Editing Spaghetti-tree hoax (section)

==Broadcast==
The news report was produced as an [[April Fools' Day]] joke in 1957, and presented a family in the canton of [[Ticino]] in southern Switzerland gathering a bumper spaghetti harvest after a mild winter and "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti [[weevil]]". Footage of a traditional "Harvest Festival" was aired along with a discussion of the breeding necessary to develop a strain to produce the perfect length of spaghetti. Some scenes were filmed at the (now closed) Pasta Foods factory on London Road, [[St Albans]], in [[Hertfordshire]], and at a hotel in [[Castagnola, Switzerland|Castagnola]], [[Switzerland]].

''Panorama'' cameraman [[Charles de Jaeger]] dreamed up the story after remembering how teachers at his school in [[Austria]] teased his classmates for being so stupid that if they were told that spaghetti grew on trees, they would believe it. The editor of ''Panorama'', [[Michael Peacock (television executive)|Michael Peacock]], told the BBC in 2014 how he gave de Jaeger a budget of £100 and sent him off. The report was made more believable through its [[voice-over]] by respected [[Television presenter|broadcaster]] [[Richard Dimbleby]]. Peacock said Dimbleby knew they were using his authority to make the joke work, and that Dimbleby loved the idea and went at it eagerly.<ref>{{cite interview| title= BBC News Interview | author-link= Michael Peacock (television executive)|publisher=BBC TV News |first= Michael |last= Peacock |date= 1 April 2014}}</ref>

At the time, 7 million of the 15.8 million homes (about 44%) in Britain had television receivers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.barb.co.uk/resources/tv-facts/tv-ownership?_s=4 |title=Television Ownership in Private Domestic Households 1956-2009 (Millions) |publisher=Barb.co.uk |accessdate=2016-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209141716/http://www.barb.co.uk/resources/tv-facts/tv-ownership?_s=4 |archive-date=9 February 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Pasta was not an everyday food in 1950s Britain, and it was known mainly from tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce and considered by many to be an exotic delicacy.<ref name= "on this day">{{cite web| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm |work= BBC On This Day |title= 1957: BBC fools the nation |publisher=BBC News |date=1957-04-01 |accessdate=2010-01-25}}</ref> An estimated eight million people watched the programme on 1 April 1957, and hundreds phoned in the following day to question the authenticity of the story or ask for more information about spaghetti cultivation and how they could grow their own spaghetti trees; the BBC told them to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8420133/Greatest-April-fool-stories-from-spaghetti-trees-to-Alabama-changing-Pi.html |title=Greatest April fool stories – from spaghetti trees to Alabama changing Pi |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date= 1 April 2011 |author=Andy Bloxham |accessdate= 18 May 2019}}</ref>