Hovis 'Bike' advert 1973 (Britain's favourite TV ad)
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- FROM: www.quickreleas...
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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.
Granddad always said "It was a Bloody long way to get a loaf of Bread" 😆
The two Ronnie's
@@mqb5151 Yay, someone gets it.
Classic
@@mqb5151 I don't remember that - is it why I always think of this advert with a Yorkshire accent?
* "Granddad always used to say it were a bloody long way to go for a loaf of bread."
This advert … still as good today as it’s always been!
Good things never date.
@@ab-le2ps I tried dating once, Never again, they put the flippin dates half way up the tree
Aaah memories of a great childhood. I went to school with the Hovis boy, his name is Carl and I believe he became a fireman 😍
Carl Barlow. I was just reading today on the BBC website that he's re-enacted his trip up and down that hill 50 years later! 😊
@@miked1869 yes I saw that 🙂
@@cheekyllamacreations I hope you were waiting for him at the top of the hill;)
This advert is magical. It transports me back to my childhood and invokes in me a warm feeling of nostalgia and comfort.
wow - yeah, exactly that. Just hearing that gives me chills.
And a Ford Cortina in the drive
Yeah me too.. loved it then and now..
makes me fking cry. Not the boy or the baker, but the scenery, like no other country in the world. not sure if it makes me proud to be from England but it fills me with emotion
@@jbri1 I know what you mean.
It makes me sad too, because that time is lost now forever.
But the true spirit of rural England did exist once upon a time, and it is not my imagination either.
I remember it still being there as late as the 1970:s, growing up in the little village of Offenham, in the vale of Evesham.
I would give anything to go back in time - just to show my teenage son what it was like.
Ridley Scott... what an artist.
His best work.
@@tommyharris5817I read that in today's paper that the 50th anniversary is commemorated with an apprentice, Alex Freeman, joining the original Boy on a Bike, Tom. Aged just three and Play School age at the time, I don't remember it first time round, but saw it many times some years later.
Me Grandad always used to say it were a bloody long way to go for a loaf of bread...
Such innocent humour the Two Ronnies brought to our screens.
i recently reconnected that two ronnies sketch absolutely hilarious ha!!
🤣🤣🤣
My Grandad always used to say " 4 years is a long time to reply to a comment " 😂🤣😂
Hahahah same.
Always thought this was up North as a kid but the bakers voice is pure Dorset....where it was set.Beautiful Shaftesbury North Dorset..
Damn it ! I thought it was upt north as well!
'It were a bloody long way for a loaf of bread...' Ronnie Barker, in a Yorkshire accent.. And then, of course, there's the brass band...
Same here!
I think the brass makes it seem northern
So did I as a kid but glad it's from the good ole saff....sorry, me ampshire hog coming out lol xx
So nostalgic, so beautiful, so peaceful.... and that melody... unforgettable indeed. Hammer house of horror films, Dickie Davies introducing Mick Mcmanus wrestling at 4.00pm every Saturday on world of sport, and this advert... all from 1973 when I was a young lad of 9... now 53 and would love to step back in time for just one day....Priceless!
absolutely remembered this and the time
Just one day? Then have to come back to this shit? Sod that mate I'd rather stay there !!
Aged just three and Play School age, I saw this advert some years later. Now in my early fifties, I read in today's newspaper that the 50th anniversary is commemorated with an apprentice, Alex Freeman, staging the rerun alongside the original Boy on a Bike. Shame that I wasn't old enough to remember first time round!
The boy on the bike, was 13 at the time of this ad. Yesterday celebrated his 60 something birthday in The newspaper. Must Google his name again, also loved this ad and the beautiful music 🎶 back in 1973 ❤
Mick McManus... Good God; yes. I remember him. And America had Gorgeous George, though I think he was perhaps a bit earlier, when I was still gurgling in a cot...
Oliver's grip strengthened, his fingers leaving indents in the metal frame of the bicycle. He could feel the raw power of the Hovis wheat germ bread surging through his veins making him stronger, smarter, faster.
Lol
😂😂😂
I went here today. It truly is magical and the views from the top are breathtaking
Is it still cobble stones?
Yep, the top two thirds or so of the hill is still cobbled 👍
There's a lovely cafe/restaurant at the top called 'The Salt Cellar'; t'is lovely sitting at the outside tables on a nice sunny day; lovely views of the hill & the countryside beyond
@@westcountryexplorer thanks for the information!
