‘The big difference between the UK and US queens? Foreskin’: RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is ready to snatch the crown

‘The big difference between the UK and US queens? Foreskin’: RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is ready to snatch the crown

It’s been 10 years since RuPaul’s Drag Race sashayed onto our screens, bringing drag into the mainstream living room and tucking into everyday conversation.

RuPaul Charles’s queer take on America’s Next Top Model – bring together a gaggle of drag queens and whittle them down via runway looks and challenges before you’re left with America’s next drag superstar – has crowned 16 queens since its inception in 2009 and has won nine Emmys, as well as becoming a meme machine, creating DragCon and landing Michelle Visage a spot on Strictly Come Dancing.

And now, it’s finally on our shores.



Years after rumours first began circulating of a UK based Drag Race, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK has arrived on BBC Three, with Ru and Michelle being joined by Alan Carr, Graham Norton and a host of celebrity guest judges to find the UK’s next drag superstar.


Ten queens from all over the UK are in the running – Crystal, The Vivienne, Gothy Kendoll, Scaredy Kat, Blu Hydrangea, Divina De Campo, Baga Chipz, Sum Ting Wong, Cheryl Hole and Vinegar Strokes – for the title.

We have reps from Northern Ireland (Blu), London (Crystal, who is originally from Canada, Baga and Vinegar), Essex (Cheryl), Leicester (Gothy), Liverpool (The Vivienne), Birmingham (Sum Ting Wong), West Yorkshire (Divina) and even Wiltshire (Scaredy) and they’re all hoping to outshine their US counterparts. Make no mistake, while this is a US show with US production and a US budget, this is all about British drag.

Or, as Vinegar Strokes puts it: ‘The big difference is foreskin.’

‘I think we mix in a good bit of dirty, edgy, rough around the edges British drag,’ The Vivienne told Metro.co.uk at the launch of Drag Race UK. ‘The focus isn’t as much on what you look like, it’s about what you do on stage.’

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Scaredy Kat said there’s ‘a lot more swearing’, while Vinegar said: ‘I think all drag that is on the show translates well. With our season, I think we’ve got a range of looks to camp performances. It’s important to show that in the UK, it’s not just a man in a wig singing I Will Survive.’

And there definitely is range. Divina is a seasoned queen who has been a judge on All Together Now, while Vinegar has starred in the West End musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Baga Chipz is a regular host at G-A-Y, Cheryl has played her namesake in the show Gals Aloud, while Scaredy Kat, this series’ youngest queen at just 19, has never performed outside her bedroom and learned drag from her girlfriend.

The first episode of Drag Race UK sees very distinctly British challenges – an ‘off with her head’ photo shoot, followed by a runway challenge to pay tribute to their hometown… followed by a tribute to their favourite look from Queen Elizabeth. We’re not in Hollywood any more, folks.

‘Britain’s got the best humour in the world – we’ve got Ab Fab, Gimme Gimme Gimme… and I’m sure a lot of [the viewers], they won’t understand a word we’re saying,’ said Baga Chipz. ‘Even British people can’t understand me.

The girls are ready to snatch the crown (Picture: BBC/ Leigh Keily / Matt Burlem)

‘I can’t wait to see what we’ve done in the workroom translate in that American style. I can’t wait to see how we look. Afterward I can compare them, I’ll watch the American one and be like “oh yeah, I do look like a sack of s***”. I’ve skin like a rhino. If someone says I look like s***, I’m like, “y’know what, I do”. I look the dog’s b*****ks.’



Cheryl added: ‘The fact that you are the first series and you’re representing the UK to the rest of the world, I absolutely feel that pressure. Because you know all those American girls are going “mmm… let’s see what they can do, they’re not like us”. No b****, you’re right.’

Traditional British drag is known for being in your face, brash and sometimes insulting, and that trope isn’t avoided in the first episode of Drag Race UK, courtesy of Baga, who chooses a tragic celebrity to emulate on the runway.

‘I’m a bit controversial in the first one, in one of the looks,’ she admitted.

‘I loved it, it was just amazing. Although, the first time I walked the runway, my heel broke. But with the character that I did, I got away with it.’

