Hovis Bike advert 1973 (Britains favourite TV ad)

In 1973, Hovis produced what became one of the all-time classic TV adverts, a delivery boy freewheeling down a cobbled northern hill. In fact, the ad was shot on Gold Hill of Shaftesbury, Dorset. The director was (Sir) Ridley Scott. He later went on to direct Bladerunner, Alien, Thelma & Louise, and Gladiator. The original boy on the bike, Carl Barlow, then 13, is now a 48-year-old fireman. He said: “It was pure fate that I got the part as the Hovis boy. I was down to the last three, and it turned out that one of the two boys couldn’t ride a bike, and the other wouldn’t cut his hair into the pudding bowl style - it was the Seventies after all. As the only boy who could ride a bike and would cut his hair, I got the part.“ The ad is also famous for its soundtrack. In Britain at least, Dvorak’s ’New World’ symphony - rearranged for brass - says ’Hovis’ and ’good, plain Northern values.’