The Beloved 1973 Hovis Bread ‘Bike’ Commercial That Features Ridley Scott in an Early Directorial Role

In 1973, a wonderfully heartwarming commercial for the Hovis Bread Company entitled “Bike” featured a young delivery boy (Carl Barlow) who laboriously walked his bike to the top of the cobbled Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, made his delivery and then fearlessly got back his bike and flew down the hill. The narration was told as a memory; the darkness and the accompanying soundtrack help to draw a distinct feeling of days gone by as designed by a young director named Ridley Scott. Scott has since gone on to much bigger audiences with such iconic films as Alien, Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down, Thelma and Louise and Gladiator, but this TV advert remains one of Britain’s most beloved.

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. …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.

via Open Culture