Which film director created the classic British Hovis advert in which a delivery boy pushes his bike up a steep hill?

It was an instant advertising classic. A small boy pushes a bike laden with loaves of bread up the cobbled street of a northern town to the strains of Dvorak's "New World" Symphony, arranged for brass band. Now the 1973 commercial for Hovis, directed by Ridley Scott, has been voted the favourite advertisement of all time.

In a poll of 1,000 people, the Hovis commercial was deemed more popular than classic ads for Milk Tray, Ferrero Rocher and Bisto.

Now one of Hollywood's leading directors, who made Gladiator, Alien and Thelma and Louise, Scott began his career as a director of commercials.

He directed a series of adverts for Hovis, including "Bike Ride" in 1973. Contrary to popular belief, the commercial was not filmed in the north of England, but on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset, which has become a tourist attraction.