RuPaul’s Drag Race star Baga Chipz lands major role in Ackley Bridge
BAGA CHIPZ has tried her hand at everything from cooking to singing since bursting to fame on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK – and now she is having a go at some TV acting.
I’m told the drag queen, who came third in the BBC Three reality show in 2019, has landed a plum role in Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge.
Baga has already started work on the school drama and will be back for more scenes in January after impressing bosses with her acting chops.
Since hitting screens in the first series of RuPaul’s UK version of his show, she has been on Celebrity MasterChef, Celebrity Karaoke Club and The Celebrity Circle.
A source said: “Baga caught the attention of Ackley producers, having appeared on a variety of reality shows since RuPaul.
“But while she loves a bit of low-rent telly, she also wants to prove there’s more than just big, brash Baga.
“Ackley Bridge’s bosses were impressed with what they saw from Baga on set.
“And having first been on set last week, she’ll now be back for more in January when she will film again.
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“Her character is being kept a closely guarded secret for now, but no doubt we’ll be hearing more in due course.”
Ackley is filming its fifth series after being launched by Channel 4 to big fanfare in 2017.
It is set in a Yorkshire mill town, where a new academy school merges the lives and cultures of the largely divided white and Asian community.
The most recent fourth series was originally due to hit our screens in September 2020.
But filming was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic, meaning it eventually got broadcast in April last year.
It brought with it an overhaul, including an earlier time slot, shortened run time and the introduction of several new cast members.
I’m sure none of them will be as colourful as Baga.
Sarah: Sex for oldies
SHE shot to fame in 2002 BBC classic Cutting It – and nearly 20 years later Sarah Parish has still got it.
After a brilliant supporting role in epic BBC2 show Industry – the best drama of 2020 – she is currently starring in Netflix thriller Stay Close.
But though we are seeing a lot more of the 53-year-old actress, Sarah reckons we don’t see enough older people having sex on our screens.
In the latest edition of Woman & Home magazine, out on January 6, she says: “We definitely need more parts for older people.
“In Last Tango In Halifax it was great to watch an older couple fall in love and to have a relationship.
“But you never see older people having sex on television. Why are we automatically drawn to younger bodies having sex, but not older bodies?”
Sarah also reveals she still gets mistaken for Suranne Jones and is so fed up telling people her real identity that she has just stopped trying.
Fortunately, being in her fifties means she doesn’t care too much.
She adds: “The best thing is that wonderful feeling of not really giving a f***.
“When I go into meetings, I might now be the oldest person there and I feel that I’ve earned my stripes.”
Lorraine ‘chunky’ Mac jibe
THE usually sunny Lorraine Kelly throws some serious shade at Michael McIntyre during tonight’s celebrity version of I Literally Just Told You.
The presenter joins Alex Horne, Aisling Bea and Asim Chaudhry as they compete to win £25,000 for their chosen good causes on the Channel 4 gameshow.
But Lorraine is less than charitable when she makes a confession to the show’s host Jimmy Carr, which involves her mum.
Lorraine says: “She met Michael McIntyre and she said to me, ‘Jimmy Carr’s really chunked up’.
“She actually thought that was you.”
I’m not sure which of them should be more insulted.
Richie’s link to the past
PRESENTER Richie Anderson has fulfilled a bucket-list dream by appearing on The Weakest Link.
Since childhood, he has been obsessed with the BBC1 show that was hosted by Anne Robinson before Romesh Ranganathan took over this year.
The One Show reporter and Radio 2 travel news presenter takes part this Saturday and said: “When I was a teenager I used to make my family stand in a semi-circle in the kitchen and play the Weakest Link.
“I would always be Anne Robinson. I also had The PlayStation game and the board game, which came with an Anne Robinson mask that I wore into school one day.
“I got sent out of class for putting it on.”
It’s a win for Olly drama
GROUNDBREAKING drama It’s A Sin has been named the top TV show of 2021.
In RadioTimes.com’s annual Critics’ Poll, the Channel 4 tearjerker starring Olly Alexander, Keeley Hawes, Lydia West and Omari Douglas saw off competition in a Top 50.
Its heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious scenes revisited the Aids crisis of the Eighties.
The drama trumped some of the biggest thrillers on the main channels, as well as some of the year’s most sensational TV offerings from streaming services.
The Top Ten is:
- It’s A Sin (Channel 4)
- Sex Education (Netflix)
- Squid Game (Netflix)
- Mare of Easttown (Sky Atlantic/NOW)
- Succession (Sky Atlantic/NOW)
- WandaVision (Disney+)
- Vigil (BBC One)
- Line Of Duty (BBC1)
- Lupin (Netflix)
- Loki (Disney+)
- See RadioTimes.com for the full Top 50.
Bizbit
CORRIE actor Simon Gregson may have come second on I’m A Celebrity but don’t expect to see him waltzing on to Strictly.
Simon, who plays Steve McDonald, told OK!: “I don’t think Strictly and me would be a good fit.
“Never say never, but right now I’m just concentrating on my family.”
Aled: My on-air pa Wogan
ALED JONES is best known as the angelic voice behind 1985 single Walking In The Air.
But his biggest hit was actually a duet with one-time fellow Radio 2 presenter Terry Wogan.
Aled said: “Everyone talks about Walking In The Air but my biggest ever hit was my duet Little Drummer Boy with Terry, and that got to No2 in the chart, whereas Walking In The Air only got to No5.
“Terry was a huge part of my life and he and I often joked that I was his radio son and he was my radio dad. He was so much fun.”
Aled is among celebrities paying tribute to Terry in Wogan: Now You’re Talking, a celebration of his life, tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.