As part of my work at BBC Three, I was granted the first ever interview with drag queen Danny Beard following her win of Drag Race UK Season 4.
You can read my full Danny Beard interview over at BBC Three.
For this interview, I interviewed Danny on three occasions. Once alongside fellow finalist Cheddar Gorgeous a few days before the finale, once just before the winner was announced, and once just after she had been named the ‘UK’s next Drag Race superstar.’
As a TV writer, I am interested in the processes of making reality TV, and so our conversation touched on a lot of that. We talked about how many times she had auditioned for the show (three times), how she felt when first started the show (like she would be sent home halfway through after being forced to shave her beard) and when she first got the feeling she could win the show (after the musical challenge).
And, of course, as a BBC employee I followed my remit to ‘represent the UK, its nations, regions and communities’ by talking about the power of Manchester as a drag scene and of Liverpool as a hometown.
Some choice quotes from the piece:
- “I applied three times to be on Drag Race…If I had got on when I first auditioned, I wouldn’t be sat here.”
- “Ru said to me, ‘I have never had a bearded queen on here. And I love your style of drag.’ That meant the world to me.”
- “I’m proud to show my emotion. It’s something I’ve never done in drag. It was nice for me to be able to show a bit of the real me.”
- “I feel like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I’m Charlie, RuPaul is Willy Wonka, Michelle is an Oompa Loompa and I’ve got the golden ticket!”
- “The crown is a gorgeous rhinestone cherry on top, but I know the hard work is only just beginning.”
When I did the first set of interviews, I did not know whether Danny or Cheddar had won Drag Race UK, and so had to ask both questions as if they had won. The fact that Danny ending up winning meant I was unable to put in my favourite thing from the Cheddar interview: That she vowed not to audition for the show before it was inclusive to assigned female at birth women and trans men.
Working on the Drag Race UK season four finale was also a great team effort from everyone at Three. So I was also the one asking the questions in this Instagram post, filmed by the digital production unit and edited by the amazing team of editors, who managed to turn the queen’s often very long answers into fun soundbites.
Samuel Spencer – Culture Writer and Editor 
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