The stars of BBC drag sitcom Smoggie Queens on making their riotous new show: ‘It’s offensive, basically’

Author: Marcus Wratten

I’m nine minutes into the first episode of the BBC’s new drag comedy series Smoggie Queens, and I’ve been introduced to the following: a drag queen who accidentally stuck her nephew’s hamster to her gooch, a hun who thinks she’s going on a date with Zac Efron, a frankly harrowing rendition of Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love”, a punch in the face, and nits from TK Maxx.

In case it’s not obvious, Smoggie Queens is unlike anything the BBC has aired before. Written by and starring Phil Dunning, the “silly, stupid, slapstick” six-part sitcom follows a clan of largely queer, entirely misfit friends living, loving and laughing in Middlesborough, North Yorkshire. Emphasis on laughing; nine minutes in, and I’ve guffawed at least three times. 

Dunning is Dickie, a blistering 37-year-old drag queen who is as delusional as he is hilarious. At the beginning, he’s got a particular disdain for the guileless “little baby gay” Stewart (Elijah Young) – who joins the group after being found on his own in a gay bar – because he’s younger, better at makeup, and doesn’t murder Adele hits. “Pam Ratface,” Dickie suggests when Stewart asks him for a drag name suggestion. “You look like a rat.”

Coronation Street’s Alexandra Mardell is their featherbrained friend Lucinda on the prowl for a new man (“He’s got a gorgeous set of d*ck picks,” she says of one shifty suitor. “Each photo is a different size and colour. He must have a very versatile willy.”) Patsy Lowe is Sal, another tactless friend who arrives at a funeral wearing an “RIP” hoodie. They’re all contained under one roof, that of kindly matriarch Mam, played by Early Doors star Mark Benton.

“It’s about chosen family, isn’t it? I feel we became a chosen family, you know, off screen,” says Benton, sitting around a table in London’s queer KU bar with his co-stars. That much is clear, as they punctuate each other’s every quip and comment with raucous laughter. “I think in some ways, it’s quite old fashioned the way Phil’s written it, the way we’ve done it. It’s big laughs and it’s kind of irreverent,” Benton continues. “I think the brilliant thing I love about the show, what we all love about the show, is it makes no apologies for what it is.”

It was “virtually impossible” for the stars not to laugh while filming, and it’s understandable: the set looks and sounds like a riotously good time. One entire episode is set up as a murder mystery horror film, while another sees them dressed up as characters from Titanic (yes, including the iceberg). There’s even a cameo from Drag Race UK’s Michelle Visage, playing a frumpy office worker named Elaine. On set mishaps were common. “In rehearsal, Elijah was sat next to me and I got in to proper Dickie character,” Dunning recalls. “I pushed him off the chair. He literally fell on the floor.”

“It’s not woke, it’s not PC. It’s offensive, basically,” Benton laughs. “People who might have preconceived ideas about what it is, I think they might change their mind when they see it.” Mardell’s Lucinda hammers that point home in episode one’s second minute: “She’s lovely Angela,” she says of a neighbour. “But by God she’s ugly, bless her.”

On set laughs began on day one, considering Benton, Young and Dunning had never been in full drag before. Dunning honed his comedic chops via stand-up shows and “live character comedy”, but never through drag. “I’ve put a bit of lippy on and stuff,” he says. “I mean, I’ve tried to do full face, but I am just dogs**t at it. I’m worse than my character.” While Dunning and Benton were near tears through the pain of 12-hour shoots in stilettos, Young was quite content. “I kept on saying, ‘I’ve never felt more beautiful in all my life’…’Even when you couldn’t see them in shot, I was like, ‘Could I get the shoes?’”

While the incredibly British, incredibly northern comedy is Smoggie Queens’ biggest selling point, there are scenes of pathos as the series goes on. “We see moments of heart-warming storylines and touching moments between them, and then, without giving it away, it culminates very emotionally at the end,” says Dunning, who started writing the series during lockdown, when the real-world drag scene was contained to Zoom calls and socially-distanced car park performances.

It’s a tough challenge for a writer to create a comedy show where viewers genuinely care about what happens to its leads, but Dunning has acrylic nailed it. “By the end you really care about them, so those emotional moments are really earned,” Young says. “What Phil has done is weaved these stories so that at certain points it is really emotional,” adds Benton. “That’s hopefully why people will love these characters because that’s the most important thing isn’t it? You want to spend half an hour with these people, and hopefully,  people will.” He teases that there are ideas for a second season that, if commissioned, will see Mam’s storyline get deeper. 

Although the show is about “people on the fringes of society” and queer people in general, setting it in Teesside, where Dunning grew up, was of paramount importance. “It’s write what you know, isn’t it? I knew about that community and that area of Middlesborough,” he shares. “It’s quite a small LGBT+ scene in Middlesbrough but it’s quite mighty. They make themselves known.” He recalls a gay bar in the area that used to have a doorbell, so the owners could peer through cameras and check if there were punters at the door, rather than trouble. “Obviously that kind of thing doesn’t exist anymore, that was back in the day,” he says.

Still, connecting with Teesside’s queer roots was fundamental for the show. In the season finale, the Smoggie Queens – a Smoggie being a colloquial term used to refer to those from Middlesbrough – hit up Middlesborough Pride. Several of the scene’s real-life queens appear in the episode. “It was really nice to see everyone, and they’re really inclusive,” Dunning adds. “They welcomed us in.”

The first episode of the series airs on BBC Three straight after the Drag Race UK finale, adding another to the BBC’s roster of queer shows (“They love it, don’t they?” jokes Dunning.) But while queerness undeniably courses through each episode of Smoggie Queens, at its heart, it’s about the unbreakable bond of friendship, as simple as that.

“It’s universal, isn’t it? A group of pals having a laugh and looking after each other and accepting each other,” Lowe chips in. “And maybe giving each other a bit of sh*t now and again.”

Smoggie Queens is streaming now on BBC iPlayer and will air on BBC Three at 10:10pm GMT.

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Author: Marcus Wratten