The stars of the upcoming season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK have revealed just how dangerous things can get when they get dolled up.
Season 5 of the long-running reality series hit screens on BBC tonight, with a new cast of queens ready to werk as they chase the title of the Next Drag Superstar.
First launching back in 2019, the local version of the franchise has made household names of queens like The Vivienne, Bimini Bon Boulash and Cheryl Hole.
This time around there are 10 new queens, who will be looking to impress Mama Ru, Michelle Visage, Alan Carr and Graham Norton, as well as the many guest judges who have also signed up to appear this time around.
While there is plenty of glitz and glamour associated with the art form, some of the stars have told Metro.co.uk that they’ve faced some wild and savage injuries throughout their drag journeys.
For Ginger Johnson, who first got into drag 15 years ago, she admitted to doing some ‘really silly things’ throughout that time.
‘I went through a phase a few years ago when I was hosting at a club and I used to climb things quite a lot,’ she explained.
‘Once we did a ball in a huge marquee at Oxford Uni and I climbed a speaker stand and saw this wire, which I decided to climb onto and haul myself along above the crowd.
‘Everybody was screaming and I thought “wow this is going down really well” but then it turns out it was actually an electric cable that I was dangling from, which was about to snap.’
She continued: ‘I had no choice but to let go and thankfully there were 10 very strong homosexuals directly underneath me who caught me. I narrowly escaped injury in that way.’
For her co-star Vicki Vivacous, the dangers usually come in the form of drunk women.
Ginger Johnson admitted to doing some ‘really silly things’ (Picture: BBC/World Of Wonder/Guy Levy/Matt Burlem)
‘Drag is crazy,’ Vicki Vivacious told us (Picture: BBC/World Of Wonder/Guy Levy/Matt Burlem)
‘Drag is crazy. I sing live at my shows and I have a microphone in my hand and some drunk woman at brunch will usually swing her arm and once it knocked the mic and it chipped my tooth,’ she explained.
‘Once a tooth came out because it was knocked so hard. I’m definitely glad I have my public liability insurance now because you never quite know what you’re going to get!’
As Michael Marouli explained, queens called these incidents DRI’s, or Drag Related Injuries.
‘I’ve had so many! I’ve snapped my hamstring doing jump splits, fallen into tables…Drag is hard, honest to god. So many injuries.’
For Banksie, her act jumping between tables at a club in Manchester has caused more than a few issues over the years, with one particularly nasty incident seeing her ‘crack’ both her ankles and leave her out of action for a month.
But in that moment the show obviously had to go on.
The show must go on! (Picture: BBC/World Of Wonder/Guy Levy/Matt Burlem)
Michael Marouli explained what DRIs are (Picture: BBC/World Of Wonder/Guy Levy/Matt Burlem)
‘I put my big girl shoes on and did a number straight after. We are professionals…,’ she said.
Speaking of being a professional, DeDeLicious – who has previously designed outfits that have starred on Drag Race UK – told us about how trying to recover from one injury left her in even more pain.
She began: ‘I’ve had a tit fly out of my bodysuit, I’ve had… on one occasion, a wig completely fly off my head, I’ve broken my hamstring twice.
‘Drag is a contact sport, let’s be real, it’s crazy. I’ve been through the works and I’m only 21.’
Explaining the hamstring incident, DeDe went on: ‘The first one, just after lockdown, I was performing on this theatre stage, and you know how deep theatre stages are, and I was like, you know what, I’m going to jump off this into a split.
‘But this was when I had just started training splits and I was feeling brave, I jumped [and] the minute I hit the floor this massive pop went through my leg.’
DeDeLicious couldn’t walk for a week after her horror fall (Picture: BBC/World Of Wonder/Guy Levy/Matt Burlem)
Alexis Saint-Pete almost didn’t make it to filming (Picture: BBC/World Of Wonder/Guy Levy/Matt Burlem)
And things got much worse when DeDe decided to ‘test the waters’ and lift her leg as she got back up.
‘Did that, and another pop, and I could not walk for a week.’
Similarly, Alexis Saint-Pete was left worried she wouldn’t be able to walk, right before filming for Drag Race began.
‘Right before I went on Drag Race, four weeks before I went on Drag Race, I jumped off a two-metre stage in my heels, into the audience without even thinking about it, and I totally destroyed my ankle,’ she said.
‘It was swollen within five minutes and I honestly thought I wasn’t going to be doing it, because right before I walked into the workroom my ankle couldn’t fit in my heel.’
‘I was really lucky,’ Alexis continued, as their first day of filming involved walking into the workroom.
Kate Butch was rushed to A&E (Picture: BBC/World Of Wonder/Guy Levy/Matt Burlem)
Cara Melle has injured herself from ‘sitting on objects’ (Picture: BBC/World Of Wonder/Guy Levy/Matt Burlem)
Some weren’t as lucky though, with Kate Butch rushed to A&E after one particularly horrific accident.
She said: ‘My worst injury in drag, I was singing Wuthering Heights of course, and I thought I’d be a bit brave and do a leap like she does in the music video, but I forgot that the dress I was wearing was quite tight, so I leapt my legs locked and I fell on my ankle and sprained it.
‘I had to go to A&E in full drag, which was not pretty – but I got seen very quickly, probably for the benefit of everyone else in the waiting room, but they gave me some codeine and I was right on my way.’
For Tamara Thomas, who grew up in a town where there were no gay bars, she simply insisted that the stunts they perform often leads to physical harm.
She told us: ‘We’re jumping and doing splits and I’ve only sprained my ankle once.’
Co-star Cara Melle added: ‘I injure myself every time I perform. I smashed a light, I’ve sat on objects.’
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK starts tonight at 9pm on BBC Three.