It was fifty years ago that BBC first broadcast the famous "Spaghetti Harvest" episode on their television news show Panorama. In Ticino in southern Swistzerland near Italy, the British Broadcasting Company show Panorama covered the bumper Swiss spaghetti crop of 1957.

While scenes of harvesters working in the spaghetti orchards played on the screen, the show's anchor, Richard Dimbleby, discussed how a mild winter and less infestations of the "spaghetti weevil" allowed farmers to harvest a huge crop from the Spaghetti Bushes.

Dimbleby reported, "The spaghetti harvest here in Switzerland is not, of course, carried out on anything like the tremendous scale of the Italian industry, many of you, I'm sure, will have seen pictures of the vast spaghetti plantations in the Po Valley. For the Swiss, however, it tends to be more of a family affair."
He continued, "Another reason why this may be a bumper year lies in the virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil, the tiny creature whose depradations have caused much concern in the past... The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer. There's always the chance of a late frost which, while not entirely ruining the crop, generally impairs the flavor and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices in world markets."

Dimbleby finally assured the audience that, "For those who love this dish, there's nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti."

Well we all know now that the broadcast was an April Fool's Day hoax. Dimbleby and BBQ prepared ahead of time for the phone calls they knew would soon be rushing in, with answers to various questions.

When asked why, if spaghetti grows on trees, does it always come in uniform lengths? They answered "this is the result of many years of patient endeavor by past breeders who succeeded in producing the perfect spaghetti."

To the question of how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. They replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

The idea for the show was created by Charles de Jaeger, one of the Panorama cameramen. He later said that he remembered one of his grade-school teachers teasing him for being "so stupid he would believe spaghetti grew on trees."

Of course this was fifty years ago when spaghetti wasn't a food eaten that much in the UK and was considered to be exotic. Sir Ian Jacob, the BBC's director admitted that he had look in a reference book to check on where spaghetti came from after watching the show. Nowadays, fifty years later, Spaghetti Bolognase is one of the four main dishes cooked at home in the UK.