Drag Week
The History of Drag on Gaydio

The History of Drag is a collection of radio shows and shorts that tell the history of drag using long form storytelling, short form storytelling and music.

The shows aired on Gaydio, the world’s biggest LGBT+ radio station, in September 2021 as part of their Pride month programming.

The centrepiece is an hour-long documentary following the story of UK drag over the last 100 years taking in panto, wartime drag, and legends such as Danny LaRue and Lily Savage. The documentary also looks at some of the UK’s exciting new talent that emerging in the digital era.

A 2-hour musical history show features tracks that tell their own story about the influence of drag on popular culture.

There are also 25 audio shorts voiced by drag artists from across the UK. These 1 minute shorts tell the stories of drag troupes and collectives, drag kings through history, the big drag news stories of the last 100 years, the etymology of popular phrases used within drag and popular culture, and the influential films and videos you must watch.

This was all funded by the brilliant Audio Content Fund whose purpose is to help independent producers make high quality, public service content for UK commercial and community radio.

The Documentary

From panto to soldiers in skirts and gender-bending rock stars to TikTok drag sensations.

This hour-long documentary looks back at the last century of British drag and speaks to the drag kings, drag queens, and drag artists that make British drag so unique and fabulous.

Storythings · The History Of British Drag

The Music

Hosted by Cheddar Gorgeous and DJ Paulette

Cheddar and Paulette’s Dragtastic Historical Extravaganza

Drag Artist Cheddar Gorgeous and DJ Paulette’s two hour musical journey playing drag anthems that were either made by drag artists and or loved by drag kings, queens, artists and audiences going as far back as the 1940s through to today.

Storythings · History of Drag - The Music

Promo images and a printable poster available on Trello. Photo credits: rocor and datbot

The Shorts

The Queen’s English

Cheddar Gorgeous takes a closer look at the stories behind the terms and phrases that make up the drag lexicon. Hosted by Cheddar Gorgeous.

Storythings · History of Drag - The Queen's English

Drag Flix with Candi and Kiki

Hosts of the Friends of Dorothy podcast, Candi and Kiki recommend films and YouTube videos that will fill in the gaps of your history of drag knowledge. Hosted by Candi and Kiki.