Spaghetti tree
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The spaghetti tree is a fictional tree and the subject of a joking documentary ( mockumentary ) by the BBC .
The short film was broadcast on the BBC program Panorama on April 1, 1957 and shows an alleged spaghetti harvest in the canton of Ticino , Switzerland . The then well-known radio and television spokesman Richard Dimbleby comments on the scenes shown and tells, among other things, about the spaghetti industry in Switzerland and Italy , the concerns of farmers about possible late frost in March and the particularly good harvest due to the mild winter and the Disappearance of the spaghetti weevil . The film was shot in St Albans ( England ) and in Switzerland.
It was an April Fool's joke . About eight million viewers saw the program and hundreds of them then called the BBC to ask if spaghetti really grew on trees; others even wanted to know how they could grow these themselves. In the 1950s, spaghetti was nothing common in England and was considered an exotic delicacy that was mainly known in the form of canned food with tomato sauce.
Web links
- Origin of the broadcast and transcription of the text (English)
- Still a good joke - 47 years on (English)
- Let's All Recall When The BBC Convinced People Spaghetti Grew On Trees with video from the broadcast April 1, 2016 (English)
- Is this the best April Fool's ever? Witness - BBC News , YouTube channel of BBC News
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1957: BBC fools the nation (English)