Earlier this week Paddy’s new Cheltenham Festival 2021 advert launched across TV and social media and, unless you’ve been channelling your inner Arsene Wenger, you will undoubtedly have seen it by now.
Starring Peter Crouch, his wife Abbey, ITV Racing’s Matt Chapman and Gina Bryce from Sky Sports Racing, we see the high tower former England striker limbering up for the Festival on his couch.
The great Ruby Walsh even makes a cameo to stick it to the lovable former footballer while Paddy’s pundits run the rule over our thoroughbred as he gears up for Cheltenham 2021. With The Greatest Show on Turf fast approaching we can exclusively bring you the inside track about what went on behind the scenes…
The advert opens on a close up of Crouchy’s ginormous feet and the big man revealed on set that he’d been for his first ever pedicure the day before to make sure his money makers were in top condition.
We’re not sure if the pampered former Premier League star is telling the truth or not, but clearly preparation is everything at the top level.
Something people ‘in the industry’ gossip about is the quality of the catering van on shoot. But while Crouchy might have been the star of the show, there were no diva requests when it came to the on-shoot food from the big man with a surprisingly good first touch.
And he didn’t need to gorge on the complimentary cheese sandwiches and stale crisps either because Peter got his five-a-day in early doors, loading up on the carrots he’s seen munching in the ad.
In fact, he managed to get through a whole bag with Abbey feeding him the delicious raw treat in our final shot.
And Abbey was also on hand to throw Peter a pair of ‘lucky pants’ – in reference to a pair she bought him in real life during a goal-less streak after he joined Liverpool.
In fact, Big Pete became so superstitious about his blessed under crackers that he once paid a taxi driver £600 to drive them to Newcastle for a game!
You’d have thought the pants Crouchy was wearing when he met Abbey must have been magical, let alone lucky.
And you might’ve noticed Mr Smoothie himself recreating the iconic Tom Cruise slide from Risky Business in the ad too.
Even better, Mr Robot showed what a mover he is by nailing it in just one take!
What a pro.
It was a good job he’d clearly been practising at home because the shoot was way behind schedule as always. Nice one, Crouchy!
You can check out Paddy’s Cheltenham Festival 2021 advert above as well as on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels.
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