Panorama - April Fool's Day Hoax - Spaghetti Harvest - 1st April 1957

On April 1, 1957 the British television programme Panorama broadcast a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The success of the crop was attributed both to an unusually mild winter and to the virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil. The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the shows highly respected anchor, discussing the details of the spaghetti crop as they watched video footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets. The segment concluded with the assurance that, For those who love this dish, theres nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti.

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest hoax generated an enormous response. Hundreds of people phoned the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this query the BBC diplomatically replied, Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.

To this day the Panorama broadcast remains one of the most famous and popular April Fools Day hoaxes of all time. It is also believed to be the first time the medium of television was used to stage an April Fools Day hoax.

Since 1955 Panorama had been anchored by Richard Dimbleby, whose authoritative, commanding presence had made him one of the most revered public figures in Britain. If Dimbleby said it, people trusted that it was true. Which is one of the reasons why the spaghetti harvest hoax fooled so many viewers. His participation lent the hoax an air of unimpeachable authority.

Almost no one else at the BBC knew about it. The segment was not mentioned at all in the pre-transmission publicity handouts.

The line-up for that days show included a long segment about Archbishop Makarios, leader of the Greek Cypriots, and a clip of the Duke of Edinburgh attending the premiere of the war film The Yangtse Incident.

The second-to-last segment was about a wine-tasting contest, and then it came time for the spaghetti harvest.

Dimbleby, sitting on the set of Panorama, looked into the camera and without a trace of a smile said: And now from wine to food. We end Panorama tonight with a special report from the Swiss Alps.

The screen cut away to the prepared footage. When it was all over, Dimbleby reappeared and said, Now we say goodnight, on this first day of April. He emphasized the final phrase.

Panorama never attempted another April Fools Day spoof, despite numerous calls for a sequel. However, the hoax did inspire a number of similar stunts in its honour.

This film footage is from the Archive Collection held and administered by the Alexandra Palace Television Society.

http://www.apts.org.uk

~ APTS ~
Preserving the televisual past for the digital future

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• apts
• alexandra
• palace
• television
• society
• simon
• vaughan
• spaghetti
• harvest
• richard
• dimbleby
• panorama
• bbc
• april
• fool
• day
• fool's
• hoax

[alienlabs]

31 seconds of frightening nothing before the video actually begins.

[aptsarchive]

@alienlabs As I commented in an earlier post we are a none profit organisation and are not able to pay for such things as commercial designers, so this intro done in house with limited resources. Our new animated logo, which can be seen on all our more recent uploads is shorter, more direct and has the addition of an audio track.

[alienlabs]

@aptsarchive

Good. Unfortunately this is no real excuse, most voted comment on this video complains about the same thing, meaning that you dont need a commercial designer to actually realize how slow and empty is the intro sequence. Limited resources is also weird, only resource you need here is common sense and a pair of eyes to tell you 31 secs of slow intro before the actual footage are something nobody would like to go through. You dont need "resources" to make something shorter, dont you?

[aptsarchive]

@alienlabs We don't have the time or resources to go back and re-edit uploads that have our "old" trailer at the start. All our other uploaded items, over the past two years, have our "new" trailer.

[afrosmaximus]

People from the fifties are so dumb. How can anyone think that spaghetti grows on trees? That's like saying that pancakes grow on a pancake vine or rice grows in semi-submerged fields in India. Just totally unbelievable.

[aptsarchive]

@afrosmaximus It's not that people in the 1950's were dumb, society was different then and spaghetti was not widely available like it is today. Rationing had only been over for a few years and most people in the UK only knew of spaghetti in tins.

[sausageprincess0070]

i read this in omg facts, couldn't believe it lol

[TheOnlyFairee]

@aptsarchive Haha, did you read the last part of his comment?

[luvinflutegirl]

My Grandma HATES april fool's day because of this - she was so so convinced and got really pissed off when she found out! I was lmao when she told me :) haha

[TaterTots620]

Oh this is definitely not fake! I have a spaghetti plant in my room though right now it is still angel hair. And next to that is a lamp with a genie in it that poops marinate sauce and meat balls.

[MrAlexandreShark]

Thank you OMGFacts!

[DalekQueen]

we watched this in class.......and we actually believed it until the teacher told us bahaha xD

[animegalc4]

trolololololol

[smemaledy]

In 1957 Britons were convinced that spaghetti was grown on trees and in 2011 Americans were convinced that pizza is a vegetable.

[RoscoesRiffs]

@afrosmaximus They weren't any dumber in the 1950s than we are. We fell for the idea Saddam Hussein had enough to do with 9/11 so we sent our armies to invade Iraq and find his WMDs, and we buy anything advertised on TV. We think lots of wild-ass things on the Internet are true, We actually think we're smarter than they were in the 1950s. That's why we're just as dumb as they were.

[alienlabs]

@trippnface

Dont you have something more important to comment?