The Best Moments from ‘Drag Race UK’, the Show That Saved Lockdown 3

Every Thursday at 7PM, we switch on our silly little screens to get the silly little serotonin hit that prevents us from slipping into the eighth circle of personal hell. That is to say: Drag Race UK has been on, and for a variety of reasons this season has been especially amazing.

The finale airs on the 18th of March, when four queens – Bimini, Tayce, Lawrence Chaney and Ellie Diamond – will battle it out for the crown. The psychological impact of the series ending is too much to contemplate right now, so we’ll stave off the inevitable by reflecting on what has already come to pass.

With that, here’s a rundown of the highlights and even higher-lights of Drag Race UK, S2: the show that saved lockdown three.

Hannah Ewens: Misery x zero IRL sexual frisson + tracksuit bottoms on rotation – (clubbing + getting on it) = success of one show that includes hot queers, elaborate make-up, flamboyant looks, cattiness and competition. The obvious pandemic climate context aside, the US has run season after season of the show, while the drag scene here has had time to marinate and produce some proper characters, making this arguably the best season of Drag Race ever. Also, we’re British, so the queens have more banter.

Emma Garland: We’re 12 years deep into the Drag Race franchise, so it’s inevitable that fatigue would have started to creep in by now, but there’s something about this season that’s just pressing all the right buttons. A part of it is probably to do with the overall lack of queer visibility on reality TV in the UK, so it’s refreshing (though it really shouldn’t be, it’s 2021 luv) to see people chat about queer life, gay sex and pronouns on their own terms. Mostly, though, it’s because of how well it’s been cast and produced overall. When you mix socialist vegan queens with Elizabeth Hurley, Dawn French and an amateur broadway production called “Rats the Rusical”, there really is nowhere for it to go but up.

Lauren O’Neill: I’ve always thought it was extremely cool that two of the UK’s biggest broadcasters are involved in Drag Race UK. While drag doesn’t need any legitimising from mainstream sources, Graham and Alan’s enthusiasm as prominent gay TV personalities really shows just how influential an art form British drag is. This said, I do find that Graham and Alan – like Ru and Michelle – often also have the types of standards and preferences that I find off-putting on the US version of the show. Justice for A’Whora’s arsehole joke, and begone with critiques about visible tape and respectability politics!

HE: Alan Carr, you were NOT shocked by the [redacted] of A’whora and her nan. Get your head out of your hands, sir!

HE: If you’re a British gay or a hun, you were calling for Drag Race UK years before it materialised. You demanded it hit our screens, ready for the UK’s wealth of LGBTQ+ allies and beloved daytime TV luvvies to be guests. And besides a couple of weak appearances, this season of Drag Race has delivered so many on my personal hit list. 

EG: The guest appearances tapped so perfectly into mainstream gay culture, it’s like they were curated by @loveofhuns. It’s a very basic but very specific cultural Venn diagram, let down by the use of a Jess Glynne song for a lip-sync, but exemplified perfectly by Nathalie Cassidy filling a slot that was occupied by Anne Hathaway on the US series. 

LO: Forget the Stanislavsky method – Natalie Cassidy coaching the queens on expressing emotion by getting them to say “Bubbly’s in the fridge” in different moods? That’s acting, luv. 

HE: A bit of respect for Gemma Collins, whose appearance was made somehow more iconic by the fact she didn’t seem to know who RuPaul was, what she was supposed to do or why she was in the building. Throughout the entire snatch game, The GC sat there like the Chrissy Teigen meme. Admittedly, no one was that funny, bar Bimini as Pricey, but the real laugh for me came from not knowing whether Gemma was about to wander off or fall asleep.

HE: I just want the job of coming up with these challenges. Can you imagine anything more fun than sitting in a Google Doc with a bunch of hun culture experts, writing the script to Beastenders? There’s a “creative” out there who deserves some industry prize for coming up with the pub name, The Kween Dick. 

EG: I’m still bitter that the double save came one episode too late and robbed us of A’whora’s presence on Beastenders. She obviously would have out-slagged everyone, including the mannequin they dressed up as Danny Dyer to replace guest judge Rita Ora, who dropped out last minute (British entertainment in a nutshell). But, in retrospect, we did get more than we deserved when she did the Morning Glory challenge as an Essex babe and slipped a full tit in front of Lorraine Kelly.

HE: I can’t begin to discuss “U K Hun”, my favourite pop song of the year 2021 thus far, and a banger that made its mainstream mark by breaking the Top 40, because I’ve been banned from singing it in the flat and merely thinking about the ear-worm means it consumes my entire day. Obviously, the reason all the challenges delighted us so much is that they were so precisely spot on when it comes to British queer culture at its most basic.

