Warning: This article includes spoilers for the finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
After 10 weeks of toe-to-toe lip-syncs, fierce runways and shady remarks, the time has come for one queen to be named the UK’s next Drag Race superstar.
For the final time on the BBC, 12 contestants were whittled down to just one after the broadcaster announced it was axing RuPaul’s Drag Race UK due to budget cuts.
On Thursday night, RuPaul crowned Flesh as the series eight winner.
The London queen snatched the title from Mocha, Naya Thorn and Alik, who also made it to the final episode.
The 26-year-old was crowned by last year’s winner, Bones, who is also her best friend and drag sister, with the duo performing together as Heavenly Bodies.
Speaking to BBC Newsbeat after celebrating overnight, the Soho queen says the win still feels “surreal” and she spent the whole evening “smiling, crying, and laughing”.
She will be the last queen crowned on the BBC before the UK edition moves to Wow Presents Plus, a streaming platform owned by the production company behind the show.
While some fans have welcomed the prospect of a new chapter for the series which might include bigger cash prizes, like in other spin-offs, others fear leaving the BBC will mean less representation for LGBTQ+ culture.
Flesh says the move to Wow could widen the range of performers and subcultures featured on the show, but worries the shift to subscription could reduce the audience for drag.
“This is where it feels slightly sadder that we’re leaving the BBC because for all of the parameters that it created that limited what we could do, there was more exposure than drag has ever been given,” she says.
She admits she is “concerned” about the “knock-on effect” this could have on the future of the UK drag industry, such as creating fewer opportunities for contestants.
“Without that exposure, there will be less demand and with less demand and less exposure, events won’t be able to be created,” she says.
Amid this concern, Flesh encourages people to connect with their local drag community and performers to consider ways they can evolve performances to bring in new audiences.
The decision to shelve the programme was announced shortly after the latest series began airing, with the BBC saying it was facing “very difficult choices” amid “significant financial pressures”.
Flesh was awarded the £25,000 cash prize after impressing the judges in the final maxi challenge, which saw the last four queens perform a megamix of girl group anthems from past series.
Wrapping the show’s stint on the BBC this way felt like a “really fun and tasteful way to reflect on the iconography of Drag Race UK”, says Flesh, who hopes the past contestants feel “honoured”.
But she reveals the final group of queens did think the “writing was on the wall” for show’s future when they were asked to do the mix.
Flesh has stood out across the series as a fashion queen, bringing looks to the runway that RuPaul said would go down in the series’ history.
Speaking to RuPaul and judge Michelle Visage during the final episode, Flesh said Drag Race “tells people it’s not only OK to be them but it’s a gift and a dream, and to be crowned the UK’s next drag race superstar would be mine coming true”.
She made it through the series without ever being in the bottom two and only had to lip-sync for the first time in the final when the top three queens battled it out for the win.
After Alik was eliminated, Flesh, Mocha and Naya Thorn performed a rendition of David Bowie’s Modern Love.
