The Cadbury's Gorilla advert turned out to be an inspired hit, even if it sounded plain weird: take one unknown actor, put him in a gorilla suit and get him to play drums to a Phil Collins backing track. The latest Cadbury's commercial has taken Britain by storm since it launched last month.

Bloggers have been going nuts for the 90 second clip, which was viewed almost 500,000 times on YouTube the week after its release and is part of a £6.2million advertising campaign. But until now, no one had identified the man behind the monkey suit – with many bloggers believing it was even Collins himself. But the advert's makers admitted yesterday that he was a little-known actor called Garon Michael.

Something of a specialist, Mr Michael has appeared as a primate in the movies Congo, Instinct and the Planet Of The Apes remake, and acted alongside the likes of Anthony Hopkins, Donald Sutherland and Mark Wahlberg. With the Phil Collins song In The Air Tonight playing in the background, the camera starts on the gorilla's face before panning out to reveal he is playing the drums.

As the 1980 hit song reaches its climax, the scene fades out to be replaced by a picture of a Dairy Milk bar. Cadbury spokesman Tony Bilsborough said: 'We have been amazed by the way the advert has captured the public's imagination.'