WHEN it comes to stripping on TV dramas, it's usually the babes who get the attention.

Think Fiona Xie, Joanne Peh and Jeanette Aw in The Champion and Beach.Ball.Babes.

But in the new Channel 8 series The Dream-catchers, it's the guys who are taking off their clothes.

In the show, which began telecasting at 9pm yesterday, actors Shaun Chen, Elvin Ng and Nat Ho go topless in several scenes.

The Dream-catchers is about the lives, loves and careers of four engineers. It also stars Rui En, Tay Ping Hui, Jesseca Liu and Dawn Yeoh.

Shaun, 31, and Elvin, 29, play engineers who fall for Rui En's character, who enjoys painting nudes.

So both of them strip off to become her models.

Said Rui En: 'It's a really refreshing idea to have the men stripping in a show, instead of women!'

In one scene, Shaun's character steps up when the nude model doesn't turn up, and he has to pose in a pair of black briefs in front of an art class.

Said Shaun: 'I was very nervous. It was in front of the film crew and extras, and although the air conditioning was turned on, I still felt very warm and flushed.

'Everyone was staring and I didn't know what they were thinking!'

Elvin, on the other hand, had to strip down to his pants and there were fewer gawkers on set.

But unlike Shaun's scene, which was shot indoors, his scene takes place in Japan, as Elvin's character has to fly there to attend an engineering course.

While sight-seeing, Rui En's character teasingly asks him if she could paint him in the nude, and he takes off his shirt in the open.

The scene was shot in the middle of winter - in -2C° - with a blanket of snow. Said Elvin: 'I was shivering a lot. But I wasn't self-conscious at all. I just felt lucky that I didn't have to jump into icy-cold water.'

Still, Shaun and Elvin's experiences pale in comparison with what Nat had to go through.

The 25-year-old plays an aspiring dancer and in one scene, he has to do a 'catwalk show' to earn some quick cash for dance lessons.

The scene was shot in the afternoon on a raised stage in front of Novena Square, in full view of the public, and Nat was wearing only a pair of red briefs.

He said: 'Let's just say it was the longest day of my life! I was embarrassed as a lot of passers-by were gawking and taking videos with their phones.

'As I only had underwear and boots on, I felt like a stripper!'

To shape up for their roles, the actors admitted they hit the gym and even popped pills.

Elvin, who used to model, said he's always been a gym bunny and believes it has helped in developing his physique. He said: 'Hitting the gym regularly helps a lot as you won't be able to see results if you only train last minute.'

As for Shaun, his quest for perfect abdominals was a last-minute effort. He said with a chuckle: 'I started going to the gym and playing badminton three times a week. At least I managed to get four 'packs' in the end!'

Nat, who didn't have 'the luxury of time to go to the gym', relied on detox pills to make him look 'less bloated'. He would even do push-up exercises on the set of the show so that he would 'look toned' when the filming began.

So of the three hunks, who has the best body?

Shaun and Nat immediately voted for Elvin, but when we asked him, he laughed it off.

Elvin said: 'We all have different body types so you really can't compare us like that.'

But the three actors all agreed on one thing - that their topless scenes were done tastefully and they wouldn't mind doing it again.

This is the first time that Shaun is doing such a scene. Nat has gone topless once before, two years ago, in Honour And Passion but it was just a swimming scene with 'no spectators present'.

Elvin confessed that he's had a topless scene in almost every drama that he has filmed - he frolicked in a bathtub with Jesseca in Kinship and played beach volleyball with Joanne in A Life Of Hope.

Said Shaun: 'As an actor, you do what you have to do. If there was a role in the future which required me to go completely nude, I would consider it if the role was worth it.'

Bigger selling point

Elvin however thinks that their scenes shouldn't be such a big deal.

He said: 'A single semi-nude woman on screen would 'beat' three semi-nude men on screen. The woman would definitely be a bigger selling point.'

So what did their family and friends think of their topless scenes?

Shaun, who is marrying actress Michelle Chia in May, confessed that his fiance was 'very pleased' when she saw the show's trailer.

He said he wouldn't mind if their roles were reversed either - that it was Michelle who had to appear in a sexy bikini on-screen. Said Shaun: 'Michelle looks very good in a bikini. She has such a good figure. Not everyone can pull off bikinis, you know.'

Elvin, however, received startling reactions from his fans who saw the pictures of his scene on the series' Facebook page. He said: 'They posted comments on my Yahoo! group page, saying it was 'cruel' to make me strip in the cold.'

But the show's producer, Yeo Saik Pin, believes that the topless scenes were all 'essential for the development of the plot'.

'Besides, all three of them (Shaun, Elvin and Nat) wanted to show off their bodies so I gave them the chance to do so!'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Feb 5, 2009.