Table of contents for November 2017 in Attitude Magazine

PHOTOGRAPHY: Yu Tsai FASHION: Joseph Kocharian Nyle wears trousers by Versace PHOTOGRAPHY: Patrick Demarchelier Image use donated by Patrick Demarchelier in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, in support of the Attitude Awards to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation. PHOTOGRAPHY: Cameron McNee PHOTOGRAPHY: Jeff Vespa FASHION: Joseph Kocharian Laverne wear dress by Hérve Léger at Net-a-Porter PHOTOGRAPHY: Elias Tahan PHOTOGRAPHY: Zoe McConnell FASHION DIRECTION: Joseph Kocharian STYLIST: Aldene Johnson Charli wears dress by Ermanno Scervino, choker and earrings by Joomi Lim…

“WHY CAN YOU NOT ACCEPT SOMEBODY FOR HOW THEY CHOOSE TO PRESENT THEMSELVES? WHAT IS IT YOU FIND OFFENSIVE?” WOULDN’T IT BE BETTER if some clubs and bars just stopped allowing their punters to be so… in ya face different? We’d have none of those annoying queens in Dr Marten boots. You wouldn’t have to deal with gays in too-tight jeans. And we could do away with men with camp tendencies, too. Obvs, I don’t mean any of the previous statements. I’m making a point, innit. The fact is I am those statements. The ugly face of “them” and “us” reared its head on the gay scene last month at London's Sink The Pink, a club I thought I’d never see elicit that kind of intolerant attitude. STP went feral…

 Listening to your new album is such a brilliant, immersive and melodic experience — how would you say Take Flight differs to your previous LP? “I’m at work on the next album already and would love to produce Beyoncé. It would pose a unique challenge” Oh, thank you. I’m glad you like it. Take Flight has a lot less guests on it than Comfort. My debut album was partly to show that I don’t just make house music. With the second album, I have been able to refine things. In lots of ways Take Flight is subtler, and because it’s a double album I’ve been able to create more of a world of light and shade. I like playing with sound scapes and there’s more of that evident on this…

“WHEN WE THINK OF THE COMING OUT SCENARIO, IT IS PRESUMED TO BE A ONE-WAY STREET. HERE IT IS INVERTED” IN 1999, I was given a dream commission and sent to New York for a week to write a story on Def Jam Records, the hip-hop goliath that constituted a good portion of my record collection and one which had changed the fabric of pop industry in its lifespan. It was one of my favourite working weeks, ever. I met the label boss, Lyor Cohen, co-founder Russell Simmons and a bevvy of hungry young rappers. I looked at platinum discs for LL Cool J, Beastie Boys and EPMD lining the walls. As the pièce-de-résistance I was granted an hour in the corner office of JAY-Z, the label’s most bankable star.…

Dubbed Liberation 50, this year’s programme showcases the queer community’s creativity and reflects on how the past half century has shaped its identity and culture. Here are a few highlights... Darren Pritchard presents a work-in-progress preview of his new musical Rent Party, which explores the realities of being black, gay and poor in austerity Britain. 31 October Carry On actress Fenella Fielding, known as “England’s first lady of the double entendre,” who turns 90 in November, reads extracts from her new memoir Do You Mind If I Smoke? before a Q&A session. 4 November “Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender and Identity” brings together a range of artists’ work, at Walker Art Gallery, revealing queer histories and institutional blind spots. Works by David Hockney are among those on show. Until 5 November…

Love Placebo and how Nancy Boy smashed gender perception. Their music is so multi-layered. @lexfaring Without Placebo, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. They helped a generation of outsiders. @peterhignett_uk They were as important to the Nineties as Marc Bolan was to glam rock in the Seventies. @MichaelCoggin I used to write the lyrics to Nancy Boy in every new exercise book at college like it was a personal theme tune. @AlexanderLyons Placebo were my life. Brian was the first effeminate person I ever saw. @uhh_kate…

