Alan Carr has clarified his comments about the upcoming RuPaul’s Drag Race UK judging panel, after suggesting that Paul O’Grady would be joining him on the show.
On Thursday, both Alan and Graham Norton were revealed as panellists on the much-awaited British version of Drag Race, alongside US judges RuPaul and Michelle Visage.
However, speaking to Zoe Ball on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Friday morning, the Chatty Man host suggested that there was a third British judge that hadn’t been mentioned.
“I found out that Paul O’Grady’s a judge on it, and so is Graham Norton,” he told Zoe. “But isn’t it funny – no one said a word [to each other]. We’re all going, ‘oh yes, did you hear they’re looking for judges on UK Drag Race?’, ‘hmmm yes, I heard that’. No one said a word. All keeping it secret!”
Unfortunately, it seems he may have spoken a bit prematurely.
After HuffPost UK published his quotes about Paul appearing on the panel, Alan tweeted us to say: “I saw it on Twitter!! (I know) Hope he’s doing it!! Oh God!! Have I put my foot in it?!!”
A BBC rep told HuffPost UK: “In his excitement, Alan may have got over-enthusiastic. As brilliant as Paul O’Grady is, the other judges on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK have yet to be confirmed.”
Meanwhile, Paul’s rep added: “Paul has a full diary and isn’t on the panel.”
Paul, of course, would be more than qualified to pass comment on drag, having initially risen to fame as his alter-ego Lily Savage.
In the past, though, he has admitted he’s not a huge fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, saying in 2017: “I can’t bear it. No really I can’t. That’s not drag! It’s all about shading and contouring your face now and being like supermodels.
“In my day we had the likes of Phil Starr, who was a glorious comedian… we had Marc Fleming, Auntie Flo, Mrs Shufflewick. We had great comedians in drag. This new brigade who just parade around going, sashay, shantay – that’s not drag to me.”
The first UK series of Drag Race will consist of eight episodes, which will be made available to watch on BBC Three later this year.
Drag Race has now run for 10 years in the US, where it airs on VH1, and has gone on to be nominated for an impressive 23 Emmys.
It originally aired on E4 for its first two series here in the UK, but later bagged a whole new British audience when it was made available to stream on Netflix.
The fourth All Stars series wraps up this week, while the 11th regular series debuts later this month.