PART of Liverpool city centre went back in time to the days of the Suffragettes and World War I yesterday.

Extras dressed as Suffragettes and as First World War soldiers were in Percy Street and Falkner Street as part of continuing work on one of the longest TV commercials ever to be made, which is being filmed on the streets of Liverpool.

The city beat off competition from Prague to be chosen as the location for the Hovis ad which involves up to 650 extras.

The filming will end up as a two-minute advert due to be shown in the commercial break during ITV soap Coronation Street in September.

The storyline includes moments of British history from the past 100 years, charting bakers in the 1890s, the 1984 miners’ strike and the 1953 Coronation.

Falkner Street in Toxteth was used yesterday to film soldiers leaving for the battlefields of Flanders. Nearby, historic Percy Street was the scene of 150 marching suffragettes.

Other episodes already filmed this week include a recreation of the 1984 miners’ strike at Princes Dock.

Other locations have included James Street in Garston, Sweeting Street off Castle Street in the city centre, and the River Mersey as a backdrop for the letting off of “Millennium” fireworks.

The Hovis ad is by far the biggest commercial to be shot in Liverpool.