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Coverage, page 9

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Don’t sashay away! The BBC’s decision to cancel Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK is sickening in all the wrong ways

The hyper-flamboyant and hilariously filthy show is an inclusive, celebratory platform for queer culture. The broadcaster’s choice to nix it is giving stupidity The BBC is canning RuPaul’s Drag Race UK – a decision that, in my household, will bring the number of regularly watched programmes on the Beeb down from one to zero. It’s a decision that will no doubt please enemies of LGBTQ+ culture, but otherwise seems inexplicable. For a start, Drag Race UK regularly pulls in 1 million viewers a week, which hardly seems like a show in its death throes (even if this is down from a previous high of 1.5 million). RuPaul’s Drag Race is also a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Since the US version started in 2009, it has brought tons of performers to national, or even global, attention who would otherwise still be plying their trade in provincial gay bars. Jinkx Monsoon from the US is now starring in Oh Mary! in London’s West End; the UK’s La Voix made it on to Strictly; and Bimini Bon-Boulash, who “stepped their pussy up” to astonishing effect in season two, has made records, modelled and written a book. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Alex Needham10 Sept

Nick Mohammed takes Claudia Winkleman’s role in stage version of The Traitors

Finalist in 2025’s inaugural celebrity iteration will be the host of several variants, which will see different characters banished, murdered and victorious In another twist for the intrigue-cloaked world of The Traitors, Nick Mohammed is to star in the new West End play based on the ridiculously gripping TV series. Mohammed, a finalist in the BBC’s first series of The Celebrity Traitors last year, will now play the host of the show, effectively taking over the role of Claudia Winkleman for the stage version. There are several different variants of the play, written by John Finnemore and directed by Robert Hastie, so audiences over the course of its run will see different outcomes as characters are banished, “murdered” and exposed as faithful or treacherous in the fierce competition to win a cash prize. The Traitors – Acts of Betrayal begins performances at the Gillian Lynne theatre in London in May. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Chris Wiegand Stage editor10 Sept

‘That was all secret’: the ‘gay mole’ who fought the BBC to show the first queer kiss on kids’ TV

Everyone thinks Byker Grove broke the taboo in 1994, but another teen drama got there first. Here’s the astonishing story of Two of Us, which put a gay relationship on UK screens – and was the original Heartstopper When I started looking for anything queer aimed at kids on TV from around the time I was born in 1989, I came across a children’s drama called Two of Us. Directed by Roger Tonge and written by Leslie Stewart, it was surprisingly akin to the 2020s series Heartstopper , both in its plot and in the way it makes you feel. But the reaction at the time couldn’t have been more different. Both feature one character who realises he likes both boys and girls, who falls in love with another guy. Both are set at a comprehensive school. Both have characters who face homophobia and stigma but manage to find a way through because of their love and support for each other. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Scott Bryan10 Sept

‘It detonated right outside our house’: the explosion that started an incredible podcast series

Josh Baker is the journalist behind the BBC’s smash hit I’m Not a Monster. He’s back with his most extraordinary investigation yet – to solve the mystery of Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria 14 years ago In 2012, the US marine turned freelance foreign correspondent Austin Tice disappeared in Syria. If he’s still alive, he’ll be the second-longest detained journalist in the world. That, says Josh Baker (speaking to me from Wales), was the podcast he thought he was making: “We thought we were looking for a missing person, and what we fell into was almost like a Bourne novel, utterly extraordinary. A world of espionage, spies, dictatorship.” It’s also a story of American exceptionalism – the way the US saw itself in relation to the rest of the world. Moreover, “I don’t mean this in a crass way,” Baker says, “but through Austin’s story, we also learn a lot about the last 14 years of the civil war in Syria. We really go inside the regime’s industrial complex of disappearance and torture. As episode two begins, Assad is gone, and we enter into these facilities.” Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Zoe Williams9 Sept

Why are so many people stealing from restaurants?

About a quarter of British adults admit to having pilfered something from a pub or restaurant. Is it an Insta-fuelled craze, or just old-fashioned greed? Knives, candles, a toilet roll holder complete with screws and Rawlplugs – that’s just some of the stuff Michelin-starred restaurants in France complained about clients nicking in a recent news report . I’m not sure why the screws were presented as the ultimate absurdity – if you want to use your stolen toilet roll holder, you’ll need them – it’s just common sense! A Québécois restaurateur complained about similar thefts in July – a picnic table, a painting and even the thermostat had been pinched – and British restaurateurs confirm it happens in the UK, too. Jan Ostle of Wilsons in Bristol told the BBC’s World at One that the mother-of-pearl spoons he uses to serve herb sorbet are a particular target: “Every few months I have to buy another 28.” Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Emma Beddington7 Sept