THE hardy reputation of North-East people was put to an extreme test yesterday as millions of gallons of water was poured on a city centre for a television commercial.

Hundreds of willing extras from the region turned out for the cameras, as a rain machine lashed 4,000 gallons of water per second on to the crowd.

The crew was in Newcastle and Gateshead for a £750,000 advert commissioned by beer company Carling.

It features 700 extras and famous North-East landmarks such as the Tyne Bridge.

Des Johnson, of Carling, said: "It was the people as much as the place that attracted us. We needed 700 extras who were prepared to get very wet in the street, all in the interest of being in a TV commercial. Nowhere else are people so famed for being hardy to the weather.

"Tyneside lends itself very well to filming. There are a lot of good locations in a very small area, and some of the buildings are fabulous."

The commercial features two flatmates racing through the city streets as each vies to beat the other home to get some lager from the fridge.

It will be screened at the end of February in a £6m campaign.

It aims to emulate the success of Carling's "skins and shirts" advertisement, which was shown during the Euro 2004 football competition. Mr Johnson said: "It should have a similar sort of feel. It is real people doing real things."

Published: 05/10/2004