What Happened To The Child Stars Of These Classic 90s TV Ads?

‘It’s the Milkybar Kid’, cried the showgirl, peeking around the saloon door as her hero rides through the dusty street with a job to do.

The town proved to be too big for both the chocolate bar-waving cowboy in white and the hat-stealing bandito in black, who’d been busy scaring the locals.

A lash of the Kid’s lasso, and the bad guy was soon out of play, covered in treacles and feathers, while the star shared his namesake chocolate bars with his idolising fans.

For millions of 90s children, the bespectacled Milkybar Kid was as familiar as the taste of the creamy chocolate he famously waved, but is that where his story concludes?

A newspaper outlet took a peek at the life of child star Conrad Coleby, and the youngsters from other iconic television adverts like Dairylea, Breakaway, Hovis and Rolos to discover what happened to them after their 15 seconds of stardom.

He rides into town on a horse to save the townspeople from an evil sheriff before handing out Milkybar bars, shouting: ‘Milkybars are on me!’

The real-life Milkybar Kid, Conrad Coleby, 43, son of British actor Robert Coleby, has enjoyed a varied acting career since his time with Nestle.

The character has been portrayed by a series of blond child stars in Australia, with Conrad Coleby playing the lead part throughout the nineties.

After his time in the Western-inspired ads, Conrad Coleby launched a successful acting career, starring in Disney’s Sabrina Down Under and Home and Away.

He played heartthrob Dylan ‘Dutchy’ Mulholland in Sea Patrol and even shared a screen with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in the 2013 blockbuster.

Conrad Coleby said in 2020 there was a downside to being so famous.

He said that as the Milkybar Kid in his younger days, he copped quite a bit of bullying for being one of the only youngsters in his neighbourhood to be on TV.

He said that he clearly enjoyed being bullied so much that he chose to give everyone more ammunition and became a professional actor later on.

He stepped away from acting in 2016 to pursue life as a photographer and now photographs action sports, portraiture and property.

Hovis: ‘Boy On The Bike’

The toils of the hardworking Hovis Boy, pushing his bicycle up a never-ending cobbled hill to the backing music of Dvořák’s New World Symphony was first featured in an iconic 1973 advert, directed by Ridley Scott.

The advert, which continued to appear on television screens throughout the 80s and 90s, was set in an industrial town but was actually filmed on Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset.

The moving clip was voted the nation’s favoured TV advert of all time in 2006.

In 2017, Carl Barlow, 63, conquered the steep hill with the help of an electric bike, just 44 years after the short originally aired.

Carl Barlow, who enjoyed a thirty-year career as a firefighter after starring in the advert, said it was strange to be back after all that time.

He said he recalls he had to push the bicycle up the hill numerous times for the best part of the two days of filming on Gold Hill.

The former child actor explained it was much easier this time around, and that he simply glided up the hill.

The advert had such an impact when it was first released that it was later parodied by The Two Ronnies.

Mr Barlow had been asked to audition when he was 13 years old and got the job because he could ride a bicycle and was happy to cut his hair, and he said that after the advert he had some teasing at school due to the pudding basin type haircut, but it was mainly in good fun.

He said that whenever he sees the advert he finds it particularly fascinating to see his younger self and that it feels rather surreal.

Dairylea: Would You Kiss Veronica Dribblethwaite?

The youngsters would do anything for Dairylea, this advert says, as three young boys having a sleepover in a tent are dissatisfied with their haul of food for a midnight snack.

One says he would even kiss Veronica Dibblethwaite for the cheesy snack, although he looks much less enthusiastic when he’s told by his friends they’ll watch him do it.

Chris Hoyle, formerly known as Chris Cook, was the ringleader in the advert and would go on to score an ongoing role in Coronation Street as Mark Redman.

He told I Love Manchester in 2018 that his life had been completely changed by the instant fame, and that he went from being a shy lad to having a bit of confidence. He said that he’d never gotten a Valentine’s card in his life, and the year he was in Corrie he suddenly got loads in the post from fans.