Judge Andrew Garfield says that while others may find the tribute offensive, that’s how the UK shows love – but it remains to be seen whether the humour will translate, as well as the more rough around the edges approach to some queens’ drag. As Blu explained: ‘In America, they have a lot of people to sew, they can go to a corner shop to buy a wig. Here it’s a lot more crafty. We’re put together by ourselves.’

Drag Race UK will air on BBC Three (Picture: Rex)

While the humour may be bluer and the drag more homemade, the production value is certainly from the States. Everything about the Drag Race UK set has been copy and pasted from the US version, making it feel like home for viewers. But it didn’t make it any easier for the queens.


‘It’s like you’re in a waking dream, or a living nightmare, I’m not sure which,’ said Crystal. ‘It looks exactly the same and if you’re a drag queen, you’ve probably had a dream where you’re on Drag Race. So it was very cool to be like “this is happening”.’

‘The [main stage] is huge and the judges are so far away. You expect it, watching it on TV, to be like a 10 foot walk to the end, but no, it’s like 30 seconds,’ Blu revealed.

‘Am I still walking? And they’re so far away you’re like, can you see me? Can you see this little stone right here?’

‘I’m just saying “don’t fall over”,’ Gothy said of the first runway. ‘It’s mental. Don’t fall over, look amazing, really give the attitude. You get no rehearsals.’

And even when you’re used to watching Drag Race on telly, the power of RuPaul never fails to overwhelm.

‘She goes “hello hello hello” and obviously she does that every f***ing season, and we’re looking at the screen and we hear “hello hello hello”, and I turn around and I think I’m going to cry,’ Sum Ting Wong said. ‘Every now and again you look around and go “oh, I’m in the workroom”.’

Drag Race US has produced 11 seasons and four all-stars series, with queens getting more and more polished as the years go by – leading to criticism that contestants are not being themselves to get onto the show. Surely not every queen can do the spinning splits in a corset?


But the cast of Drag Race UK are insistent that they have not changed, and will not change, for the brand.

Michelle, Alan and Graham will be doling out critique (Picture: BBC / World of Wonder / Guy Levy)

‘I wanted to keep it true to myself,’ The Vivienne said. ‘I didn’t think “oh, maybe the Drag Race audience would like this” – no.’

Crystal added: ‘I keep a hairy chest when I do drag, I don’t shave, and I really wanted to keep that as well. You have to stay yourself – that’s the whole point, that’s what people want to see’; while Baga said: ‘I don’t care. If someone’s like “do this, do that”, I’m like, no. Common as muck, love a drink, love a ciggie, Northern, common, yeah.’

It could be that authentic drag has always had a place on British TV, so UK viewers are expecting the warts and all approach. Acts like Lily Savage and Dame Edna Everage were entertaining the masses on teatime telly long before RuPaul crowned Bebe Zahara Benet.

‘We had Lily Savage on morning TV. Like, Lily Savage, at seven o’clock in the morning,’ Divina said. ‘So actually, I could probably have seen this happening in the 90s. But then after Julian Clary dropped a fisting clanger, everybody went “oh we’ll just leave that for a while”. It happens like that in this country. Now we’re back again.

Gentlemen, start your engines (Picture: PA)

‘And we’ve always got panto. Every Christmas and sometimes January and sometimes March. [Singing] Thank you for keeping me in a job.’

Lily Savage may have set a precedent for how drag is perceived by UK TV audiences, but it was Drag Race that turned TV drag queens into instant stars. Now, the queens of the show can expect a tour, merchandise, rocketing social media followings and perhaps a single when they leave the competition, no matter where they place. And for UK drag queens that make their money in clubs up and down the country, that can pose a problem.

‘I think [young fans are] the weirdest part for me. All my fans are like 17 to 70, and now there’s four-year-old girls. It’s weird, but it’s lovely,’ The Vivienne said. ‘I did a gig yesterday and they were like, it’s a kids party, and I said, there’s no point of me coming.’

But with 10 years of Mama Ru’s show to look back on, the cast of Drag Race UK knew what they were signing up for – and for some, it’s been a long time coming.

Crystal laughed: ‘When you’re a drag queen, you’re basically already famous in your head. So it feels like the world has caught up.’

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is on Thursdays at 8pm on BBC Three and iPlayer.

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