So far, the life of Nigel Owens has mostly revolved around mud and men, so mixing in the world of showbiz is unfamiliar territory for a boy from Mynyddcerrig, Carmarthenshire, in Wales. When told he was going to win an Attitude Award, Nigel admits his initial reaction was: “Bloody hell, I’d rather be on the field refereeing 30 massive rugby players.” But for a man who spends his time in “a very straight and masculine environment,” it’s perhaps understandable that he’d be nervous attending the awards ceremony. “It will be a bit scary to be honest. In the macho world of sport, hardly anyone else is out, so this awards do will be rare for me.” Despite his nerves, the 46-year-old rugby union official is actually no stranger to winning…

“THE LGBT+ COMMUNITY ARE OFTEN THE FIRST TO REALLY CHAMPION AN ARTIST WHEN THEY LOVE SOMEONE” “ A lot of things happen at parties. You have good times, you get to spend time with your friends. But there’s also often drama at parties: you break up with people, you fall in love. It’s the setting for a lot of things that happen in life.” I’m perched on a stool next to Charli XCX as she prepares for her photoshoot and she’s telling me about the power of a good party. She’s keen to point out that getting trashed and having fun can be just as inspirational as any soppy romance when it comes to writing a hit single. Which is just as well because partying is the unifying vibe on…

“MY MUM’S RESPONSE WAS, ‘WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME, ARE YOU ILL?’, REFERRING TO HIV. AND THAT’S WHAT MY LATE PARTNER’S MOTHER HAD SAID TO HIM AS WELL” Not many comic personalities from the past few decades cut as recognisable a figure as Matt Lucas. There’s the obvious physical features, most notably his baldness (a result of the alopecia he developed suddenly at the age of six), but there’s also the fact that he’s one half of a comedy duo that enthralled the British public throughout much of the Noughties. Having worked together since the early Nineties, Matt Lucas and David Walliams now sit alongside Vic and Bob, Morecambe and Wise and French and Saunders as one of our best-loved double acts. Of course, they were propelled to this lofty…

“I GREW UP IN A COMMUNITY OF RECOVERY, SEEING PEOPLE PUTTING THEIR LIVES BACK TOGETHER” On 9 August 2014, unarmed black teenager Mike Brown was shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson, following reports of a robbery at a convenience store in Ferguson, Missouri. Decades of frustration at the excessive police aggression faced by people of colour in the USA erupted into riots across the county. This would be the beginning of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The hashtag appeared on banners during protests and was quickly adopted across social media, becoming the motto for the systematic oppression of black people, calling out police brutality, the erasure of black history and media bias. Watching the situation unfold from his couch in Baltimore, DeRay Mckesson decided he needed to be involved.…

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I started running competitively 15 years ago because I enjoyed the simplistic, individual nature of performance. It was black and white: you win, you come second, you come 50th. Any which way, I knew where I stood. However, although I may have started because I was good at it, I kept going because I found a love for it. There’s not much that compares to the feeling of a long run, especially if you’re surrounded by beautiful scenery. You feel free, unshackled from any burdens of every-day life. I’ve been fortunate to run all over the world and it’s a joy, and the ultimate stress reliever. It’s also an incredible social opportunity. Most of my close friendship group is made up of other runners, and the running community is an…

 i was brought up in Stourbridge in the West Midlands, in a not remotely theatrical family. Aged five, I was taken to see a pantomime at the Birmingham Hippodrome and that was when I fell in love with theatre. I suppose my career in theatre began when I was still at school, by doing work experience in the marketing department at Birmingham Rep. From putting up posters to taking actors to interviews and looking after critics, it was the best education I could ever have had. “JUGGLING A CAREER AND BRINGING UP TWO CHILDREN ISN’T EASY. BUT I LOVE THEM AND WOULDN’T CHANGEIT FOR ANYTHING” I still have friends from that time and it’s when theatre became my family. I stayed in theatre marketing for the next 10 years or…

