Peacock said Dimbleby knew they were using his authority to make the joke work, and that Dimbleby loved the idea and went at it eagerly.<ref>{{cite interview| title= BBC News Interview | author-link= Michael Peacock (television executive)|publisher=BBC TV News |first= Michael |last= Peacock |date= 1 April 2014}}</ref>

At the time, 7 million of the 15.8 million homes (about 44%) in Britain had television receivers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.barb.co.uk/resources/tv-facts/tv-ownership?_s=4 |title=Television Ownership in Private Domestic Households 1956-2009 (Millions) |publisher=Barb.co.uk |accessdate=2016-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209141716/http://www.barb.co.uk/resources/tv-facts/tv-ownership?_s=4 |archive-date=9 February 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Pasta was not an everyday food in 1950s Britain, and it was known mainly from tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce and considered by many to be an exotic delicacy.<ref name= "on this day">{{cite web| url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm |work= BBC On This Day |title= 1957: BBC fools the nation |publisher=BBC News |date=1957-04-01 |access-date=2010-01-25}}</ref> An estimated eight million people watched the programme on 1 April 1957, and hundreds phoned in the following day to question the authenticity of the story or ask for more information about spaghetti cultivation and how they could grow their own spaghetti trees; the BBC told them to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8420133/Greatest-April-fool-stories-from-spaghetti-trees-to-Alabama-changing-Pi.html |title=Greatest April fool stories – from spaghetti trees to Alabama changing Pi |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date= 1 April 2011 |author=Andy Bloxham |accessdate= 18 May 2019}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links==

* {{YouTube | q-ZtGoXkI58 | The Spaghetti "Harvest" – San Giorgio Spaghetti ad (1978)}} * {{YouTube | tVo_wkxH9dU | BBC: Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino}} * {{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm | title=1957: BBC fools the nation | date=April 1957 |publisher=BBC News, On This Day: 1 April 1957 |access-date=1 April 2017}} Video link on that page is dead. * {{cite web|url=http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/the_swiss_spaghetti_harvest/ |title=The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest |publisher=hoaxes.org |accessdate=29 December 2014}} With transcript and background. * {{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26723188 |title=Is this the best April Fool's ever? |publisher=BBC News|date=1 April 2014 |accessdate=29 December 2014}} * {{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/3591687.stm |title=Still a good joke – 47 years on |publisher=BBC News |date=1 April 2004 |access-date=29 December 2014}} * {{cite web |last=Elen |first=Richard G. |url=http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/aspidistra/spaghetti_fool.php |title=Spaghetti Fool | Aspidistra |publisher=Transdiffusion.org |date=1 April 2007 |accessdate=29 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120613042901/http://www.transdiffusion.org/emc/aspidistra/spaghetti_fool.php |archivedate=13 June 2012 }}

Category:April Fools' Day jokes Category:Performance hoaxes Category:BBC controversies Category:Fictional trees Category:1957 in the United Kingdom Category:1957 in British television Category:Hoaxes in the United Kingdom Category:Journalistic hoaxes Category:1950s hoaxes Category:British mockumentary films Category:Spaghetti Category:Television episodes set in Switzerland Category:Panorama (British TV programme)