Drag Race UK finalists talk off-camera chats with RuPaul and shock exits

The four finalists of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series four have been opening up about what conversations they’ve been having with RuPaul off camera, iconic lip syncs, and the most shocking eliminations.

Danny Beard, Black Peppa, Jonbers Blonde, and Cheddar Gorgeous all landed in the grand finale of Drag Race UK after last week’s comedy roast challenge which saw Pixie Polite exit the competition.

Ahead of tonight’s (Thursday, 24 November) grand finale, the four finalists spoke to Tia Kofi for Attitude Tea Time about their time on the show.

Danny Beard reveals that Dakota Schiffer’s elimination was a tough one to watch from the back of the runway.

“It was so emotional. People don’t realise as soon as they walk off the back of that stage you don’t see them again. You’re put in separate rooms. It feels so cold. It’s part of the show, it’s a reality competition but it just was the worst week. The mood was… the bus home was the only week when no one was like singing, and talking, and dancing. It was hell.”

Danny also shares that the cast was really close and even in “times of tension. We really did get on.”

She adds, “I’m pleased that I get on with these people because we’re going on a massive Uk tour together. It would be awful if there was people who really didn’t like each other.”

Black Peppa discusses their lip sync record with Tia Kofi, sharing that their favourite was the one that landed them a spot in the grand finale.

“That was the one where I was like ‘If I don’t beat Pixie, and I get this close I will be so mad at myself.’ So, I had to make sure that I zoned myself out and I just did the best that I could. And I had the most fun with that one as well.”

Peppa also says that the most shocking elimination of the series was Baby’s self-elimination. Baby decided to remove herself from the competition because of how she felt on the show

“Baby was not in the best of head spaces and leading up to that moment where they decided to go home I remember sitting in the werkroom being like, ‘Girl, are you ok? You can do it.’ I look up to Baby so much so I was like, ‘You need to be strong for me, I don’t want you to go anywhere, I don’t want you to do anything crazy’.

“I had no idea what they were planning on doing. And then when that moment happened I was in tears,” Peppa says adding that they’re glad the cameras didn’t catch too much of that. They also say that Sminty’s exit was hard, but Dakota’s was the “icing on top of the cake”.

Irish queen, Jonbers Blonde, ru-veals that RuPaul was very interested in her day-to-day sense of fashion.

“Every day she would be like, ‘what are you wearing?’ She’d go through my day looks every day and she’d come in and the cameras are down and she’d be like, ‘take me through every single thing. I want to know where everything is from.

“I was like, ‘Am I allowed to say this?’ She was like, ‘The cameras are down, tell me, I want to know where I can buy it’.”

Jonbers also addresses RuPaul’s issue with her drag name.

“She’d say to me, ‘Oh, iut’s really hard to say’. And I was like, ‘No, it’s two syllables like yours: Jon-bers, Ruy-Paul’. And she was like, ‘No’.

Jonbers also says she lost count of RuPaul’s nicknames for her but that she was happy with “J.B”.

“A lot of people in my life call me ‘J.B.’ anyway so I was fine with that one. I took that one on board.”

Finally, Cheddar Gorgeous describes the experience of being on Drag Race UK as “transformative”.

Admitting that she’s “a little lost for words” at being in the finale. “People always laugh me when I say this, but I really didn’t expect for what I do to go that far,” Cheddar says adding that Drag Race was “massively out of comfort zone”.

She also says the show forces people to look at themselves in different ways and “without fear” but also “accept celebration of you”.

On shocking eliminations, Cheddar says that Dakota’s was the most shocking but that she was proud Baby had taken “a bold decision” to remove herself from the competition.

“You don’t take that lightly and the fact that Baby felt that strongly just said to me what an amazing, brave person. And to do something so incredibly bold for the right reasons.

“But Dakota’s elimination, not necessarily because I think one was better than the other, but because it was an episode that just was so full of love,” Cheddar continues.

The grand finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series four is on BBC Three and the iPlayer on Thursday 24 November at 9 pm.