44 years on, Hovis boy conquers that hill again (with a little help)
REMEMBER the old Hovis advert with a baker’s boy laboriously pushing his bicycle up a steep cobbled street to the strains of the New World symphony?
Well, 44 years on he has returned. And this time he whizzed up the daunting incline effortlessly – with the help of an electric bike. Carl Barlow, now 58, has recreated the much-loved bread advert in a new commercial for London-based Evans Cycles.
In 1973 as a 13-year-old child actor he was paid £60 for the Hovis advert, which was filmed on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Mr Barlow, who went on to become a fireman, said: ‘It was kind of strange being back after 44 years.
‘I remember I had to push the bike up the hill many times for the best part of the two days filming. It was much easier this time around – I just glided up the hill.’