THERE is life after Radio York. Ask Mike Hurley, whose popular Saturday morning show, Hurley Burley, was axed from the station last year.

From tonight he will be tugging our heartstrings as the voice behind the all-time favourite Hovis advert, which is making a celebratory return to our screens.

You know the one, it features a boy pushing a bike and has been voted the nation's favourite commercial.

The original featured a 13-year-old who quit acting soon afterwards and now works as a firefighter.

Filmed in 1973 by Ridley Scott, who went on to be a film director, the commercial used Dvorak's New World Symphony as the musical backdrop.

Hovis will re-air the advert for ten days from today to celebrate the brand's 120th birthday, and Mike Hurley is the new voice behind it.

He is making quite a good living in voice-over work. He markets himself as Mr Voice-Ability and has been a 75-year-old Yorkshireman for Hovis, a Bronx mouse for Sky TV, and 29 different cartoon bees for a furniture store in Salford.

A couple of weeks ago he went to Granada Studios to be the voice behind four episodes of The Price Is Right and recalls that during a break he wandered around trying to find somewhere to sit for a quiet smoke.

"I found myself in a deserted Coronation Street. I just sat there and couldn't believe I was in that incredibly famous street," he said.

When he's not mimicking different voices, Mike is indulging his other passion - driving buses. He's a member of the London Omnibus Traction Society and takes on the odd driving job to keep his hand in.

Incidentally, Mike's sparring partner on Hurley Burley, Sally Fairfax, is also doing well with her own show on BBC Radio Leeds.

RADIO YOKEL UPDATE: Why do newsreaders on our local station keep using the weasel words "The BBC has learned..."?

The implication is that some vital fact has been uncovered by a diligent team of investigative reporters.

The truth of the matter is that nine times out of ten, the BBC has learned what it has learned by reading that day's newspapers. Including this one.

Updated: 09:40 Wednesday, May 10, 2006