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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".
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At the time, 7 million of the 15.8 million homes (about 44%) in
Britain had television receivers. 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. An estimated eight million people watched
95:". 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,
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from a "spaghetti tree". At the time of the report's broadcast, spaghetti was relatively unknown in the United
Kingdom, and a number of viewers contacted the BBC afterwards for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees. Decades later,
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teased his classmates for being so stupid that if they were told that spaghetti grew on trees, they would believe it. The editor of
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in southern
Switzerland gathering a bumper spaghetti harvest after a mild winter and "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti
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A recreation of a scene from the report, showing a woman harvesting cooked spaghetti from the branches of a tree
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called this broadcast "the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled".
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288:"Greatest April fool stories – from spaghetti trees to Alabama changing Pi"
235:"Television Ownership in Private Domestic Households 1956-2009 (Millions)"
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was created from a revision of this article dated 25 June 2005
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dreamed up the story after remembering how teachers at his school in
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223:(1 April 2014). "BBC News Interview" (Interview). BBC TV News.
199:"A nod and a link: April Fools' Day pranks abound in the news"
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The
Spaghetti "Harvest" – San Giorgio Spaghetti ad (1978)
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joke in 1957, and presented a family in the canton of
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406:, On This Day: 1 April 1957. April 1957
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563:Television episodes set in Switzerland
438:"Is this the best April Fool's ever?"
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481:. Transdiffusion.org. Archived from
83:The news report was produced as an
479:"Spaghetti Fool | Aspidistra"
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477:Elen, Richard G. (1 April 2007).
458:"Still a good joke – 47 years on"
416:Video link on that page is dead.
389:BBC: Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino
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568:Panorama (British TV programme)
433:With transcript and background.
168:Pacific Northwest tree octopus
163:List of April Fools' Day jokes
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421:"The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest"
286:Andy Bloxham (1 April 2011).
197:Ahmed, Saeed (1 April 2009).
543:Hoaxes in the United Kingdom
400:"1957: BBC fools the nation"
261:"1957: BBC fools the nation"
237:. Barb.co.uk. Archived from
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538:1957 in British television
528:1957 in the United Kingdom
158:Agriculture in Switzerland
56:current-affairs programme
267:. BBC News. 1 April 1957
508:April Fools' Day jokes
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318:Listen to this article
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42:spaghetti-tree hoax
18:Spaghetti tree hoax
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365:Audio help
356:2005-06-25
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184:References
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558:Spaghetti
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410:1 April
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