Faking It : From Naval Officer to Drag Queen
It all began early in the year of 2002 when the lovely Joe McJoe emailed several artists to say that Channel 4 were looking for a mentor for a Drag Queen episode of Faking It. I didn’t take it too seriously as it also suggested Pam Ann, and I can assure you Caroline, behind the character, is very much a real woman! As this was soon after my father had past away I didn’t really think about it anymore, even when colleagues had said that producers and cameras had been turning up at venues to film them. Unfortunately, I had contracted bronchitis when they had turned up to see me so we had missed each other.
Then one day the phone rang and it was Jenny Crowther from RDF who was the only director brave enough to take on the Drag Queen Faking It. She really wanted to see me and asked if we could sort out another date. I suggested the 2Brewers as I was resident every Thursday at the time. During the phone call, we hit it off straight away and after gossiping for twenty minutes I put the phone down. At this point Tamzin said,"Why don’t you invite her to Legends as you are there on Sunday lunchtime?" I rang her back and it turned out she was coming down to Eastbourne to see her family, so it would work really well.
To say I was a little shy and nervous was an understatement (although I bet you can’t believe that can you!)
Anyway, we arrived at Legends and Jenny was very charming and gorgeous (I have to say that - we're still friends!)
Before the show, we sat down to have a chat but when I'm nervous I try escape from the situation. I kept wandering off to talk to other people until Tamzin said "For God's sake, come and sit down!"
Jenny loved the show - it was a Legends audience at it’s best (and yes, I did go out into the street!)
We sat down to chat again after the show and Jenny said straight away that she thought I should be the Main Mentor. I wasn’t going to complain as we had watched a couple of different Faking It episodes and thought it was a very good programme. I agreed to do the programme as long as they didn’t make drag look tacky or sad in any way. Some television programmes had previously seemed to want to do that. Jenny agreed not to.
They then had to film me because the bosses at Channel 4 have to give their approval before the contract was signed. The following Thursday we got the go ahead. I had to sign to agree that I would not tell anybody that I was doing this programme as it could jeopardise the whole show. I ended up having to tell people who saw the filming that they were making a documentary about me!
We had a few meetings over the next few weeks with Jenny and James Dawson, the producer, to discuss ideas for the content of the programme. One of my ideas was for them to film in Vegas, but we came out with so many others the plan was soon ditched - damn my big mouth!
They had started auditioning for the Faker and thought they had found a Prison Officer who would be perfect. Unfortunately, he was not allowed the month off. Jenny, being a true professional and not wanting to go for second best, started the audition process again - which put off filming for a few weeks.
As the time drew near I started to get excited but yet somehow very nervous as to the outcome of meeting, living with and teaching a strange guy to do drag.
Then the day arrived. It was all set up at the White Swan. Neither of us could meet until after the show and I was not allowed to know anything about him.
I had to plan the show slightly and there are some slight differences in television copyright over my cabaret songs to deal with. They suggested that I should pull him up on stage to talk to him and it wasn’t difficult to spot him - he was the only one in the White Swan with a suit on! He looked horrified and petrified at the same time and I couldn't help wondering why the hell I had agreed to this!
After the show we met properly. We chatted and got on very well. His name was Spence Bowdler and he was an ex-Naval Officer.
From this point on, most of our lives was spent being filmed - there were cameras set up in both our bedrooms for our video diaries (which I hated doing!)
What happened then came across in the programme. He was initially horrified and tearful of having to put on a dress and come with me to work. We had to pretend he was an established act from the ships.
I wasn’t allowed to cancel any of my work, so we rehearsed during the day at the Charles Street Club in Brighton. Spence came along with me to my cabaret shows in the evening if he wasn’t with one of the other mentors - his singing teacher or Martin the designer. Nights were usually spent with Jenny, James and the crew as they would often turn up with bottles of wine and we would sit around chatting and having a great laugh.
I was not allowed to put makeup on him - he had to learn from watching me. We found songs for him but comedy material was harder as I believe you have to find your own style. Our friendship changed very quickly to a brotherly way of looking after each other and making sure we were both OK with what was going on.
There is so much involved in this programme. There was 102 hours of filming edited down to 1 hour and 35 minutes. By the time it got to the final day and I had to wave Spence off, I felt like a mother sending her child off to school for the first time. I was not allowed to see Spence now until after the competition when the judges had made their decision.
The show was advertised as a drag queen competition and the judges were not told it was Faking It until afterwards. No pressure then!
Spence became Britney Ferry and as I watched the show from upstairs in the 2Brewers kitchen I couldn’t have been prouder - not only of his performance on stage but he had to be convincing backstage with the other artists. He was - even making one of the crew adjust his boa!
He did not come first in the competition but he then had to wait whilst Jenny interviewed the judges and told them it was Faking It, asking who they thought was the Faker. As one by one the judges didn’t pick Spence as the Faker, my excitement grew and as the last one picked someone else I almost wet myself.
Then we had to break the news to Spence and decided to tease him a little. When I walked into the room and saw his face I just wanted to shout, "You’ve done it mate!", but we did tease him by just saying that we were sorry. He seemed angry with himself and kept saying sorry to me as he thought he had let me down. So it was then that I told him that he had faked it and not one of the judges had guessed that a month earlier he had never done drag in his life. He burst into tears, hugged me and we popped open a bottle of champagne as he ran round the room screaming (hardly camp!)
I found out later that as our director, Jenny, got into her taxi to go home she burst into tears as it had been such a roller-coaster month of emotion.
Saying goodbye to Spence and all the crew was very hard as we had all become very close over the month. Once everyone had left the next day the house seemed very empty for a while, but it was nice to have a bit of a rest.
My part in the show had finished but Jenny still had to spend hours in the editing suite deciding what should stay and what should be cut. When a series like this comes to television, they pick the best ones to go first or last. At this point, Jenny thought ours would go out second but one night she came into my dressing room beaming, eyes glittering. We had been chosen to go out first! We both jumped in the air hugging each other - it was a wonderful moment.
It was aired in October 2002. We all met at the 2Brewers to watch the show and both Spence and I wept. What I wasn’t expecting was the amount of attention, the brilliant write-ups in every paper and the awards that were to follow. It was a great project to be involved in - it gave Spence confidence and opened peoples eyes and mine to a different way of life.
Spence and I did a few gigs together afterwards as we were very much in demand but after a while and with understandable pressure from his girlfriend, Spence hung up the frock. After such an experience together we remain friends to this day.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jenny, James and everyone at RDF for making it classy, fun, emotional and such a fantastic programme. I am very proud to have been a part of it and it opened a lot of doors for all of us.
The next morning I had a phone call from Wish You Were Here asking if I would like to present a part of their show - but that’s another story……
One thing I will always remember is that about a week after Faking It had been shown, a young guy came up to me and thanked me for the programme. He had watched it with his parents and they had enjoyed it so much it made him comfortable enough to come out to them. That made me feel good.
Entry written: Tuesday, February 6, 2007