Did it hurt your knees? It nearly killed mine when I tried to climb it!
Since Ridley Scott directed it I was expecting it to end with a chestburster coming out of the loaf
Directed by Alien..."in space no-one can hear you scream"...director, the great Ridley Scott!
This was the making of Ridley Scott! Iconic British Ad.
Ridley Scott said recently the cyclist was a replicant.
+Forever_UT_ fan Blinkin skin jobs're takin over
bobbydj01
Embarrasing
+Forever_UT_ fan "Embarrassing" - apologies for playing the spelling card, but it's Saturday night and I always feel a bit frisky when there's nothing on telly.
bobbydj01
I was quoting Harrison Ford's line.
+Forever_UT_ fan Right, right - sorry. Okay give me a minute here. *closes eyes, channels Bryant*
No sir - not embarrassing...cos no one's ever going to find out they're down here. Cos you're going to spot them and you're going to air them out.
I know I'm young (29 currently), but I remember seeing this on a programme that featured iconic British adverts! It is beautiful, and my nanna joked with me, saying, "that's how it felt going and getting the bread!" I certainly knew that feeling, walking home from primary school up a steep hill in Accrington! Don't get me started on the milk advert that mentions my hometown's football club 😂 "Accrington Stanley, who are they?" "Exactly!"
We went to this village in Dorset and it is stunning and without the commercial this gem may not have gotten the visitors they get now. When feeling homesick I look at the ad and it brings back fond memories
Shaftesbury really is a hidden gem of a town. Lovely people round here too 😉
And for some reason I thought it was somewhere in Yorkshire
@@jaffatanski same here, funnily enough.
“Back in my day you could go to the cinema, get a bag of chips afterwards, hop on the bus home and still have change from a thrupenny bit”.
Back in my day you could still go the the cinema and be allowed outside to travel on busses and eat inside without face coverings
Back in my day you could take a shit without having tell everyone on fucking Facebook about it
Back in my day you could go into a shop with £1 & come out with a bar of chocolate, 3 packs of crisps, a riberna, a twirl & a freddo. Now there's bloody CCTV everywhere
@@darrenjames9891 Haha you’re funny, Darren! Thanks for the laugh! 😂
Back in the day when racism was still prevalent and the Cold War was going strong
Adverts are awful things, selling me products I don't want. This is art.
C C I want my free speach dam TV ads
Free speech in England was withdrawn many years ago......!!!
Last time I watched this I was 15 years old. Had no idea it was directed by Ridley Scott!
I was at this location approximate two years after this advert was filmed Shaftesbury Dorset. It was actually filmed by the great Ridley-Scott. He had done the initial shoot everything was packed up but for some reason he stopped he saw there was a definite light on Gold Hill. everything was taken out of production and then it was 0:40 and this is what was the final result I kid you not
This advert really hits home
so simple yet you have that beautiful advert directed by a brilliant director still setting standards over 40 years later. It makes you proud to be English.
Another numpty that fell for the advertisement. The advert was designed to make you feel all nostalgic. So you'd go out and buy the bread.
I love Hovis sliced bread and the theme tune is breathtaking and full of happy memories. Tastes great with my all time favourite Heinz Tomato Soup. The bike in the clip is just beautiful and the theme tune is truly beautiful.
You are so right. It transports you back to a better time and place. We didn't think so then . How things have changed.!!!
Written by Antonin Dvorak - the Largo from his New World Symphony
Lived 2 mins from here when living in Shaftsbury in 2013 till 2015, been up and down Gold hill a few times 🙏
SHAFTESBURY IN THE HEART OF DORSET MY HOME TOWN, IN WINTER WE WOULD SLEDGE DOWN IT , MORE SCAREY THAN A BIKE RIDE I CAN TELL YOU
Snow in Dorset... when was your childhood? The last iron age? Lol
@@bt-os5oq ha ha ha! It doesn't snow any where anymore, especially in London. We just get a damp drizzle.
SLEDGE! You were lucky. We used to use tin tray and had to clean it afterwards with toothbrush. An old tooth brush.
Not as scary as you
@@bt-os5oqShaftesbury is 700ft above sea level and well inland. It can catch a fair bit of snow, very different from down on the coast. Swanage gets very little.
More character development in 1 minute than most movies
Wonderful advert brings back memories,They certainly dont make them like this anymore.!
travelled 4 hours from birmingham yesterday to see where this was filmed. it really is breathtaking . unfotunately forgot my camera
Lol love that!
