In 1992 BBC 1 put out a live documentary programme called Ghostwatch, in which they visited a supposedly haunted house. There were many BBC documentaries at the time, and this was no different, so we all watched with half interest.

It's also important to note that there was little alternative programming at the time: just BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV and Channel 4. I can't remember if Channel Five had launched yet, but you get the idea. A significant slice of the UK population was watching.

Also, it's worth mentioning that back then I think significantly more people entertained the idea, if even slightly, that supernatural things loke ghosts could exist. There was many more spoon benders, clairvoyants, spiritualists in mainstream media than today.

Anyhow, the programme starts normal enough but then supernatural things start happening and all hell breaks loose just as the programme ends and the credits start rolling. We're all in shock. It's all we talk about at school the next day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch

I love how they didn't come up with a joke and just run with it lazily. They added lots of additional details to make it funnier and more realistic.

Related:

Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34572174 - Jan 2023 (95 comments)

Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30962453 - April 2022 (1 comment)

Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25383763 - Dec 2020 (2 comments)

I recently showed this to one of my kids when they asked how spaghetti is made. The hoax continues

Reminds me of a) the breathtaking vox pop done by the BBC [0] in 1978 as metric adoption nipped at their imperial heels, and some spectacularly bewildered misunderstandings manifested -- the first citizen here inventing the word kilomileometres and (I wish she were joking) asserting that your car's mileage is reduced because you'll be using litres,

and b) the comedy radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, running since the 1970's but includes a game called Mornington Crescent [1] (since season 6) wherein the panel take it in turns to 'get to Mornington Crescent' using the London Underground map as a playing board. Many rules and variations are cited and vaguely explained, but it's all just made up -- nonetheless there has been an abundance of people who've listened to this madness, and then written to the BBC to demand a rulebook.

The point? Not sure. Does this reflect positively upon the some style of comedy favoured by the Brits, or negatively about their credulity? As a nominal Brit, I can't comment with any impartiality.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykthWUdkhu0

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)

I miss British humor. This doesn't seem like something that would ever happen today.

My grandfather was still talking of this in the 90s. A very good joke!

reminds me of the "Lenin was a mushroom" hoax

I think the "hoax" is itself partly a hoax. It's one of those exaggerated tales, like the Orson Welles War of the Worlds radio play. Supposedly there were thousands of credulous people writing in to inquire more about the spaghetti trees; probably a great many were fully in on the joke and were just dryly "yes-anding", as we say nowadays. Perhaps on behalf of their children, rather like how one would "write a letter" to Father Christmas.

50s Britain wasn't that ignorant of the outside world (especially compared to other 50s countries). There were hundreds of thousands of servicemen who had been in Italy in the war and for the occupation, and the Empire was mostly still around. People knew what spaghetti was.