RuPaul's Drag Race UK is a British Reality Show in which Drag Queens compete in challenges to impress host RuPaul, with the winner of each series crowned as the UK's latest drag superstar and awarded other prizes. The show is part of the international Drag Race franchise.
The challenges cover things such as modelling, makeup and fashion design - as well as comedy, acting and dance performances. Each episode also includes at least one themed runway fashion show, which may or may not be related to the episode's other challenges.
As well as the challenges themselves, a large part of each show is devoted to conversation and events backstage, in the shared "Werk Room". This is where contestants prepare their costumes, do their makeup and rehearse for some of the challenges. Contestants aren't usually in drag during these segments, but still use their stage names - Drag Race largely avoids mentioning contestants' legal names unless contestants specifically share them.
At the end of each episode, contestants in the middle of the field are immediately marked as 'safe' until the next episode and leave the stage, whereas contestants at the top and bottom of the results remain onstage to hear the judges' critiques. As the series progresses, the number of safe places available steadily reduces.
After the critiques the remaining contestants leave the stage, the judges deliberate, and all of the contestants return to hear their verdict - at which point one queen is normally declared the week's winner, two are warned that they are potentially facing elimination, and any remaining queens who received critiques are also declared 'safe'.
As with other Drag Race shows, elimination is tied to a "lip sync battle" - the two contestants lip sync to a song chosen by the judges, with both queens performing onstage at the same time. The judges then decide who'll be saved and who'll be sent home.
The series is hosted by RuPaul and judged by a panel including RuPaul and Michelle Visage (who also judge the original US Drag Race shows), with Graham Norton and Alan Carr alternating as the third regular judge. The fourth judge is a special guest, with a different celebrity for each episode.
Each season is preceded by a one-off Meet the Queens special, introducing the contestants.
Unlike some of the other shows in the franchise, RuPaul's Drag Race UK was initially self-contained - there was no companion Untucked show to focus on Werk Room conversations and say farewell to the eliminated contestants. However, season five debuted its own companion show, The After Shave with Danny Beard.
A Spin-Off series, RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs the World, debuted in 2022, with veterans of RuPaul's Drag Race UK returning to compete against drag queens from other parts of the world.
RuPaul's Drag Race UK contains examples of the following tropes:
- Back for the Finale: Eliminated contestants generally reappear for the finale to see the winner being crowned. Sometimes they'll also be back in the semifinal as well - e.g. as the audience and targets of a comedy challenge Roast.
- Confession Cam: Contestants provide commentary via confessional interviews, which are recorded after the scenes they refer to, then spliced into the episode. Confessionals typically start on video, sometimes continuing as voiceover once the episode cuts back to the original scene. Confessionals are recorded out of drag.
- Drag Queen: As with other Drag Race shows, not only is it a contest for drag queens to demonstrate their skills, host RuPaul is a very well-established drag queen as well. In practice, much of each episode covers the Werk Room preparations and rehearsals, with contestants mostly out of drag. Confession Cam segments, commenting on the show's events, are also filmed out of drag.
- Elimination Catchphrase: RuPaul dismisses eliminated contestants with the same "Sashay away" used on previous English-language Drag Race shows.
- Elimination Houdini: As contestants are eliminated via lip sync battle, those performing poorly in challenges but consistently delivering strong lip syncs can remain in the show for quite some time. As with earlier Drag Race shows, they may be directly referred to as a "Lip Sync Assassin" by other competitors - especially if they eliminate queens who usually placed much higher in the competition.
- Elimination Statement: As with other shows in the Drag Race franchise, eliminated contestants usually make two different statements when they leave. The first is a final comment to the judges and cameras, before the contestant leaves the stage. The second is a message for the remaining contestants, written in lipstick on the werk room mirror.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first episode deliberately gives each contestant a showcase to establish their drag style and persona when they make their grand entrance. Each queen walks into the Werk Room in full drag, pauses, poses and delivers a carefully chosen entrance line.
- Everyone Meets Everyone: The first episode of the season begins with the contestants entering the werk room in drag, one at a time. Some of them may already know each other (in season five, two of them are actually housemates), but they get some time to talk and introduce themselves before Ru arrives.
- Foreign Remake: RuPaul's Drag Race UK is a British version of RuPaul's Drag Race, the US show that originally launched the Drag Race franchise. For this version, the Pit Crew team is replaced by the Brit Crew, a "Ru Britannia" musical clip is widely used, and challenge winners receive a "Ru Peter badge" (a Shout-Out to British show Blue Peter). More generally, the BBC rules about prizes mean that winners aren't rewarded with cash.
- Fun with Acronyms: Ru regularly tells contestants that they'll be judged on their Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve & Talent.RuPaul: Is your charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent ready for its close-up?
- Given Name Reveal: For most of the series, contestants who use Stage Names for their drag personas are only ever referred to by those names, even when out of drag. Real names are never revealed. However, in the finale of each season, Ru addresses finalists by their real first names when asking what they'd tell their younger selves.
- In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: As with other shows in the Drag Race franchise, Ru is the host so it's RuPaul's Drag Race in the title. This doesn't happen with other Foreign Remakes that have different hosts (such as Canada's Drag Race).
