BBC Three

Television glitter should lift many spirits brought low by this year’s Christ­mas comedown as RuPaul’s Drag Race UK returns for a second series in January. Good news for fans of the raucous and rude BBC Three show – and for the people that make it.

Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey met at NYU film school in the mid-1980s, performed as a gloriously camp electro-pop duo, The Fabulous Pop Tarts, and went on to found World of Wonder Productions in 1991.

RuPaul and his crew of twelve new British queens will be bringing some sequins and sass to our screens this dreary January.

With Michelle Visage, Graham Norton, Alan Carr and a host of surprise celebrity guest judges offering their critiques of the chosen drag queens, the series will see the queens battle it out through a series of challenges, cat walks and lip-syncs to ultimately be crowned Britain’s next drag superstar.

Meet the 2021 contestants:

Tayce

From Newport, South Wales, Tayce describes her look as ‘model-esque, villainous, dark, punky and edgy’.

Narrated by Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders), the series follows the multimillion pound esports organisation EXCEL ESPORTS and its League of Legends team as they compete in The League of Legends European Championships in Berlin.

The team finished in tenth place in 2019, but given the new blood, huge financial backing and world class coaches, they are looking to make their mark on the global LoL scene.

Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio decided he probably should learn to write – after he’d already penned a hit BBC drama series. “I did it backwards,” the former medic told the RTS Midlands Careers Fair 2020.

Mercurio had been a junior doctor working in Birmingham hospitals when he replied to an advert in the British Medical Journal. It had been placed by a production company looking for drama ideas.

The show has also opened its casting process for the third series, calling all UK drag queens to compete in the Olympics of Drag.

The second series will see Michelle Visage, Alan Carr and Graham Norton returning as judges, with a host of other top-secret celebrity judges to be announced. Over the ten-week series, 12 British queens will battle it out to be crowned the Next Drag Superstar.

Series one saw Liverpool’s finest The Vivienne take the title in a close final with Divina De Campo and Baga Chipz. The second series promises to be even bigger than the first.

At its centre is the mythical NASBLAQ, a Stock index for diverse talent which controls their movement up and down the ladder of fame.

In this pilot, Dane and his cast will investigate the workings of the NASBLAQ and attempt to crack the code to success with a series of sketches, stunts, interviews and social campaigns.

The eight-part documentary series will give viewers an insight into the hard graft behind the glitz and glamour of the Drag Race UK tour.

The series begins only a few days after The Vivienne won the UK’s first Drag Race and was crowned Drag Race Superstar, with all the queens working together to put on big, showstopping group performances and captivating audiences with their own individual talents, from circus skills, to power ballads.

Written and created by Lena Waithe, Twenties is inspired by Waithe's own life and follows Hattie (Jonica T. Gibbs), an aspiring young black lesbian writer. Hattie and her friends Marie (Christina Elmore) and Nia (Gabrielle Graham) fight to realise their dreams while living in LA.

While homeless and struggling to make her dreams a reality, Hattie meets a successful writer and producer who gives her a chance and hires her as an assistant on a show.