MEDIA MONDAY: APRIL FOOL'S DAY SPECIAL.

Actually celebrated since Roman times there is nothing new about the April Fool's Day hoax as this prank 1860 invitation sent to the people of London proves ....

'Tower of London: Admit Bearer and Friend to view annual ceremony of Washing the White Lions on Sunday, April 1, 1860. Admittance only at the White Gate'

Needless to say by noon a large crowd had gathered outside The Tower only to discover that no lions, let alone white lions, had been kept in The Tower for centuries.

Perhaps the first major televised prank I can remember is this one from the 1980's .....

The BBC announced that Big Ben, in order to keep up with the times, was going to give a digital readout.

Still 'king' of all April Fool's hoaxes for me is this 1957's Panaroma programme about the 'Spaghetti Harvest'......

But what of 2014's selection?

Here are my favourite three .....

How weird is this? In a recent online conversation with Kelly about E-READERS VS THE REAL THING I commented 'Mind you if ever they were to bring out a kindle that smelt of book I might be forced to change my mind.'

Well, According to Amazon ......

The 'Kindle Paperscent' brings the smell of real books to your Kindle by means of a faux leather cover that omits the scent of real books using an electronic scent diffuser.

Given that in the past I've brought you actual articles about a range of 'meaty' ice creams for dogs, a pub that serves meals for dogs washed down by 'dog friendly' beer and, more recently, a tv channel for dogs I don't suppose it takes a huge stretch of the imagination to believe .......

Surrey's Thorpe Park theme park have opened a rollercoaster .... for dogs.

And my favourite though I'm not sure that this isn't an April Fool prank involving an April Fool prank .....

A Primary School in London has sent a letter to parents about a new initiative, the 'Mandatory deportation of pupils to Ghana' for five months which reads .....

Dear Parents,

As you know, we are very proud of our relationship with the ------- ------- school in Ghana. We are today announcing that we are taking our work with them to a new level.

Thanks to funding we’ve received from the Foreign Office Overseas Liaison department, 30 of our pupils will be going to Ghana to spend 5 months there as part of an exchange scheme. These pupils will be selected (by the Governors) from Years 1-6, i.e. 5 pupils from each year.

As you will be aware from the School policies to which you have all signed up (available on the website, read the small print), the Governors’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

I know you will agree with me that this is a valuable opportunity for these pupils to see a very different way of life. We look forward to hearing about their exploits when they (or, we hope, at least most of them) return. As an added bonus for those families whose children are chosen, because this is an exchange scheme they will be hosting the Ghanaian child who’s coming to ------ as part of the exchange.

We will circulate the list of children later today, probably after 1pm. Unfortunately, we cannot send parents too, although we might make an exception in some cases.

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