The BBC aired the spaghetti-tree hoax in 1957.
The broadcast took place on April Fools’ Day, April 1, 1957, as a three-minute report on Panorama. It showed a fictional family in southern Switzerland collecting spaghetti from trees and attributed the unusually large harvest to a mild winter and the disappearance of the imaginary spaghetti weevil.
The report was produced as a carefully staged news segment rather than as a simple verbal gag. Some scenes were filmed at a pasta factory in St Albans, England, while others were made in Switzerland. Respected broadcaster Richard Dimbleby supplied the narration, adding an air of authority.
The joke became famous partly because pasta was not yet an everyday food for many British viewers. Around eight million people watched, and hundreds called the BBC seeking information about cultivating spaghetti. The year is 1957, not 1958, 1960, or 1955.