BBC Three has dropped the first-look images from the second series of its award-winning drag comedy Smoggie Queens, and BAFTA-winning actor Monica Dolan of Sherwood and Mr Bates vs The Post Office fame is among a raft of new additions to the cast.
Dolan joins fellow newcomers Amalia Vitale and Freya Parker, as well as two very special Middlesbrough legends broadcaster Jeff Stelling and football pundit Chris Kamara.
The core gang are all present and correct, of course. Written by RTS winner and BAFTA-nominated Middlesbrough native Phil Dunning, the show returns with its loveable ensemble: Dunning himself as the volatile Dickie, Mark Benton as drag queen Mam, Alexandra Mardell as self-styled hun Lucinda, Patsy Lowe as awkward Sal, and Elijah Young as newly out Stewart.
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Returning guest actors include Charlotte Riley, Neil Grainger, Peter McPherson, Lauryn Redding, Michael Mather, Bill Fellows, Michael Hodgson, Steph McGovern and Michelle Visage.
The new episodes pick up where series one left off. It’s business as usual, which is to say, utterly chaotic.
Dickie is single and back on the hunt for romance, while Mam is facing some unwelcome ghosts from her past. Sal finds herself torn between Danni and Mel, Lucinda hits a road bump with Neil, and Stewart is embracing his exciting new chapter.
Along the way, there are date nights, coming-out parties, a male beauty pageant and an actual football match.
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BBC
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BBC
Reviews for the first season were positive, with The Guardian calling it “adorably sweet”. It wrote: “Smoggie Queens does a great job of capturing British camp sensibility: the cheerfully shonky glam, the deadpan humour, the cosy obscenity, the hearty embrace of all things tacky, unpretentious and mainstream.”
The i Paper said: “BBC Three’s new sitcom Smoggie Queens is salty, surreal and very, very silly… Even when a zinger misses the target, the series’ kinetic energy is infectious.”
Smoggie Queens series two arrives on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer this spring. Series one is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.
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