Yet again, we have an all-star cast gracing the pages and covers of this special Awards issue of the magazine. And, as I write, we’re confirming an equally starry line-up of presenters to hand over the awards to the winners at our special event at the Roundhouse, in London, on 12 October. Host Tom Daley is busy practising his lines. Amanda Holden is trying hard not to burst with excitement at being named this year’s Honorary Gay. And I’m learning how to sign my best chat-up lines so that I can make Nyle DiMarco fall madly in love with me. We’re expecting the event to generate a lot of coverage across the media and no doubt, as a result, we’ll encounter the occasional criticism that our focus on glamour and…

{ FASHION } H&M X ERDEM Flower power is in full force for H&M’s 2017 collaboration. The high-street brand’s latest pairing is with Erdem, the London designer known for being a connoisseur of floral prints. It’s the first time he’s done a collection for men and we can’t wait to get our hands on it. What’s more, he’s teamed up with filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, of Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! fame, for a video to celebrate the collection. It’s set to be “spectacular spectacular!” The collection is out on 2 November in selected stores and at hm.com { MUSICAL } KNOBBLED NOBILITY After its success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, How to Win Against History embarks on a tour of England and Wales…

UP HUGH JACKMAN Wolverine says YES to gay marriage. Yet another reason to love Australia’s sexiest export SHOULDER PADS AT THE READY Eighties soap Dynasty goes even gayer as Gordon Thomson (Adam Carrington) comes out, at the age of 72 EVEN STRANGER Sorry, we can’t dress as a slutty vampire this Halloween; we’re busy bingeing on season two of Stranger Things NOOKY AT POUNDLAND The discount chain's new sex-toy range includes cock rings for a quid. Talk about cheap thrills DOWN COMMUTING The biggest waste of our time since waiting for bigtool4U to reply on Grindr COFFEE-FLAVOURED COCA-COLA Surely the drink of Beelzebub TWITTER’S NEW CHARACTER LIMIT More room for that self-indulgent keyboard warrior to share his latest “hot take” with his followers. All 12 of them LAME HALLOWEEN COSTUMES…

 FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON’T KNOW ME, my day job (and during many a late night) is as a writer for television. “I’M NOT BITTER AND I STILL HOPE THAT, ONE DAY, MY TIME WILL COME” You probably imagine, as I once did, that being a screenwriter and a columnist make my life like something out of Sex and the City: parties, glamour, awards ceremonies and, now, even Hollywood! So where the fuck have I gone wrong? Only very occasionally do I go to events, I’m still shopping at Topman (as I was when I was 18), and in the 10 years I’ve been doing this job I’ve never been invited to an awards ceremony — even when fucking nominated. You see, back when I wrote my first TV…

TRUDEAUFILES As PM McDreamy sat down with Prince Harry in September to talk about the power of sport ahead of the opening of the Invictus Games in Toronto, we were a little disappointed. He’d opted for a more conservative sock choice than the previous week’s Chewbacca-themed pair, worn during a day of serious meetings in New York. Having previously sported mismatched R2-D2 and C-3PO socks for Star Wars Day in May, we still hope he’s gearing up to show us his light saber… NOLAN GOULD No longer dim-witted kid Luke on Modern Family, 18-year-old Nolan Gould is all grown up and proving it in the music video for Logic, Alessia Cara and Khalid’s track, 1-800-273-8255. He appears shirtless in bed with the main character, his high-school boyfriend (and eventual husband).…

LOGICAL FAMILY: A MEMOIR Armistead Maupin/Doubleday • Poignant and moving, joyful and hilarious, Logical Family reads like a masterclass in how to write a memoir. And you might want to brace yourself because it reveals that Maupin, the genial figurehead of progressive liberalism and LGBT+ equality, started out as a closeted right-wing Republican. From his childhood in the heart of conservative North Carolina, complete with pro-slavery Confederate heritage, it was a long and winding road that would eventually take him to Barbary Lane, in San Francisco — a journey that would lead him from a homoerotic navy initiation ceremony in the jungles of Vietnam, via an uncomfortably hilarious encounter with President Nixon in the Oval Office, to the genesis of Tales of the City in the 1970s. Full of amazing…

