 | |
| Client | Hovis |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Running time | 0:47 [2] |
| Release date(s) | 1973 |
| Directed by | Ridley Scott |
| Starring |
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| Production company | Ridley Scott Associates |
| Country | United Kingdom |
The Bike Ride, Bike Round or Boy on the Bike is a 1973 advert for the bread maker Hovis. It was directed by Ridley Scott.
Boy on the Bike was one of five adverts that Ridley Scott directed for Hovis in the early 1970s. [3] [1]
The advert shows a boy (played by Carl Barlow [4] ) pushing a bicycle laden with bread up a picturesque English cobbled street. A voice-over, presumably of the boy at a later age, nostalgically describes the trip, while a recording of the largo from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" is played by the Ashington Colliery Band. [2] [5]
Despite the common belief that it was set in the North of England, the advert was filmed on Gold Hill, Shaftesbury in Dorset and the voice-over is also narrated in a West Country accent. [1] The misidentification of location could possibly be because of the strong association of brass bands with "northernness". [6]
It has repeatedly been named one of Britain's most loved adverts. [2] In 2006 it was voted the nation's favourite advertisement of all time. [1] It was chosen as the best advert of the 1970s in a 2018 YouGov poll. [7] In 2019 it was named the most iconic and heartwarming advert of the past 60 years to that point. [8]
The advert's popularity has been attributed to its nostalgia for "wholesome images of village life," as well Scott's visual direction. [9] [10] Gold Hill, where the advert was filmed, has since become a popular location for films and merchandise and a memorial to Hovis now stands at the top of the hill. [11]
Hovis and the BFI restored the advert for use in 2019 in, what was seen as, an attempt to unite a divided nation. It was criticised, by Sussex University Marketing Professor Michael Beverland, for reminding those who voted to remain in the Brexit referendum of how little they had in common with those who voted to leave. [12] [13]
Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film, directed by Ridley Scott and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. When a fugitive group of advanced replicants led by Roy Batty (Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down.
Sir Ridley Scott is an English filmmaker. He is best known for directing films in the science fiction, crime and historical drama genres. His work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. He ranks among the highest-grossing directors and has received many accolades, including the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2018, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 and appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire by King Charles III in 2024.
Shaftesbury is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, 20 miles west of Salisbury and 23 miles north-northeast of Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about 215 metres above sea level on a greensand hill on the edge of Cranborne Chase.
Anthony David Leighton Scott was an English film director and producer. He made his theatrical film debut with The Hunger (1983) and went on to direct highly successful action and thriller films such as Top Gun (1986), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Days of Thunder (1990), The Last Boy Scout (1991), Crimson Tide (1995), Enemy of the State (1998), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), and Unstoppable (2010).
Hovis Ltd is a British company that produces flour and bread. Founded in Stoke-on-Trent, it began mass-production in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 1886. It became part of Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) in 1962 after a succession of mergers. RHM, with its brands including Hovis and Mother's Pride, was acquired by Premier Foods in 2007.
"Walking in the Air" is a song written by Howard Blake for the 1982 animated film The Snowman based on Raymond Briggs's 1978 children's book of the same name. The song forms the centrepiece of The Snowman, which has become a seasonal favourite on British and Finnish television. The story relates the fleeting adventures of a young boy and a snowman who has come to life. In the second part of the story, the boy and the snowman fly to the North Pole. "Walking in the Air" is the theme for the journey. They attend a party of snowmen, at which the boy seems to be the only human until they meet Father Christmas with his reindeer, and the boy is given a scarf with a snowman pattern. In the film, the song was performed by St Paul's Cathedral choirboy Peter Auty; this performance was reissued in 1985 and 1987.
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The Duellists is a 1977 British historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and produced by David Puttnam. Set in France during the Napoleonic Wars, the film focuses on a series of duels between two rival officers, the obsessive Bonapartist Gabriel Feraud and aristocratic Armand d'Hubert, that spans nearly 20 years and reflects the political tumult of early 19th-century France. The film is based on Joseph Conrad's short story "The Duel", first published in A Set of Six.
Gold Hill is a steep cobbled street in the town of Shaftesbury in the English county of Dorset. The view looking down from the top of the street has been described as "one of the most romantic sights in England."
Boy and Bicycle is the first film made by Ridley Scott. The black and white short was made on 16mm film while Scott was a photography student at the Royal College of Art in London in 1962.
Warburtons Limited is a British baking firm founded by Thomas Warburton in 1876 and based in Bolton, a town formerly in Lancashire, England, and now in Greater Manchester. For much of its history Warburtons only had bakeries in Lancashire and it remains a family-owned company. As of 2018, Warburtons has 12 bakeries, 14 depots, and 4,500 employees around the UK.
Philip Cornwell is an English actor, comedian, impressionist and writer. He is part of the Dead Ringers television and radio series, and is the voice of Murdoc Niccals in the virtual band Gorillaz. Cornwell has co-written and performed principal roles in The Glam Metal Detectives and Stella Street. He also portrayed DJ Dave Clifton from I'm Alan Partridge and the movie, Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.
This is a list of British television related events from 1973.
Scott Free Productions is a British-American independent film and television production company founded in 1970 by filmmakers and brothers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. They formed the feature film development company Percy Main Productions in 1980, naming the company after the English village Percy Main, where their father grew up. The company was renamed Scott Free Productions in 1995. Scott Free has produced films ranging from the 2000 Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator (2000) to "smaller pictures" like Cracks (2009). Between the productions of White Squall (1996) and G.I. Jane (1997), Ridley Scott reorganised the company.
"Go On Lad" is a British television and cinema advertisement launched by Premier Foods in 2008 to promote its Hovis brand of bread. The 122-second piece was commissioned as part of a £15,000,000 brand relaunch designed to reverse Hovis' declining market share and profits. The commercial follows the journey of a young boy through 122 years of British history, from the establishment of the Hovis brand in 1886 to the current day. The campaign was handled by advertising agency Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy. Production of the commercial itself was contracted to London-based production company Rattling Stick, with post-production handled by The Mill. It was directed by Ringan Ledwidge. "Go On Lad" premiered on British television on 12 September 2008.
Andy Capp: The Game is a video game for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum that is all about controlling the main character Andy Capp. The game is based on the comic strip of the same name from the Daily Mirror, the British newspaper published by Mirrorsoft's parent company, Mirror Group Newspapers. Specifically released for Christmas of 1987, Andy Capp: The Game was intended to be a holiday blockbuster in both North America and Europe.
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Everyone imagines this - voted best ad ever - to be set in the north of England. But it was filmed in the Dorset village of Shaftesbury, and the voice-over is in a non-specific oo-arrr accent - proving the power of a brass band as a signifier of northernness.
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