On what date was the spaghetti-tree hoax broadcast?

The spaghetti-tree hoax was broadcast on April Fools’ Day, 1 April 1957.

The BBC presented the report as a short news feature about an unusually successful spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. It claimed that a mild winter and the near-disappearance of a fictional “spaghetti weevil” had produced a bumper crop. The report showed people gathering strands from trees and discussing how growers developed spaghetti of the perfect length.

The date was central to the joke: 1 April is traditionally associated with practical jokes and fabricated news stories in Britain and many other countries. Even so, the report was convincing because it appeared within *Panorama*, a respected current-affairs programme, and was narrated by the prominent broadcaster Richard Dimbleby.

At the time, pasta was not an everyday food for many British households. An estimated eight million people watched the broadcast, and hundreds contacted the BBC afterward. Some asked where they could buy spaghetti-tree seedlings or how to grow their own crop. The report therefore became one of the best-known April Fools’ broadcasts in television history.