KELLY CLARKSON WAS THE FIRST WINNER to come out of reality TV singing contest American Idol. Since appearing on the show 15 years ago, she has released seven albums that have sold more than 25million copies. Billboard number ones such as Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) and My Life Would Suck Without You have helped make Kelly the show’s bestselling artist ever. Jumping from pop to rock, her musical output has included a fluffy Christmas album. But Kelly’s time at her first label RCA was fraught with confrontation, with the label often pushing back against her creative decisions. Despite all her success, she felt alienated by executives who showed little interest in her career, describing the situation as an “arranged marriage”. Now, after signing to Atlantic Records, Kelly, 35, is…

“I’M A LITTLE NERVOUS ABOUT THE SNAKE BUT I THINK IT’S GOING TO BE OK. HOPEFULLY, IT WON’T CONSTRICT ME OR CRUSH ANYTHING” Nyle DiMarco glides into a restaurant in Los Angeles and it’s as if someone has hit a key and added an Instagram filter to my view of the entire room. It’s clear within seconds that he’s a man who radiates charm, a charm that helped him win both the 2015 season of America’s Next Top Model and Dancing With the Stars the following year. But Nyle’s charm covers up a fierce passion for activism that has led him to set up his own foundation to benefit the deaf community he’s been a part of since birth. It’s in the service of the Nyle DiMarco Foundation that he…

“THE POSITIVITY AND LOVE THAT I GET, THAT’S WHAT I NEED TO GET ME THROUGH, TO SUSTAIN ME” Laverne Cox is in a happy place,and this radiates from her. She arrives for her shoot at the slick Jeremy West Hollywood Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, dressed in denim shorts and white t-shirt with FEMINIST emblazoned across, like Beyoncé in the Crazy in Love video. Queen Bey would smile; she already gave the actress her seal of approval when the Ivy Park campaign dropped everywhere in September. “Ivy Park is about tapping into our own personal strength beyond measure,” Laverne explains as we recline on the hotel bed for our interview. It’s my first fashion campaign. It came via the queen herself. Thank you, B,” But this wasn’t Laverne’s…

Back in 1985, Andy Bell, a shy, gay singer from Peterborough, responded to an ad in a magazine looking for a vocalist to help form a new musical project. Vince Clarke, who just happened to be one of Andy’s heroes, had been a founding member of Depeche Mode and had also had success as one half of the duo Yazoo. But when Andy and Vince hit it off and formed Erasure, they went on to rule the synth pop sound scape of the Eighties and Nineties. Some 200 songs, 17 studio albums and more than 25 million album sales later, they’re still going strong. In fact, their latest album, World Be Gone, is their highest charting since 1994 and they’re about to embark on another massive worldwide tour. In between,…

“I TAUGHT MY CHILDREN THAT YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH WHO YOU FALL IN IN LOVE WITH” We are on the phone with Amanda Holden and suffice to say she’s excited to be named our Honorary Gay at this year’s Attitude Awards. “It means more to me than anything — this is better than winning a BAFTA,” she says, before adding, with a cheeky laugh: “I think it’s long overdue!” Amanda, 46, is best known for her work as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent — where she’s been revealing that same cheeky charm, alongside oodles of glamour, since the show began in 2007. Her sassy banter with Simon Cowell, and her warm, big sisterly way with contestants have turned her into Saturday night TV royalty. But although people recognise…

AIDED BY STOCK, AITKEN AND WATERMAN , Charlene from Neighbours refashions herself as a pop princess with the insanely catchy 1987 chart-topper I Should Be So Lucky, complete with video that saw her up to her soap star good looks in soapy bubbles. IS THERE ANYTHING CAMPER than the combination of ABBA, Kylie and Dancing Queen? In 1998 our mistress gave us the answer by performing the wedding disco classic on her Intimate and Live tour, dolled-up like one of the drag queens from Priscilla. ICONS UNITED! Minogue teams up with the Pet Shop Boys for their 1999 album Nightlife, duetting with them on the wonderfully wistful In Denial. WHAT GREATER COMPLIMENT can a gay icon get than a visual shout-out from the biggest icon of them all? At the…

