The camp reality contest isn’t as polished as its US cousin, but its air of shambolic liberation makes it a ‘much betta’ watch
At around the time of the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (BBC Three), a few variations on a meme did the rounds, which compared the finer points of the US original and this brash and brassy spin-off. The gist was, with apologies to the wits who came up with the original, that while the American original was about power, realness, glamour and attitude, the British spin-off was about being a camp old slag, and loving it. It is back for a second season, and I continue to cackle for the full hour at its winningly filthy self-deprecation.
The first series was won by the bosomy Liverpudlian pro The Vivienne, although there is a strong argument to be made that Baga Chipz’s catchphrase “Much betta!” was its true enduring legacy. This series is enhanced by having 12 queens, rather than 10, though much of the tone and tempo remains the same. If anything is different, it’s that the queens seem more polished than the first batch, though only by a squeaky margin, and only in the sense that many of them will have grown up with Drag Race, and will now have seen the British edition and know what to expect. For the first challenge, the newly arrived queens, pulled from most corners of the UK (no Northern Ireland this time, but Scotland and Wales are represented), must pose for a tennis-inspired photo, for an imaginary tournament called Wimbled’hun.
