Sunday is April Fools' Day and the only certainty is that everything is uncertain.

Here we list some of the most successful April Fools Day broadcasts from around globe.

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

Probably the most famous television hoax. In 1957, Panorama, the BBC news programme, showed Swiss farmers enjoying a bumper crop of spaghetti following a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the disastrous spaghetti weevil. When presenter Richard Dimbleby mentioned a home grown variety, the BBC received hundreds of calls from viewers wanting to know how they could cultivate a harvest.

Earth’s gravity lessened by planetary alignment

Partick Moore told an astounded British public listening to Radio 2, that anyone who jumped up and down at 9.47am on April 1, 1976, would experience a strange floating sensation. This, he said, was caused by a once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment. Hundreds of weightless jumpers claimed to have had the experience.

Swedish nylon colour television

Pity the poor Swedes. In 1962 there was only one television channel. And it broadcast in black and white. No wonder, then, that hundreds of thousands of people believed the station’s technical expert Kjell Stensson when he told them, on April 1, to pull a nylon stocking over the screen and see their favourite programme in colour.

Smelly Telly

Never mind colour television. In 1965 the BBC claimed a boffin had created Smellovision, which transmitted aromas produced in a television studio. They even aired an interview with the ‘expert’ who chopped some onions and brewed a pot of coffee. Gullible viewers telephoned to say they had smelled the aromas transmitted through their sets.

Nixon for President

In 1992 Americans were told by National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation that disgraced US President Richard Nixon would run for office once again. “I didn’t do anything wrong, and I won’t do it again,” was his slogan as his candidacy speech was aired. Except it was comedian Rich Little. Bill Clinton eventually won. Following his ‘incident’ with Monica Lewinsky he too told the American public that he hadn’t done anything wrong, and he wouldn’t do it again.

Gooooal

Football goals are going to be bigger, said the BBC’s Football Focus, by two feet in height and four feet in length. Harry Redknapp, West Ham United manager at the time, gave his thoughts. Next week, the show broadcast his out-takes. It was an obvious April Fools, although someone should perhaps tell Steve McClaren

Millennium Dome burns

Now this was wishful thinking on behalf of Channel 4 show The Big Breakfast. Footage was shown of flames leaping from New Labour’s Great White Elephant in 1998. The authorities were not happy. Wrists were apparently slapped.

Sheepdog drives a car

That’s Life, the quirky, long-running BBC television magazine series, broadcast a feature on an Old English Sheepdog driving a car. Viewers were fooled. But then, the show did once feature a talking dog whose catchphrase “sausages” entered the British lexicon, so perhaps it wasn’t so unbelievable.

Water on Mars

In 2005 those whacky boffins at NASA posted a story on the official space agency website declaring the water had been found on Mars and that there were pictures to prove it. The photo was a glass of water on a Mars bar. A year later, they did find evidence of water flowing on Mars and posted pictures to prove it. Nobody mention boys crying wolf.

Bill Gates assassinated

He hasn’t been. It was a joke on a number of Chinese and South Korean Websites posted in 2003. CNN had reported it, they claimed. The stockmarkets found it less than amusing as 1.5% was wiped off shares.

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