What links Salvador Dali, Bugs Bunny and Jeremy Beadle? They were all tricksters - characters who revelled in subverting other people's perceptions of reality. This unusual broadcast, which features pre-recorded material with live links from an April Fool's Day festival in New York, is the work of Toby Amies, himself a winner of the Dali Award at the 1999 International Surrealist Film Festival. He asks why it is so pleasurable to watch some hapless member of the public caught out on camera by an elaborate and, in most cases, totally illogical and unbelievable prank. But he also visits the dark side of media mischief with the woman who phoned her husband while live on US radio to "reveal" that he was not the father of their son (ha, ha, what a jape) - only for the angered man to declare that he'd been sleeping with her sister for the last year. When pranks go bad...

The art of the perfect prank

As April Fools jokers hatch their plans, what's the secret to a perfect prank, asks broadcaster Toby Amies. And how far do the very best tricksters go in preparing their practical jokes?