Drag Race UK S4 returned last night as Culture Club legend Boy George joined the judging panel to assist Michelle Visage, Alan Carr and former Drag Race alum Raven in making the difficult decision to send Sussex’s very own Dakota Schiffer home as RuPaul was absent due to illness.
Drag Race UK returned to screens for episode 7 last night as the remaining six queens sashayed their way into the ‘Werk Room’, where the group was challenged to make over the ‘queen team’ in a heart-warming makeover challenge.
After the episode aired on BBC Three, drag fans from across the globe were devastated by the unfortunate elimination of trans icon Dakota Schiffer, who put in a strong fight against Pixie Polite in one hell of a lip-sync showdown to Miss Me Blind by Culture Club.
‘I really feel like Michelle didn’t get my drag’
Michelle Visage fronted the judges’ panel last night as RuPaul could not be in attendance due to “reasons beyond anyones control”, which left Dakota in shock after being sent home by Ru’s stand-in. On asking Dakota how she felt about the switch-up this week, she said she felt it was rather “strange”.
“Michelle being on the judges’ panel was a bit strange. I’m the queen of first – first queen to openly hate musicals on Drag Race, first trans queen, first queen to be eliminated by Michelle Visage, just give me a bloody break,” said Dakota: “I really feel like Michelle didn’t get my drag while I was there so it was quite funny to actually have her eliminate me in the end. I feel like she got her way.”
‘Hopefully it only gets more diverse’
Dakota was the first openly trans contestant to compete on the UK franchise and, when speaking to the press, we had to ask how important she felt it was for the BBC to look into casting trans contestants for future seasons.
Dakota said: “I’d say just look at the reaction to this cast. Season 4 has been one of the most diverse casts Drag Race UK has had. We’ve had so many different identities, gender, um and uh, it is just such a diverse cast.
“The upward trend is certainly something the fans appreciate, and hopefully it only gets more diverse and more representative of what the actual British drag scene looks like.
“I hope there’ll be a long legacy of trans people represented on Drag Race or any other British media, just to be a public figure for the trans community. It was daunting but I’m very grateful for that. There’s been so many messages of people saying they now have someone to look to and they feel represented – and that’s the reason why I did it in the first place.”
‘She was such an incredible and important part of my journey’
Last night the queens had the chance to make over a member of the queen team, which the cast were rather emotional about. On asking Dakota how special it felt to give back to members of the team who assist with the welfare of the cast, she was quick to tell us how important she felt it was.
“They helped us so much. The amount of picking me up, peeling me off the floor, crying about musicals or crying about lip syncing about five times. To be able to specifically make over Lucy as well. It was very much divine intervention,” said Dakota. “I got paired with Lucy cuz she was such an incredible and important part of my journey on Drag Race so it was very poetic to me.
“I never ever wanted to feel like it was her fault I left or she couldn’t have done anything more. She looked beautiful and she texted me this morning and agreed. She thinks she looks beautiful on camera, which I’m very grateful for.”
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