Charles Theophile de Jaeger (27 February 1911 – 19 May 2000) was a cameraman for the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
. He is best known as one of the creators of a famous April Fools' Day joke from 1957: a
three-minute spoof report on the Swiss spaghetti harvest beside Lake Lugano broadcast by the British current affairs programme ''
Panorama
A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...
''.
Early years
De Jaeger was born in Vienna. He worked for the
Free French
Free France () was a resistance government
claiming to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third French Republic, Third Republic during World War II. Led by General , Free France was established as a gover ...
Film Unit during World War II and joined the BBC in July 1943, working as a sub-editor on news for Central Europe. He became a television cameraman in 1948. He was the first BBC newsreel cameraman to film outside the United Kingdom.
April Fools 1957
The idea for the April Fool came from his school days, during which a teacher had once said "Boys, you are so stupid, you'd believe me if I told you that spaghetti grew on trees". He developed the idea with producer David Wheeler and it was approved by the editor of ''Panorama'',
Michael Peacock. A silent film was recorded in
Castagnola in Switzerland in March and a commentary written by Wheeler was added by respected broadcaster
Richard Dimbleby
Frederick Richard Dimbleby (25 May 1913 – 22 December 1965) was an English journalist and broadcaster who became the BBC's first war correspondent and then its leading TV news commentator.
As host of the long-running current affairs pro ...
.
Personal life
De Jaeger left the BBC in 1959 to become a freelancer. He died in London in May 2000.
References
External links
Museum of Hoaxes article on the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest hoax*
Obituary, ''The Independent'', 29 May 2000
1911 births
2000 deaths
Austrian emigrants to the United Kingdom
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