Expectations for Snatch Game have been sky-high since it was very first announced RuPaul’s Drag Race would be coming to the UK last year.
For months now, fans have pored over lists of which characters they’ve wanted to see British queens send up in the iconic challenge, which sees the contestants impersonate a host of celebrities while playing Blankety Blank.
And on Thursday night, the time had come, and the results were... well, mixed.
It’s fair to say not all of the seven remaining queens nailed their impersonations, or indeed their choice of star.
While the judges had their opinions (and guest judge Geri Horner certainly had some surprising ones), here’s how we think they really got on, ranked from bottom to top...
7. Sum Ting Wong as Sir David Attenborough
Fair play to Sum Ting Wong for thinking outside of the box when it came to deciding on who to do – but the risk to do Sir David did not pay off at all.
There’s no denying Sum Ting Wong nailed the naturalist’s voice, but she did absolutely nothing with it. Her lines fell flat and she missed multiple opportunities to make a gags about ‘observing the other queens in their natural habitat’, or even savage them with comparisons to various animals.
And while we’ve seen Sum Ting Wong unable to take pointers from her fellow contestants in previous weeks, she’d have been right not to listen to their advice to do Sir David over Nigella Lawson.
Best line: Umm, there weren’t any.
6. Cheryl Hole as Gemma Collins
Fans have been holding out to see The GC on Snatch Game, so we were not surprised to see fellow Essex girl Cheryl take on the TOWIE star.
But look, if you’re going to pick someone as iconic – and to be fair, obvious – as The GC to do in Snatch Game, there is absolutely no excuse for it to be mediocre. And with all the memes floating about on the internet, half the population can master a decent impression – which is more than can be said for Cheryl.
Yes, she was able to quote her, but her impression had none of the pizzazz of Gemma’s delivery or showcased enough of her divaship.
Then there was that wig.
Now, if you’ve watched Gemma on Celebrity Big Brother, you’ll know she loves a heated roller and an Essex blow dry to give her extensions some bounce. Cheryl’s straight wig really missed the mark.
Best line: “I know about this hair and it’s not frazzled today, Ru.”
=5. Divina Di Campo as Julia Child
We will be entirely honest here – we’d never heard of Julia Child prior to this episode of Drag Race and we’d put money on the fact we were far from alone, which makes Divina’s choice all the more disappointing.
For those who still don’t have a Scooby who Divina was doing, Julia was a US chef, author and television personality credited with bringing French cuisine to America.
While she was Divina’s back-up option, having lost out to Baga Chipz for the chance to be Margaret Thatcher, this served as a lesson to always have a second choice that’s as strong as the first.
Props to Divina though, as she still managed to garner a few titters with the material she’d given herself to work with. Oh, and bonus points for lending Baga the outfit she’d intended to wear. Sisterhood in action right there.
Best line: “Well, I’m serving pure fish.”
=5. Crystal as Rue McClanahan
Put quite frankly, Crystal did not deserve to be in the bottom two.
Sure, her turn as The Golden Girls star wasn’t the most inspired or rip-roaring of performances and her accent could have done with being more Southern, but she still got a bigger laugh than most of her competitors with her syphilis line.
However, she would have done better to push herself out of her comfort zone and take on a more modern, UK icon considering she also played a non-British character in the Downton Draggy challenge.
Best line: “What do I know? I’m dead. Thanks, syphilis.”
3. Blu Hydrangea as Mary Berry
Mary was a solid choice for Blu, who so far had failed to make her mark on the competition.
Sending up the former Bake Off judge allowed her to play around with a classic bit of GBBO innuendo, meaning there wasn’t too much of a heavy lift to make everyone laugh.
But when you think of Mary Berry, you immediately think of a vibrant floral bomber jacket, so we were quite frankly horrified to see her in that cheap old pink cardi.
Blu has since admitted that she failed to see Girls Aloud star and fellow Northern Irelander Nadine Coyle staring at her in the face as a potential option for Snatch Game, and we have to agree Nur-deen would have been a killer character – if not for the passport gags alone.
Best line: “I love beating eggs until they’re stiff. I love beating a lot of things until they’re stiff.”
2. Baga Chipz as Margaret Thatcher
There was a big step up between third place and the next queen – and while Ru ruled that Baga Chipz and The Vivienne’s Snatch Games were of equal quality, one of them stood out a little more for us.
So in second place is Baga, whose Iron Lady managed to turn us... into a howling mess. The “redundancy” answer absolutely killed us, as did the mention of Brexit, and we could have watched the ping-ponging of banter between her and The Vivienne’s Donald Trump for hours on end.
But while Baga certainly couldn’t claim credit for the outfit she was wearing (seriously, only someone with as much confidence and charisma as Baga would dare turn up to Snatch Game so underprepared), we greatly enjoyed the attention to detail of the red eyes and her ghostly white complexion.
Best line: To Trump: “I love you too, but please keep those orange cheesy balls away from my face.”
1. The Vivienne as Donald Trump
The Vivienne was literally spoilt for choice when it came to Snatch Game, with her Kim Woodburn and Cilla Black impressions bettering anything we’ve seen on Spitting Image and the like.
But it was US president Donald Trump she plumped for in the end, and Viv’s performance was a sheer masterclass in how to do Snatch Game. The voice. The mannerisms. The gags. The tango-ed appearance... Michelle Visage was 100% correct when she declared it one of the best Snatch showcases in Drag Race herstory.
Although we have to admit, we do feel slightly robbed at not getting to see her do a full show as either Kim or Cilla. Perhaps The Vivienne can just come back for Snatch Game every year, please.
Best line: “I’ve grabbed Michelle’s pussy several times, her pussy’s great. The only thing that was wrong with it – it smelt a bit like Mexican food, so I had to build a wall right around it. And let me tell you something else, it was a big wall. Huge.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer with new episodes dropping each Thursday at 8pm.