Well, you could've just grabbed your camera and went back.
Yeah...forgot your phone too....
Not one comment regarding the Baker!! It's Fooking Bill Maynard.Absolute Frigging LEGEND.
So it is: well spotted.
Magic our Maurice
Pint of cooking please
Good spot.
Really?... I never knew that.. Loved him as Selwyn
Loved this Hovis advert! ❤️
Beautiful setting, Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, with such beautiful music...New World Symphony, by Dvorak .... 🎶😌😊❤️💕
Why can't we go back to those days? Only the good parts mind. I was about 10 then so it was always summer hols or Christmas. The worst thing in my life was the long dull Sundays.
Great ad.
Yep, I'd go back for sure.
Everything it means to be British, neatly summed up in one advert. A great part of our social history.
Now look at us. And look at modern adverts; a reflection of our societal free fall.
@@thegreatstrange We have a long and rich history that is being destroyed thanks to people like you.
We fight proxy wars in the Middle East at the behest and benefit of a tiny group of ultra rich bankers and arms manufacturers. It makes the people there hate us, and rightfully so, Although they know who's to blame. And due to our innate virtue of caring and tolerance we bring them here. What we should be doing, instead of ruining their nations, is to tell Israel and the hundreds of war hawk lobby groups to do one, help them and their nations prosper so they don't need to flee them.
I'm far right, which somehow is used as an insult, and so are all my Muslim friends (do you loons actually think they are liberals like you???). I talk to people in Palestine a lot and my heart goes out to them, the news barely covers the atrocities done to them, it's sick.
We on the far right believe in nations and racial identity. No other race acts like this and many (anecdotal) find the whole, "we are one race, the human race" offensive for they don't want to be stripped of their identity. All the black friends I grew up with in London think this. They hated liberals and only voted for them due to government hand outs.
In my experience, most of the people that spout the nonsense you just did are upper middle class liberals that live in posh, white neighborhoods, and look down their noses at us working class plebs who actually experience diversity and the problems that come with it. I've never had a black friend that thinks like you, how you want them to, they celebrate their racial identity, as they should.
I've traveled the world, spent a lot of time in Africa and Sri Lanka, and visited Palestine where I witnessed the evil oppression of their occupiers So I've experienced true diversity, learning other cultures, living them, and I can tell you, as said before, they are all what you would call "far right", very conservative. If you spoke to them, not knowing their race you'd probably call them Nazi's.
TL;DR, diversity is celebrating the differences between races and their cultures, going there and living them. It is NOT cramming them all into one place and expecting them to discard their identities and all be the same, and getting confused when they clash. Your "diversity" is stripping people of their identities and causing division and hatred - obviously I don't think you want this inevitable outcome, I just think you are an ignorant idealist; multiculturalism does not work and never will.
You also take offence to our own flag. When I lived in London we weren't even allowed to fly it as it offended the neighbors. You think it's wrong for whites to celebrate their heritage and culture yet think it's OK that every other race does this, thus you are massive hypocrites.
You should try living in areas like where I grew up for a while, then go travel the world. You'd realize your ignorance then, and experience the beauty of other cultures in their natural environments; true diversity.
Liberals want everyone to be the same and I say that is boring. Like it or not, we are different, in some cases very different. There is no such thing as equality and no amount of social engineering and government forced integration programs will change that, and to me, that is a good thing and something to celebrate, however it does mean that living together is an uphill struggle that only causes strife and division. I am sick of people saying that leftists are the real racists but it's kinda true; we recognize racial identity, you want to take it away. And like I said, it's only white people that have this strange belief.
Yeah, the TL;DR ended up being pretty long so; TL;DR I find you liberal maggots unbearable and despise what you've done to our once great nations.
- a Patriot
Gloomy and depressing.
@thegreatstrange and Enoch. You are both right to a large degree. Perhaps the labels 'left' and 'right' are just another fiction to keep us all divided. We allow the compliant media to silence all those that may be listened to. Like them, or not, Jeremy Corbyn is no anti-Semite and Sir Roger Scruton was no anti-Islamist, homophobe. But those that don't read/think and those with a motive will use the shallow, popular media to do their work for them. Those 'British' folk, the proclaim they would have fought against the Nazi regime had they been German, and against the Stasi in the Eastern Bloc countries. Are now the ones patriotically phoning the police to say a neighbour has gone out twice or been for a jog for more than his alloted hour. Small villages, near me, have put up really offensive signs telling people in no uncertain terms to stay away. Villages that rely on tourism to keep their shops alive. They expect people to forget. I hope they won't.
