Honestly, three of our favourite things are Christmas, drag, and a well-stocked bar, so you can imagine our delight when we got wind that Drag Race UK series four winner Danny Beard was throwing a MASSIVE Christmas party at London's legendary Clapham Grand in a couple of weeks.
Another one of our favourite things is everything about Danny Beard, btw – not just because their drag is out of this world, but because whenever we chat to them they're not afraid to spill the tea heat style. Which leads seamlessly to another one of our favourite things – Drag Race UK gossip.
While catching up with Danny about life in and out of drag and their upcoming festive bash (where The X Factor's Diana Vickers is the special guest btw – talk about camp as Christmas), we of course, had to have a good old chinwag about Drag Race UK.
And we swore to ourselves that the next time we spoke to a Drag Race UK winner, we'd ask them how they were feeling about the fact that as of the season that's just wrapped (won by Kyran Thrax), the winner now gets a cash prize of £25,000. FYI, for the last few seasons a cash prize has not been part of the package; winners have gotten to film their own series with the BBC and World of Wonder (a prize many fans have been raising an eyebrow at for years).
BBC and World of Wonder bosses have clearly found a loop hole to that now and YAY because DRAG IS WORK.
And Danny's thoughts on this are interesting to say the least. They joked, 'I'm sending a backdated invoice. It's about time, I spent £25,000 to do that show. Originally, I thought it was £23,000, and then I did the tax return – it just adds up. All this extra stuff.'
Okay, before anyone gets overly excited, they're kidding; but not about queens spending dollar prior to going on Drag Race. Those incredible runway looks don't exactly come from Temu. It costs money, honey.
Danny continued, 'And then I look back on stuff and I'm like, "God, I look sh*t on that". If I did it again, I feel like I could spend that again and a lot more.
'I think it's about time [the winners got a cash prize]. I'm not pissed off, I'm absolutely made up. I'm glad for [Kyran], and we should be looking more into that for the girls.'
Class act all the way that Danny Beard.
Speaking of their upcoming Christmas show at The Clapham Grand, Danny said, 'I'm going to be there with some of my live band, so live music... we've got drag kings, drag queens, my backing vocalist Hayley is involved - she'll be doing solos, as well. Of course, we've got special guest Diana Vickers thrown in the mix. There's going to be something for everyone; there's cabaret, there's burlesque... it's everything and more and it needs to be seen to be believed.'
They then added, 'And it's very gay.
'We've even got Gareth from HunsNet DJing. There's not one job that night that's not done by someone who's got a lot of gay air miles, including Diana.'
That's Christmas shopping with mum cancelled then. It's fine, we'll take her to this.
OMG, that's her Christmas present sorted, too.
Don't miss Danny Beard's Grand Christmas Cabaret at The Clapham Grand – starring Danny Beard, Lill and Diana Vickers, with HunsNet DJs – on Thursday 19 December. Click here for more info.
WATCH: 'Ask Trixie Mattel!' Juno Birch Plays Heat's Drag Bags
Ben Pulsford is a digital writer for Bauer Media, writing for both Closer online and heatworld. When he's not getting paid to gossip about Big Brother, Love Island and The Real Housewives of Cheshire, he's storming the London LGBTQ+ scene as drag queen, Beary Poppins. Both Ben and Beary are awaiting an invite to join The Real Housewives of Cheshire for series 18. The budget's not there, but the drama is 💅.