Ladies, start your engines – RuPaul’s Drag Race is coming to the UK! For the uninitiated, the show is a high octane mix of America’s Next Top Model and Project Catwalk, with added sass in the form of 14 drag queens competing to prove that they have the Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent (the clue is in the first letters) to be the next big drag superstar. Each week, the bottom two contestants must lip-sync for their lives, in scenes so dizzyingly camp that they make Eurovision look like Question Time. At its whirlwind centre is host RuPaul, a knowing mix of Miss World’s deportment, Janice Dickinson’s temper and Beyonce’s wig room. Sold? Thought so.
Drag Race has gained a huge cult following in the US, where it is currently on its seventh season. Now tru TV is broadcasting the show for UK audiences, beginning with season 4 (Look out for one of our all-time favourite queens, Latrice Royale, whose catchphrase ‘get up, look sickening, and make them eat it’ is basically our life mantra). Speaking to Grazia from his home in LA, Ru, 54, is thrilled that the series has found a UK home. ‘Even growing up as a kid I knew that drag, and the irreverence that drag captures is so perfect for British audiences’, he says, ‘I couldn’t be happier.’
Why does he think the show has become such a word-of-mouth sensation? ‘Every season we think, OK, how are we going to keep this interesting? But when you put together all of these courageous, incredible creatures, magic is bound to happen. People love the tenacity of the human spirit. Seeing our queens following their dreams against all odds, even though society says ‘you can’t do that, don’t play with girls things, people will laugh at you’, that’s what the audience really relates to. People are so invested in it, because they see themselves in it. Our show is about creating yourself.’
With Conchita Wurst a household name, and everyone from Scarlett Johansson to Miley Cyrus declaring themselves avid fans of the show, Ru believes that we’re living in the golden age of drag. ‘Somehow the window has remained open for longer than ever before’, he says, ‘the disco era literally only lasted about five years tops, and our show has already been on air for seven.’
And whereas, traditionally, drag borrows from pop culture, now Ru thinks the reverse is also true (Anyone who’s ever witnessed Katy Perry in a blue wig shooting whipped cream out of her bra may be inclined to agree). ‘People who are in showbusiness straddle fantasy and reality on an everyday basis, so they’re naturally drawn to drag because drag is the embodiment of that lifestyle’, he says. ‘These days a lot of performers are looking to drag to give them an edge.’
Away from the glamour, histrionics and referential humour, the show does a side-line in pathos, often thanks to the challenging back stories of the contestants. In one memorable episode, Ru is moved to tears when a drag queen recounts how he was abandoned at a bus stop by his mother as a young child. ‘It’s always amazing the journey that contestants have endured to get to this place. That’s the story of a lot of the kids, who’ve been kicked out of home, or abandoned by society, and found a home at Ru Paul’s Drag Race.’
With the show proving a juggernaut on both sides of the Atlantic, there are persistent rumours that Jonathon Ross could be in talks to create a UK version. ‘He’s been trying to get it produced in the UK’, confirms Ru, ‘but we haven’t got very far yet. Fingers and toes crossed that it’ll happen, I would love to come and judge a UK version.’ The US show has had guest judges including Kathy Griffin, Khloé Kardashian and Pamela Anderson. Who would he like to see appear on a UK version? ‘Oh so many, Katie Price, Bananarama, French and Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Posh Spice…’
Having already had hit singles, hosted his own chat show and been the first drag queen to model for MAC, what’s next for Ru? ‘I want a child’, he deadpans. Really? ‘No!, he erupts into giggles. ‘At this point I have 88 children who have come through Drag Race. All my girls are my kids. I love them all equally, like a good mum.’
***RuPaul’s Drag Race, Monday at 10pm on truTV, freeview channel 68 and Sky 198. ***