“POLO IS IN THE TOP THREE MOST DANGEROUS SPORTS OUT THERE AND EVERY DAY WE’RE PUTTING OUR LIVES ON THE LINE” When did you first become interested in fitness and wellness? My father was a professional polo player so we’re a very sporty family. I always played a lot of baseball, ice hockey, tennis, golf and soccer — that’s all I did as a kid. Academically, I wasn’t always that focused but when it came to sports, I certainly was! So, for me training is always something I’ve enjoyed doing and when I’m not playing polo I’m training whether it’s hiking or biking or swimming. I love to surf, things that get my mind off the sport, off my job, but at the same time keep me fit. What is…

“A FORTUNE-TELLER TOLD ME TO VISIT NEW YORK AND I CAN’T GET THAT OUT OF MY MIND” OTAMERE GUOBADIA, 22, FREELANCE WRITER, LONDON/LAGOS What’s your morning routine? Open the blinds then flick through Twitter, and Instagram, and back to Twitter. Then close the blinds before dragging myself to some yuppie gym class against all my natural instincts. What’s a day like at work? Writer’s block and existential crisis, then a tiny bit of excitement at coming up with a good turn of phrase. Writing, deleting, rinse, repeat. What made you want to get into your profession? I’ve been told, since I was young, that I have a way with words. I love to write, it makes the world and my body a little bit easier to live in. How would…

THE ONE Mercedes-AMG — not content with powering Formula One world champions, our own Lewis Hamilton among them — has unveiled its “Project One” hypercar. The “F1 car for the road” runs to 217mph and a cool £2m, with just 275 units being built from 2019. mercedes-benz.co.uk HASHTAG HATCHBACK Hot hatchbacks used to be akin to a roller skate in size with more zest than a key lime pie. But as they’ve become bigger and heavier, there’s an arms race going on in terms of power. The Renault Sport Megane has just arrived, with 276bhp and a citrus glow. We like. renault.co.uk URBAN LEGENDARY In order to demonstrate just how futuristic electric cars are (when, in fact, they are here already), some manufacturers are minded to abandon styling restraint. But…

“I’M ALWAYS STRETCHING THE TRUTH AND PUTTING MY FOOT IN MY MOUTH” Describe your drag in five words. Salty, sassy, brassy, Southern and asthmatic. How would your mother describe you? A successful disappointment. What are you hiding under that wig? Snickers minis. What did you dream about last night? Becoming the fifth Golden Girl. Where would you go if you were invisible for a day? The changing room of the nearest sports team. Favourite award that you’ve won? Lake County Spelling Bee, 1996. What’s the worst present you’ve been given? A star named after me. What’s something you’re too good at? Gymnastics. I’m always stretching the truth, jumping to conclusions and putting my foot in my mouth. What would you do with a million dollars? Fill a pool with coins…

This gripping thriller tells the story of gay couple Marc (Tom Bateman) and Fred (Sean Teale) as they return to a B&B from which they were banned by its homophobic Christian owner (played by Paul McGann), having been vindicated by the law. Before long, they’re joined by a Russian neo-Nazi with sinister intentions, and things take a dark turn. Here are three reasons to see it. 1 // It won the award for Best LGBT Film after opening at the London Independent Film Festival in April — so it’s got the critics’ seal of approval. 2 // Director Joe Ahearne channels his inner Alfred Hitchcock and ratchets up the tension to Psycho levels. You’ll be so engrossed, you’ll barely touch your popcorn. 3 // Eye candy comes in the form…

SHOW YOUR EMOTIONS. Nobody wants to see Gwyneth Paltrow blubbering away, but coming across as a real human being with real feelings will help you connect with your audience IF YOUR SPEEC H RESU LTS IN A SEA OF LEAK Y CHEE KS (STEA DY), consid er yours elf a double winner DON ’T BE A DIVA . This might be your first experie nce of public speak ing, but if you compla in that you deserv ed “perkie st bum in the financ e depar tment ,” instea d of Karen , it might be your last SPEECHES ARE A LOT LIKE PEENS — SIZE REALLY DOES MATT ER. Too short and your audience won’t feel the impact, too long and the whole thing might get painful NOT EVERYONE…

