TWO young men will be watching extra closely when the Hollywood hit Atonement is released this week.

For Christian Passman and James Fahey took their roles as extras one step further.

The 20-year-olds, from Redcar, east Cleveland, joined a handful of men to strip naked and jump into the sea as part of the Dunkirk scenes, filmed in the town last year.

Out of about 1,000 extras, the pair were approached by the crew to see if they would mind stripping down to their underwear.

But after agreeing to go that far, and after a few takes, the select few were asked to go all the way.

Mr Passman, a bricklayer, said: "They were going round the beach picking people randomly asking them to play football and things.

"They then asked us would we run in the sea -we just said 'yeah, all right, we'll do that'.

"They said we'd keep our boxers on, but then we had to take them off."

The men were covered in make-up to simulate oil because, in the film, they are working on a car. Mr Fahey said: "We had to run past the camera then into the sea to get it off."

But being starkers in the middle of Redcar beach, surrounded by hundreds of people, was all in a day's work for the friends.

Mr Passman said: "We were a bit nervous at first, but everyone started clapping and people were filming us all the time.

"Everyone was saying well done, and other lads were saying 'oh, we respect you.' It was class."

Mr Fahey, a student at Redcar and Cleveland College, said: "It was the best day of my life -something that will never happen again.

"We just hope it is not too close up."

See The Northern Echo tomorrow for a four-page preview of Wednesday's premiere, and on Thursday for reports and pictures from the event, plus interviews with cast and crew.