When friends hear I am meeting RuPaul, they are more excited than if I were meeting the Queen. RuPaul is, of course, up there with Her Majesty at the pinnacle of glamour and camp. He is also the star of the television show RuPaul’s Drag Race, which is arriving in Britain this autumn after 10 years and 11 series in the US. If you haven’t seen Drag Race — what do you mean, you haven’t seen Drag Race? — it is a reality show in which drag queens compete to win prize money, cosmetics deals and a huge diamante-encrusted crown. It is the race to become “America’s next drag superstar”.

The format of each episode is simple: there are two challenges (such as designing a