However, the teenager ran into trouble after he was found with cannabis, making national headlines and losing his Coronation Street role.

He said that he was devastated, and that it was a lot to handle, and that it was difficult at the time to shake off the drugs thing, and people used to shout things at him when he was walking down the street, and that it went on for years.

The actor found a second calling as a playwright, and his play The Newspaper Boy debuted in 2009 and was revived in a production for Queer Contact 2018.

He said he trained as an actor and he loved being in the rehearsals, but that writing gave him so much more creative freedom and control. Also, writing meant that he gets to play every character in his head.

Chris is presently filming in Yorkshire for a BBC drama, Boat Story, which is being made by the studio responsible for The Tourist and Fleabag.

Nestle: Breakaway Kid

The Breakaway bar, with its layers of chocolate and biscuit, was launched in 1970 and has been a pantry staple for families ever since, and in a 1986 advert, Matthew Shaw plays a young boy who’s robbed one of the chocolates from his sister.

‘It’s wicked,’ the child actor says at the end of the advert.

But Mr Shaw has continued performing since his turn as the hat-wearing chocolate thief and has had an expansive career in smaller productions.

He attended the Elliot Clark School of Dance and Drama before landing jobs at Children in Need and on Shameless.

The Merseyside-based singer has featured in innumerable pantomimes and starred on cruise ship productions of West End favourites, including Cinderella.

Nestle: Rolos Are Too Good To Share

Cees Molenaar starred in the 1995 award-winning Rolo elephant advert as a youngster, where he refuses to offer a young elephant one of the caramel chocolates, but the selfishness comes back to torment him (or Philip Childs, who plays up the grown-up chocolate lover) when the elephant smacks him in the face during a parade.

The advert was originally supposed to be for Dutch audiences but was used internationally after it proved extremely popular.

The Rolo advert fought off stiff competition to scoop the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1996, beating Nike’s Good Vs Evil spot, which starred Eric Cantona.

Philip Childs is a stage actor with credits on and off the West End. He’s also scored roles in Emmerdale, Eastenders and The Bill.

In a piece written in 2015, Philip Childs explained how he got the job and his delight when the advert was popular.

He said that he’s lost count of the number of people asking him if he gets regular free samples or that at times children should shout “neh neh neh neh neh!” at him in the street, but that he loved it, and he said.

He added that the story continues with a joyful reunion with some of the creative and production team and the grown-up Cees, now 27 years old and fluent in English, to celebrate 20 years since the making of the ad.

He said the news that it had won an award for being the best Dutch commercial of all time made him extremely proud indeed.

Mr Molenaar is now a father and worked for Klaas Puul in the Netherlands in fish processing.

The pair reunited in 2015, 20 years after the advert was filmed, to mark its success.

This was back in the day when boys were boys and girls were girls and they accepted it. Perhaps the world was a better place then?

There was the old Yorkie advertisement, and then there was the sultry Flake advert, which was brilliant.

Mind you, you also used to have boys that thought they were girls on Top of the Pops.

Boys and men had those tight loon pants that they sported back in the 70s, and the lads had long hair, and their trousers left you in no doubt of their sex.

And then there was Puff the Magic Dragon, which wouldn’t be permitted now with all the wokes out there – we all took a walk on the wild side back then. The good old days when people weren’t offended by life.

And it was an age when adverts were usually pretty amusing. Nowadays, they’re all just irritating babble that ticks all the boxes.

But all that adverts are is brainwashing. It’s always been brainwashing of some sort, but now it’s woke brainwashing. I now turn the sound off during the ads, or just download all the programmes so there are no pesky adverts, and if one creeps in I fast-forward it.

The Milkybar Kid would have been cancelled today, probably too white. And a small boy with a dangerous cap gun, well, he would have been taken into care for being a juvenile delinquent, and his parents would have likely been arrested for letting him get out of control.