EG: I read somewhere that the songwriters were inspired by a combination of Eurovision entries (naturally), the Mary Poppins soundtrack, The B-52's and Crazy Frog, which explains a lot. 

LO: In amongst the Beastenders and the “UK Hun” of it all, it’s easy to forget that this is a show that dared to put something called “Rats: The Rusical” in front of the eyes of people who had barely left the house in a year. Seeing Veronica Green (sad she had to go, but even more excited to see her come back for Season 3!) appear as a sexy rat with babies – doubling as nipple tassels – suckling at her teats was the moment I knew Drag Race UK Season 2 would be a moment in cultural history.

LO: Bimini said it best when they tweeted, “How nice was it to hear two gender non-conforming people discuss identity politics without Piers Morgan?” The BBC has done a wonderful job at a non-sensationalist edit when it comes to topics ranging from gender identity to Cherry Valentine’s discussion of growing up in the GRT community, and the deep chats have been one of the best handled bits of the show this year. 

HE: The deep chats about overcoming adversity are a franchise staple, to the degree that at this point they’re as central as the lip-sync. Through some combination of UK production, editing and the blunt Britishness of the UK contestants, these discussions felt natural and not overdone. I was particularly moved by a conversation Tayce had with Lawrence Chaney about how they feel insecure. The idea that Tayce, a stunning, charming, thin model could ever feel bad about themselves! Honestly, does make you think.

EG: Bimini, Lawrence and Ellie Diamond each talking about the lack of money in drag and the additional financial impact of COVID were also really important conversations to have on the show. It’s a shame RuPaul undid all that when she iconically screamed the house down, Tyra Banks yelling at Tiffany-style, after Joe Black performed the crime of wearing H&M on the stage, but points were already made.

HE: Justice for A’whora, our Secretary of Shade and a misunderstood, gentle mess. Almost toe-to-toe with Bimini for best looks, A’whora was catty, cute and all round hilarious TV-gold. Listen to the United Kingdolls version of “U K Hun” again and tell me A’whora’s moaning doesn’t make her the centrepiece of the track. Anyone being binned on the basis of saying something slutty doesn’t sit well with me. I personally believe A’whora was a sacrificial lamb so that Drag Race UK will be re-commissioned on BBC, rather than have to go sniffing around the broadcasting dregs, and if that’s the case we’ll have to take the L. But I will miss her presence in my life.

LO: A’Whora’s performance as “TOWIE: The Sex Doll” doing a “vagravel” on Tia Kofi is the most underrated moment on the history of this show, and Ginny Lemon – a seer whose final appearance on the runway saw them dressed as a premonition of coronavirus – has also been sadly missed.

EG: Tayce has been massively overlooked by the judges, who for some reason tend to underestimate her as a default, and then offer back-handed compliments like, “I thought she’d be bad but she wasn’t.” Maybe it’s because of how naturally beautiful she is, but excuse me: the face? The comedy? The charisma? Flowing! She’s the unofficial narrator of the show; the Iain Stirling of Drag Race UK. And her back-and-forth with Alan Carr, who was supposed to be “training” them for their stand-up comedy night, was funnier than most of the finished sets. The latest in a long line of underrated Welsh icons.

HE: Not overlooked necessarily, but Joe Black coming out as a windswept seaside tourist was one of the most breathtaking moments in this whole franchise. Obviously poor old Joe didn’t quite fit into the parameters of what this type of drag and competition entails, but I cannot wait to be able to go to Brighton to see them perform on their own terms.

EG: I also still maintain that A’whora doing Louie Spence for snatch game was inspired. 

HE: Tayce and A’whora’s sexual history. The scene where they’re having a charged tete-a-tete and Tayce says, “Little old me?” as their eyes go black as a shark’s. Undoubtedly the horniest episode in drag race herstory. There was something hilarious and frankly delicious in seeing two offensively attractive people flirt with each other so aggressively in a room full of nosy near-strangers.

EG: Tayce brushing off Lawrence's observations with, “I’m just over here trying to make a garment,” was the most represented I have ever felt by someone on television. Except for Bimini’s grand entrance of: “I’m vegan, HA HA”, of course.

HE: That highlight is closely followed by: every moment of Tayce’s talking head interviews. Tia Kofi tottering out onto the stage with a fuck off ear on her back. Bimini as Katie Price saying: “The eyes are the nipples of the face.”

EG: I enjoyed seeing everyone come back from a seven month hiatus, absolutely glowing, with a face full of injectables.

LO: Six words: Tia Kofi’s godforsaken Alan Turing runway.

@hannahrosewens, @hiyalauren & @emmaggarland