As I walked into Middlesbrough Town Hall to chat with the cast of Smoggie Queens before its premiere there last night, I was met by excited audience members who were trying desperately to get in early – over three hours early in fact. This showed the huge buzz around this event and the pride of a BBC production being in their home town. Later on hundreds would be let in for this exciting pink carpet event.
Smoggie Queens is a new BBC comedy series, which is set in and filmed in Middlesbrough. It tells the story of volatile Dickie (Phil Dunning) along with drag queen Mam (Mark Benton), self-styled hun Lucinda (Alexandra Mardell), awkward Sal (Patsy Lowe) and newcomer Stewart (Elijah Young).
“Big glitzy screening in Middlesbrough”
Phil Dunning says: “I’m proper buzzing that we’re getting to do a big glitzy screening in Middlesbrough. I’m so excited that the people of Teesside will get a chance to come along and see a preview of the show before it airs and join us with a glass of pop and a wedge of parmo.
“Smoggie Queens focuses on a group of friends living in Boro and viewers can expect to be taken on spontaneous and ridiculous adventures with them. It’s a series with heart whilst also being really stupid and actually a bit weird. Wigs, stilettos and wonky eyebrows are all heavily featured. It might just be the most chaotic thing you’ll ever witness -unless you’ve been to Boro town centre on a Saturday night.”
Kate Squire, Head of the BBC in the North East says: “Championing home grown talent like Phil and being able to put a spotlight on places like Middlesbrough is really important to us and I’m sure everyone in Teesside and beyond are going to love this brilliant, clever, funny and bonkers series.”
Written during lockdown, and Smoggie accents
Phil discussed with me how he actually wrote this series during lockdown after becoming sick of the endless Zoom sessions. Alexandra joined in about how she is glad Smoggie Queens wasn’t filmed during this era because it’s very touchy feely and when she was playing Emma in Coronation Street at the time they obviously weren’t allowed to go near each other!
Mark describes how the main characters are a makeshift family who have all been brought together by different circumstances. He thinks many others will be able to relate to their outsider status when they watch the show whether they are LGBTQ+ or not. Mark talks of his pride at having a screening in his native area and hopes people will now recognise that the term “Smoggie” is someone from Teesside. This was originally a derogatory term referring to the area’s industrial pollution which people from the region reclaimed and now use with pride. Mark and Phil both discussed the frustrations of constantly being referred to as a Geordie when they are down South! The Teesside accent is different from a Geordie one they were keen to emphasise.
Patsy, who plays Sal, is herself is a Geordie but has perfected the Smoggie accent in this comedy. She has previously worked on that other North East favourite Vera as well as many other projects such as Inspector George Gently. Patsy talked about how she is loving playing a character the exact opposite to herself – Sal is a woman of few words whereas she is a woman of many words! She also described how she has a chosen family in real life too so really related to this script.
All of the cast told me how they really feel like a family after acting together. They lived in apartments in Teesside during filming and found their own local pub they frequented together. Phil says we call Alexandra “the Parmo Queen” after she fell in love with the Teesside dish. “My favourite is the Hot Shot” which she explains has extra pepperoni & jalapeños added to it.
The LGBTQ+ scene in Middlesbrough
When asked what the LGBTQ+ scene is like in Middlesbrough Elijah who plays a young gay man called Stewart, talked about how it is very small consisting of three venues. He added that he hoped this would become bigger after the airing of Smoggie Queens. He feels the whole programme is “a celebration of Middlesbrough” and hopes it shows the area in a new light. The after party last night was at Sapphires which labels itself as “Middlesbrough’s ONLY Drag LGBTQ+ Cabaret Party Venue”.
I ended up laughing out loud while watching the first episode of Smoggie Queens. Jokes such as Lucinda considering a date who lived 15 miles away in Hartlepool as a long distance relationship had me in stitches. The programme manages to have references that are local like this but which everyone can relate to. I remember people saying the same thing about north and south London relationships when I lived down there, for example! It’s a fast paced comedy but also has heart warming scenes where the characters have each other’s backs during difficult times. Highly recommended viewing to entertain us all during the cold winter months.
Smoggie Queens airs on BBC 3 on 28 November at 10.10pm and is also available on BBC Iplayer.
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