Greatest April Fools’ prank of all time? The story of the BBC’s ‘spaghetti trees’

(NEXSTAR) – For the most part, TV audiences today couldn’t be convinced that spaghetti grows on trees. But in 1957, plenty of viewers were eating it up.

Described as “the most successful April Fools’ Day prank of all time” by one Swiss outlet, the so-called “spaghetti-tree hoax” of 1957 was an attempt by the producers of a BBC news program to convince viewers that spaghetti — a food not widely eaten in the U.K. at the time — was harvested from spaghetti trees in Italy and Switzerland.

“The last two weeks in March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer,” the narrator of the segment, which aired on the BBC program “Panorama,” told viewers. “There’s always the chance of a late frost which, while not entirely ruining the crop, generally impairs the flavor, and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices in world markets.”

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The narration, performed by respected journalist Richard Dimbleby, accompanied video footage purporting to show a Swiss family plucking strands of spaghetti from trees. These farmers had just harvested an “exceptionally heavy” crop of spaghetti, Dimbleby said, before adding that recent growing conditions were especially favorable thanks to the “virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.”

The authenticity of the hoax relied heavily on Dimbleby, a distinguished presenter who had hosted “Panorama” for years. He was also well-known as the BBC’s first-ever war correspondent.

“He knew perfectly well we were using his authority to make the joke work,” Michael Peacock, the show’s editor at the time, later recalled to BBC News. “He loved the idea.”

When the broadcast ended, Dimbleby signed off with a winking acknowledgement that the preceding segment was merely a joke (Peacock indicated that Dimbleby tapped his finger to the side of his nose), but many of the folks watching at home didn’t get the message.

Hundreds of viewers reportedly called the BBC to inquire about the segment, the Associated Press reported. Some were even “so intrigued they wanted to find out where they could purchase their very own spaghetti bush,” according to the BBC.

The BBC’s response? “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best,” according to The Telegraph, which ranked the hoax as one of the “greatest” April Fools’ stories of all time in a 2011 article.

“The following day there was quite a to-do because there were lots of people who went to work and said to their colleagues, ‘Did you see that extraordinary thing on Panorama? I never knew that about spaghetti,’” producer David Wheeler later told the BBC.

“They got laughed out of court and were very cross indeed that they had been taken in and made to look foolish.”

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Not everyone was duped, of course. A number of angry viewers called the BBC to criticize the producers for knowingly airing a fake documentary segment, according to Peacock.

“Some couldn’t understand what was going on. Others loved it, others hated it for misleading the nation. This is why it worked so well,” Peacock said.

“We all felt very pleased with ourselves.”

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