Ginger Johnson: From panto-obsessed child to RuPaul's Drag Race UK winner

On Drag Race UK, she won three challenges and joins the elite list of queens who never had to ‘lip-sync for their lives’. In the lead-up to the finale, BBC Three spoke to Ginger at London’s Soho Theatre, where she is rehearsing her Christmas show Ginger All the Way, and after she was announced as the winner of series five.

I cannot believe I'm the winner. I had so clearly convinced myself that it wasn't going to be me.

I'm old enough to have started doing drag before Drag Race. But Drag Race was the thing that's really kept me going a lot of the time.

I grew up trying to find representation wherever I could. The closest I had was staying up late at night watching Graham Norton on my TV, on a nearly silent volume, trying to understand what this thing was inside me. I felt so alone, so directionless.

And now to know there are people like me seeing this happen is so healing.

'I'm actually here on Drag Race'

In the lead-up to Drag Race UK, I hadn’t slept for a week. On the day we had to leave for filming, I left the studio where I make my clothes at about 4am. I went home, lay in bed with my eyes open for an hour and then had to go.

Before walking into the Werk Room for the first time, I looked in the mirror and thought: "I’ve never looked this good in drag." But meeting the other queens, I felt shy.

The conversation was so lively, and Kate Butch - another queen on the show - was so quick and funny. I would think of something funny - and before I could get it out, Kate would have said it. I thought to myself: “You better pull your socks up.”

When I first met RuPaul, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She’s almost like a mythical creature. She entered the Werk Room and announced the first challenge [a ball where contestants had to showcase two looks and make a memorable impression]. I thought: “kill me”. I was confident with the clothes I had bought, but standing in line watching everyone else performing, I thought I might go home first.

I was most nervous about the panto challenge. Theatre is what I do, and if you do badly at the thing everybody knows you for, that’s really embarrassing. I stayed up all night rehearsing the routine and had stress dreams about ending up in the bottom. I learned that week's lip-sync song more than any of the others. It’s now imprinted in my brain. It came on in a shop recently and I had to leave.

Snatch Game was an out-of-body experience. I sat at the glittery desk and thought: “I’m actually here on Drag Race.” I felt the blood rush to my head. Kate had to lean over and ask if I was okay.

I didn’t think I would get three wins in a row and I shed a tear after I won the third time.

'I wanted to be a panto dame'

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a pantomime dame. I knew they had the best outfits, the best jokes and got the biggest applause. That’s all I wanted.

I’ve always been a show-off. I was that nerdy kid with no friends who did magic shows in my local library - my first memory of making people laugh.

At university, I trained as an actor. I thought I was going to be a serious actor doing serious plays, but I couldn’t take myself seriously enough.

There’s an amazing performance artist called Scottie who used to run a pageant. Somebody dropped out, and I decided to do it. At the end, Scottie was so impressed with my clothes that they said they would pay me £100 a week to make outfits. Three days later, I packed up and moved to London.

I was working a lot in nightclubs but it was not the best time. I was coming to terms with the fact that I couldn't roll around on a nightclub floor dressed like a Christmas bauble all my life. And I couldn't do the things that helped me do that, like drinking every day.

I had to find a way to do drag that was safe and good for me. I wanted to do solo shows. My first proper big solo show was in 2019 at the Edinburgh Fringe, called Happy Place. It was about a mental health crisis I had.

It was horrible. I thought I was ready to talk about my mental health on stage, but the reality of performing it made me realise I wasn’t. I've since learned how to protect myself as a performer. I learned you can’t share things until you’ve processed them and that collaborating with other people can really help. I also learned to take care of myself. I love working, but you can’t do it every day.

'I'm excited to reconnect Ginger with the young me'

Ginger is a product of the people I grew up around and the culture of gentleness and laughter in the North East, and so I’m most excited about doing homecoming gigs.

Ginger was invented in London but until now no-one in the North East has ever really heard of Ginger Johnson.

I’m excited to take her back there and reconnect Ginger with the young me who moved from County Durham to London thinking they would be a star.

I can’t wait for her to meet everybody.

RuPaul's Drag Race UK series five is streaming now in full on BBC iPlayer.