One of Australia’s biggest ‘90s icons is finally returning to our TV screens.
In the 1990s, “Dougie” the Pizza Hut delivery guy was everywhere, winning hearts across the nation with his boyish good looks and bumbling charm.
Dougie was played to perfection by actor Diarmid Heidenreich, who starred in a string of Pizza Hut ads as the beloved character from 1993 to 1996.
Sadly, after that he hung up his red cap, and Dougie was laid to rest.
Heidenreich went on to land roles in Water Rats, McLeod’s Daughters, Packed to the Rafters, Underbelly: The Golden Mile and Home And Away over the years, although he’s still best known to most Aussies as Dougie the Pizza Delivery Guy.
But now, Dougie’s back.
Heidenreich is making a guest appearance in a brand new Pizza Hut ad — playing a grown-up Dougie — to promote the fast food chain’s new “Hot Dot delivered hot or the next one is free” promotion.
The company is now promising that any pizza delivery will arrive at your door piping hot — and if it isn’t, your next order will be on the house.
Under the promotion, a heat sensitive dot will be placed on pizza boxes to measure the temperature of the pizza, which is kept hot by new delivery bags.
In the new commercial, a next-generation pizza guy is filmed delivering a pizza to a customer, who turns out to be none other than Dougie himself.
“There is so much love for Pizza Hut in Australia and we saw this by the response we had when we brought back our iconic Cavalry Charge tune in February,” Pizza Hut chief marketing officer Chet Patel.
“Remembered for the four-eight-one-double-one-double-one jingle, it evoked a sense of nostalgia and fond memories.
“So it made sense to bring back our most trusted pizza delivery boy, Dougie, to help launch our new Hot Dot delivery promise. The ad celebrates the relationship Australia has with us in a distinctive and unmistakably Pizza Hut way.”
However, like many young stars, Heidenreich has battled his own personal demons over the years.
In 1996, he served 77 weekends of periodic detention in jail for a drug and alcohol-fuelled car smash that left a girlfriend in hospital, according to the Herald Sun.
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