 OVER THE YEARS, there have been a few corkers in the own goal PR department. “THE ASSUMPTION THAT HAVING HIV PLACES YOU IN SOME UNCLEANCATEGORY WAS UNDERSTANDABLE IN 1987, BUT NOT IN 2017” Most famous was Gerald Ratner’s torpedoing of his own jewellery business. Having been asked how he could sell products so cheaply, he replied: because it’s “total crap.” Helen Mirren recently said pretty much the same thing about L’Oréal skin-care products after receiving a small skip-full of cash to be their brand ambassador. Not to be left out, we now have one from the world of gay dating apps: Daddy Bear thought it would be a unique selling point to ban HIV positive men from using the app. Good stuff boys, those brainstorming sessions are paying off. Just…

“IF I EVER MEET THE LOVE OF MY LIFE AND HE DOESN’T APPRECIATE THE GC, DOESN’T GET WHY I WORSHIP HER, I’LL KICK HIM TO THE KERB. IF HE’S NOT ON BOARD, THERE’S NO COMPROMISING” REALISING BRITISH PEOPLE NEEDED A REASON TO LIVE AGAIN, some clever dick recently made a series of memes out of Towie star Gemma Collins’ now legendary 2016 appearance on Celebrity Big Brother; a cultural landmark which famously saw her trot around the garden with a Shetland pony called Tony, while throwing shade at John Partridge and telling Gillian McKeith to fuck off. Bringing the GC back was a risky business, but 18 months later she’s risen from the ashes like a vajazzled Phoenix. No sooner had these memes — or memays as Gem likes to…

MILEY CYRUS Younger Now • Miley made it clear that this album would mark a new direction. And like Gaga’s Joanne, she has gone full folk. While the style suits her voice better than a song like Party in the USA ever could, and new tracks Love Someone, Younger Now and Bad Mood are winners, too many of the rest descend into lighters-in-the-air-territory. Getting that Hemsworth D on the regular has put Miley’s twerktastic Bangerzs days behind her. Out now 3/5 TEGAN & SARA The Con X: Covers • Our favourite Canadian twins have enlisted an exhilarating roster of stars for a celebration of their album The Con, now 10 years old. Plenty of queer artists feature, including Pvris, Shamir and Mykki Blanco — whose version of Knife Going In…

“NANCY BOYWAS PIVOTAL FOR COUNTLESS QUEER TEEN AS WELL AS FOR THE BAND, AND HAVING THEM ON TOP OF THE POPSWAS HUGE. REPRESENTATION IS KEY: YOU CAN’T BE WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE” BACK IN 1997, BRITPOP RULED THE airwaves. Most people were either on Team Oasis, with their cocksure Northern swagger, or Team Blur, with their smug Southern aloofness. But from all the posturing machismo, something more interesting, something much more queer was to emerge; simultaneously inspiring and confusing a generation. Placebo actually formed in 1994 when vocalist Brian Molko bumped into former schoolmate Stefan Olsdal outside South Kensington Tube station, and asked him why he was carrying a guitar. But it wasn’t until their breakthrough song, three years later, that they hit their stride. Your mum/music bores will tell…

“DIANA FILLED THE ROOM AND GAVE OFF LIGHT. EVERYONE WAS IMMEDIATELY PUT AT EASE” Being gay in the 1980s wasn’t easy. Acceptance of gay people had been growing since the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York helped ignite the gay liberation movement. But then the Aids crisis struck — and reversed that progress. Although the gay community wasn’t the only section of the population to suffer, we were disproportionately affected to the extent that newspapers referred to Aids as the “gay plague.” The hysteria generated was intense. When police raided gay bars they wore rubber gloves. Dentists refused to treat people who were HIV positive. Even in hospitals, doctors, nurses and paramedics wouldn’t touch people with Aids; meals would often be left at the door by nurses who didn’t want…