@@RW7266 I agree completely. And yes, the civil unrest that the media is causing is big problems. Strangely enough we just had an incident on my street where a neighbor called the police and posted us on Fb cos our kids were playing together.
The location of this advert is Gold Hill, Shaftesbury. Near to where I live. Hovis factory used to be where the boy parked his pushbike. Hasn't changed much either....
Magnificent advert about a magnificent bread. What I wouldnt give to be in any upcoming Hovis Adverts, I'd even be willing to batter some children who were carrying Kingsmill or some other brand.
haha i remember this add as good as the world has become today i do miss the good old days wish i could be there now
Hovis inspired Gilbert O'Sullivan to write his song My Father (released on his 4th LP A Stranger In My Own Backyard); GREAT!!
These days the kid would get to the top of the hill only to be told to fuck off home as he has been replaced by an agency worker at short notice.
And the agency worker would be from the Indian sub-continent and also be able to fix your computer.
This advert was still being shown for at least 10 year after it was made!
*much* longer than that. I was only born 10 years after it was made and I remember it, so it must have been on well into the 90s!
@@dcarbs2979
I think there was a remake of the ad but they still showed the original.
Remember watching that advert when I was a child with mum and dad... Great memories.... 👍👍
Fun Fact: the assistant director of this ad was David Mitton (Director of Thomas the Tank Engine & Co-Creator of TUGS)
Carl Barlow. One of my Subs in the LFB. Now retired.
For some reason in my memory they used a Yorkshire voicever and portrayed it as being in that county - shows you how the memory can play tricks! I immediately recognised the voice as belonging to the actor who played Captain Baines in the Onedin Line by the way.
yep Gold Hill.. been there ,its steeper than it looks too!
Been up that hill many times! literally just round the corner from that famous view of the hill its tarmac all the way to the bottom of the hill, really shatters the illusion!!!
Oh, that’s sad to hear ....😔😌
Memories bring back memories
Memories of my childhood here!
i was there a few weeks ago and it hasn't changed one bit !!! :)
What a classic advert!
Three year old Angela Cooper was too young to remember this first time round, but saw it some years later. Now in my early fifties, the 50th anniversary has been commemorated (which I read in today's newspaper!)
I used to love Hovis, best brown bread ever, this advert was fantastic and somehow matched the bread, anticipation! It is a shame the bread like the adverts nowadays are shite.
You can still buy Hovis Original Wheatgerm bread. My local Sainsbury’s stocks it. It’s as good for you today as it’s always been.
@@jonz2984 Thanks Jon z. I too buy the hovis from our local sainsbury's and also morrison's as you say. I don't mean to contradict you but sadly it is not anywere as good as it used to be in the 1950's, 60's and 70's, the tast though similar is not the same, it's ok but it is not the same.
@@pingpong5000 you're right, the old unsliced Hovis was great, today it's all fluffed up with air.
@@gorway7 Exactly, the bread is full of air pockets which is nothing. Rip off.
They must have used this for quite a while. I recall it being in use in the early 80s, at least.
Funny to think the same producer made Alien 5 years later!
Didn’t know that wow
Same director, you mean. Ridley Scott.
The power of advertising - When a hymn to Native America by a Czech composer can become the definitive sound of northwest Britain.
+John Wiles Dorset in the West Country actually.
+Stuart Gibbons It was filmed in Dorset, but t' advert is set in t' north and t' narrator has a northern accent.
Lone Wolf
That accent is West Country XD. Listen to the 'r's!
+Stuart Gibbons Yeah, now you mention it, there's a definite West Country influence there. But t' is very northern. Probably an impersonation that mixed up the two.
Northwest England is a shit hole lol. I've lived up there for 2 months then got home sick and moved back to my town/county
This takes me back to my childhood
Thanks, it was always bugging me if it was Dvorak's new world symphony or Beethovens pastoral in this advert. I'm glad someone uploaded it.
And Grandad said thank goodness for cars because walking that hill was bloody exhaustin.
