I think most of us can agree about a couple of things upfront.
Nearly all attempts at pulling off an April Fool's joke - particularly by a media company - are doomed to failure. And if you're grading media companies on a curve that judges their overall level of whimsey, the BBC rates just above C-SPAN on the laughs-a-minute scale.
Despite that, the BBC managed to pull off what might perhaps be the lone April Fool's joke that worked on a TV show.
It might be impossible to conceive in 2024, but in 1957 pasta was a bit of a delicacy in the U.K. It wasn't yet widely available in boxes and while most people had seen it in a movie or perhaps at their local restaurant, the method by which the pasta was created wasn't well known.
So on April Fools' Day 1957 the BBC current affairs program Panorama ran a piece on the impact an unseasonably warm winter had on a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the fictitious spaghetti tree. (see the video above). The story showed farmers apparently picking spaghetti from trees and laying the strands out to dry. Famed BBC reporter Richard Dimbleby was in on the joke and he played his role completely straight.
A shocking number of viewers apparently believed the story. Including the then-BBC Director General, Sir Ian Jacob. Hundreds of people ended up calling the BBC asking how they could get a spaghetti tree. Caught up in the uncharacteristic opportunity to continue being funny, the network apparently told some people they could grow their own spaghetti tree by placing some spaghetti in a can of tomato sauce and then wait for the tree to grow.