FROM: http://www.quickrelease.tv
HI-RES VODCAST: http://tinyurl.com/yrf278

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.’

Like many classic adverts of the 1970s, the Hovis ‘Bike’ advert was produced by iconic advertising agency Collett Dickenson Pearce & Partners.