Thank goodness Antonin Dvorak didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps and become a butcher. What a wonderful legacy Dvorak left to mankind
You 'ad it easy, lad! In my day, I had to carry me bike and meself; to save the rubber on me tires an't shoes!
you were the lucky one ! we ad no bike to get us up hill, and were thrashed on way home for not being faster. champion !
you were lucky, we had ta get to the top before we left the bottom, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah
😂😂😂😂
@@katerh3198 Back in my day, nostalgia was much better.
Ain't seen this for years, R.I.P Selwyn..
Remember the days when adverts took time with their product? Good days
My favourite advert too
That hiss noise at the background ... Ahhh the nostalgia! 😊
Those were the days - clever adverts
Thank you for the memory we used to torment my husband with this Tune saying it was him up the hill and going home to see he mother xx xx
Best advert in history.
So this is an advert that's based in Yorkshire that was filmed in Dorset for a bread produced in Buckinghamshire that was founded in Cheshire....gotcha
And the music was written by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak
from the maker of, alien and blade runner comes the action, the suspense the CGI MASTERPIECE that is BOY ON BIKE!
This week's New Yorker article on Sir Scott brought me here.
I'm gonna go and visit this place very soon I've always wanted to go and see this place!!!
Priceless
Reminds me of the Two Ronnies sketch 😂
Can't believe this was almost FIFTY YEARS AGO
The good old days ☺🙌
Never realised before but there's a gaping plothole in this ad. The narrator says 'last stop on round was old ma peggity' but the basket is full!!! Still a thing of beauty though.
Atomic Shrimp took me down bready memory lane this morning.
im learning this on piano right now! I played it to my dad and he recognised it :)
Absolutly lovely.
Beautiful memories
Gold hill - proud to be British 🇬🇧
I think that chauvinism's getting the better of you.
Not at all !! Proud to be English 🏴
Unless I'm mistaken, the baker was none other than the late, great Bill Maynard. Selwyn Froggat himself.
A brilliant advert
I live in Canada now and I miss Hovis. We used to buy it at M&S before they left Canada.
Who knew that the man who directed this very iconic advert would go on to scare the living shit out of me in, Aliens?
I went to that exact place a week ago and there was a hotel close so I recommend you go
That boy is probably the grandad now 😳
If freewheeling down those cobbles didn't make him infertile.
He's coming back to Shaftesbury tonight to open the Christmas fair. welcome home Hovis boy
The background music comes from Dvorak - Largo New World Symphony Full Symphony No. 9
Wow, I was born in 73, lol I remember those adverts!
A good year... me too. September
Is adverts like this stay in your head forever I had no idea was directed by Ridley Scott
Watching this while in the place it was filmed
This is so nostalgic this Hovis ad
hovis hill behind shaftesbury antiques in dorset drove up it and walked down it very steep
I love good old days
we had this song at my dads funeral I think it is called going home.
+nicky scott ,yes,you probably know this but it's fromThe New World Symphony,the second movement "Largo".Dvorak.
+nicky scott Actually it's Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 - The second movement.
I've heard a song called going home sung to this tune . It's featured in a very old black and white film called the snake pit which is about an old fashioned mental asylum !
It is, Nicky. Irish singer Daniel O' Donnell sings it.
got to love Shaftesbury in Dorset
Ah yes, remember this advert..havn't visited the location yet... Interestingly did you notice that the very final voice over at the end was 'Ian Holm' who would star in Ridley's film 'Alien' five years later??
I remember seeing this as a kid, and it's weird but I thought he had a Yorkshire accent, not a Westcountry one. But that could be due to the influence of The Two Ronnies spoof of this they did a few years later.
some bikes in the 50's and 60's were still fitted with rod brakes depending on the model especially raleigh or raleigh badged bikes like triumph rudge etc
Went there a couple of weeks ago.
I love this advert. It reminded of a Britain long forgotten now. Contrast with today’s Britain, where stupid people are confident, while the intelligent are doubtful!
Despite its claimed northern credentials this advertisment was filmed at Gold Hill, a steep cobbled street in the town of Shaftesbury in the English county of Dorset.
"The street is the main setting for the 1973 "Boy on Bike" television advertisement for Hovis bread, which has been voted Britain's favourite advertisement of all time. It was directed by Ridley Scott, and includes the main theme from the slow movement of Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9. For this reason, the hill is still sometimes referred to as "Hovis Hill". The Two Ronnies spoofed the Hovis advert in a sketch filmed in 1978, also filmed at Gold Hill."
[Wikipedia]
There are no "claimed northern credentials." The narrator's accent is quite clearly West Country. No English person would mistake it for a northern accent.