“IT’S A BEAUTIFUL PORTRAIT ABOUT A WORLD THAT I KNOW INTIMATELY. BEFORE ANY AWARD, THAT GIFT WAS ALL I EVER WANTED” Oscars night 2017, and it’s time for the world to find out whether La La Land proves to be the dead cert for Best Picture that the bookies have suggested. Initially, it seems that yes, Damien Chazelle’s slick musical has scooped the big one as Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty announce the winning film. But with the cast already on stage, producer Jordan Horowitz grabs the microphone and the now-infamous blunder becomes clear. “There’s a mistake,” he says firmly. “Moonlight, you guys won best picture. This is not a joke.” But behind the drama lies a tender, powerful coming-of-age masterpiece of a film that is both heartbreaking and uplifting…

“JAMIE WANTED TO GO TO HIS PROM IN A DRESS. IT WAS A STORY ABOUT ACCEPTANCE, ULTIMATELY” It started life as a BBC Three documentary but now it looks set to take the West End by storm. Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is a new musical for a RuPaul’s Drag Race-obsessed generation. The transformation, via a limited run in Sheffield, is down to Jonathan Butterell, Dan Gillespie-Sells, John McCrea and Tom MacRae. Jonathan directs the show, which is set to a pop soundtrack crafted by Dan, the frontman of The Feeling, while John stars as Jamie, a 16-year-old schoolboy, who dreams of going to his prom wearing a dress. Scriptwriter and lyricist Tom is working on a show in Hollywood when I meet his three counterparts on stage at the Apollo…

“ALMOST EVERY DISH EATEN AT A RESTAURANT CAN BE CLASSED AS A CHEAT MEAL” EATING NOT CHEATING Thinking about cheating? Being healthy and good can be boring! There, I said it. Sue me. But don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. When I’m on a strict diet plan, even after the first meal, all I can think about is: when is my next cheat meal? Cheating can mean consuming more calories than you planned — regardless of what you eat to get there — and not worrying about the nutritional content of the food. But eating the right number of calories and macros while ignoring your nutrition is also cheating, so stop kidding yourself how that Big Mac was OK because you only had a handful of peanut M&M’s…

“I used to hate my body and went as far as self-harming as a teen” DOMINIC HILTON, 25, SUPPORT WORKER AND PART-TIME MODEL { OPEN UP ABOUT YOUR BODY } { HEIGHT } 5 FT 10 IN // 180 CM { WEIGHT } 1 1 ST // 7 0 KG HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR BODY? I always say I’m skinny-fat. I’m slim, but there’s not an ab in sight and I have a little chub left from where I used to be quite large. HOW HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BODY CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? Growing up, I was bullied for my weight and the way I acted and dressed. I suffered with depression and moved schools four times. I used to hate my body and went as far…

“WHILE MOST OF US WATCH ONE MORE CAT VIDEO, THE MORE ENLIGHTENED 15% AVOID SCREENS AND SIP THEIR FRESH MINT TEA” GONE ARE THE DAYS (or nights) when a bed’s use was limited to sleeping and having a tumble beneath the sheets. Now, we get under the covers for all sorts of reasons and at all times of the day. In their latest research, Generation Bed, the experts at global sleep company Casper found that 84 per cent of European adults love their bed so much that it’s become a creative lifestyle space. In fact, spending more time in bed is so important to us that one in four would happily skip a night out or a gym class for some extra z’s (or “oohs”, if you know what we…

“I REMEMBER HANGING AROUND OUTSIDE THE CLUB FOR AGES, LIKE A PLANE WAITING TO LAND” PHILLIP BOOKER, 58, RETIRED, BRIGHTON I have friends who knew they were gay before they were teenagers. For the less insightful among us, it can take a little longer — in my case, when I was 39. It’s not that I was oblivious: I went to a state-run boarding school and rugby and tennis were not the only activities in which I participated eagerly at every opportunity. However, I lurched from my teens into adulthood convinced I was “straight, with just a hint of queer”. The only publicly visible “one of those nudge, nudge; wink, wink” people I knew of were camping it up on TV: Larry Grayson, John Inman, Gloria from It Ain’t Half…