God save our queens!
RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE BBC1, 10.45pm SASHAYING its way into the mainstream, this megahit from America has already had one much-loved UK series and now it’s back for a second strut through the schedules.
With drag queens from across the country, host-with-the-most RuPaul tells the contestants: “You embody the dynamic drag culture right here in the UK. “But I have to warn you, it’s not for sissies. You’re about to take the ride of your life. Don’t just get cute, get drop dead gorgeous.” The 12 hopefuls, with absolutely excellent drag names – please see A’Whora, Asttina Mandella, Ginny Lemon and Bimini Bon Boulash – are hoping to win the prize of an all-expenses-paid trip to Hollywood to film their own digital series. But mostly, they all want to become icons of the drag scene and RuPaul’s best friend. Michelle Visage judges, alongside either Alan Carr or Graham Norton and a celebrity guest. This week it’s Graham with Elizabeth Hurley. First the queens have to serve up a smasher of a photo in a vaguely tennis-themed shoot called Wimbled Hun. Then they must each create two great British looks of gay icons, resulting in versions of everyone from Bowie to Boy George. The losing two queens will be forced to do a lip sync battle, before one sashays away from the competition for ever. As ever, there is plenty of screeching, air kissing, backstage bitching and so many sexual innuendos that no sentence sounds normal without one. The expression “handbags at dawn” has never been so apt. Hilarious mayhem.