- The Day the BBC Made the World Believe Spaghetti Grew on Trees
On April 1, 1957, the BBC staged one of the most unforgettable April Fools’ pranks in television history—so convincing that an entire nation fell for it. During a brief segment on its highly respected program Panorama, viewers were shown Swiss villagers delicately picking strands of spaghetti from “spaghetti trees,” smiling as they laid the noodles out to dry under the warm spring sun.
At the time, spaghetti was still unfamiliar to many in the UK. Most people had only seen it in canned form, and few had any idea how it was actually made. So when the BBC—trusted implicitly by the public—presented the harvest as genuine news, people accepted it without question. Sir Richard Dimbleby delivered the narration with his usual calm authority, claiming that a “mild winter and the near elimination of the spaghetti weevil” had produced an exceptional crop that year.
The following day, the BBC’s phone lines were flooded with callers eager to learn how to grow their own spaghetti trees. The operators, fully embracing the joke, responded: “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
The prank quickly became legendary, earning its place as one of the greatest broadcast hoaxes ever aired. It demonstrated how even the most discerning audiences can be swept up by a well-crafted story—especially when it comes from a trusted source.
Fun fact: The iconic segment was filmed in Ticino, Switzerland, and remains celebrated as the most successful TV prank of all time.