- Laugh Track: In season five, Alan Carr, who's coaching the contestants for the "Dragiators" comedy Roast, mentions that when a joke falls flat on television, he has to pretend it's worked because canned laughter will be added. The scene immediately cuts to a Confession Cam of DeDeLicious, who's struggled with comedy challenges, saying that she can picture herself in dead space with no-one laughing. At which point the show plays a laugh track.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Two of the characters in the season five Pantomime are Lisa Thot Lee and D, washed-up pop stars who were previously in "Stairs". Any resemblance to Lisa Scott-Lee and H from Steps is purely coincidental.
- On the Next: Every episode (aside from the season finales) cuts from the onstage ending to a set of "Next time on..." clips. The clip montage introduces the week's main challenge and normally includes some judge's comments, but doesn't reveal who's being judged. Closing credits follow the clips.
- Panel Game: The Snatch Game challenge, carried over from the original RuPaul's Drag Race series, is based on the panel game format, spoofing American show Match Game, with contestants impersonating celebrities and then appearing in-character as the panel. A couple of genuine celebrities normally appear as guests, posing questions to the panel and judging their answers.
- Passing the Torch: From season two onwards, the previous season's winner returns in the finale to congratulate their successor and formally hand over the sceptre and tiara.
- Perverted Sniffing: In an Establishing Character Moment for season five's Footballer's Wags sketch, comically crazed stalker Champagne (played by contestant Cara Melle) pulls Stefan's Union Jack underwear out of her cleavage, holds it to her nose and inhales deeply.
- Shout-Out:
- Any contestant who wins a challenge is rewarded with a "Ru Peter badge", a reference to long-running British children's TV show Blue Peter.
- Ru tends to introduce the "Reading is Fundamental" challenge, in which queens cast shade at their competitors, as being "in the grand tradition of Paris Is Burning".
- Season's five's screen test challenge spoofs three well-known British shows. Footballer's Wags spoofs Footballers Wives, Holedark spoofs period drama Poldark and Femmerdale takes a swipe at soap opera Emmerdale.
- Drag Race's Panel Game challenge, Snatch Game, is a direct spoof of American show Match Game. There are also some references to Blankety Blank, the British adaptation of Match Game.RuPaul: You need to show us your best celebrity impersonation and make me laugh my Black Blankety Blank off.
- Season five's semifinal challenge, the Dragiators Roast, is spoofing Gladiators. Ru directly describes it as a Gladiators / Drag Race mash-up, and the logo is clearly based on the Gladiators version.
- Transatlantic Equivalent: The British version of the original US series began in late 2019 and assembles queens from across the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Despite initial fears of a simple rehash, the show has garnered a strong following both at home and abroad — mostly due to the difference in British versus American drag. British drag has its roots in more raw, less glamorous venues (pubs, working-men's clubs, etc), and lacks the look-based pageant/ballroom culture of the US drag scene, which lends the UK iteration a tone that is a little grittier, more humour-based, and full of outrageously shocking language. And since there's no big cash prize, the queens are more able to have fun and not outgun each other like their American counterparts. In some ways, the US and UK drag scenes (before drag became more universally mainstream) are relatively antithetical and each other’s Foil. It’s not a universal truth, but historically, in the prominent ball culture and pageantry of the American drag scene, the ‘rich lady’ lifestyle is celebrated and aspired to, with queens, often from (very) humble backgrounds, wanting to be like the rich, Dynasty-style women they portray — see Paris Is Burning for additional insight. However, the British drag scene, especially with classic pub queens, compères and the venerable institution of the pantomime dame in mind, has its origins in making fun of and sending up the affectations, cattiness and airs and graces of the aspirational women of the middle-classes, who would have (certainly in the past) been a higher step up on the British social class ladder than the more humble drag performers (and their appreciative audiences). There's nothing the British love more than poking fun at class distinction and, for the working-class, indulging in a spot of épater la bourgeoisie. Ru has clearly leaned into the British setting in a big way, and along with a newly badged, Queen's Guards themed "Brit-Crew", she has tasked the queens with a multitude of British-themed challenges and main-stage looks: "Day at the Races," "Downton Draggy, "Bond Girl Glamorama", "Wimbled'Hun" and of course, THE (former) Queen herself, Elizabeth II. When Ru quizzes The Vivienne on the subject, she perfectly sums up all of the above, as does show judge Graham Norton.The Vivienne: "I want to go to the pub on a Sunday, get a pint, and have someone like Baga make me laugh."Graham: "I think what makes the British Drag scene special is how funny it is. It doesn’t just have a sense of humour, it has a sense of humour about itself. I think that’s a real difference that you get watching the other versions. No matter how dramatic or tense it is the British Queens are still having a laugh."
- Very Special Episode: Each season has a themed drag makeover challenge, with the contestants transforming guests into drag queens. This can lead to a much more serious tone for the episode. For season five the guests are all volunteers with the LGBT+ helpline Switchboard, which leads to some very serious conversations about prejudice, coming out, representation and the impact of AIDS on the UK gay scene in the 1980s.RuPaul: To our helpline queros, for playing with us this week and for the good work you do all year round, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.
- Voted Off the Island:
- Ru normally chooses the winner of each episode, chooses the two queens who'll lip sync to avoid elimination, and then chooses which queen will go home. Given the nature of the challenges and the lip sync, there's always a subjective element to these decisions.
- On occasion, judges can defy the usual voting rule. In the first episode of season five, Ru chooses not to eliminate any of the contestants. In the third episode of that season, after a girl group challenge, nobody is eliminated and the top two contestants instead lip sync for the win.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: The Brit Crew (the British version of the Drag Race franchise's Pit Crew) are muscular men who only wear Union Jack underwear. It's part of the job.
