Switzerland was the country said to have enjoyed an unusually mild winter in the spaghetti-tree hoax.
The BBC's Panorama broadcast on April Fools' Day, April 1, 1957, presented a fictional report about a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from trees. The narration claimed that a mild winter and the near-disappearance of the imaginary spaghetti weevil had produced an especially large crop.
The report was made more convincing by respected broadcaster Richard Dimbleby's serious delivery and footage filmed partly in Switzerland and partly at a pasta factory in England. At the time, spaghetti was still unfamiliar to many British viewers, making the premise plausible enough to fool some of the audience.
An estimated eight million people watched, and viewers contacted the BBC asking how to grow their own spaghetti. The broadcaster jokingly advised them to place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best. Austria influenced the hoax's inspiration, but Switzerland was the fictional harvest location.