Mr Gay UK was a British annual beauty contest for gay men, with regional heats held in gay nightclubs with a grand final usually at a gay venue. It began in 1982 as "Mr Hardware" (named after a fragrance) designed to promote a gay mail order company. The event, held in the Heaven nightclub, was filmed by the BBC as part of a documentary entitled Something For the Ladies.
In 1984, the competition name was changed to Mr Gay UK. [1] [2] Since then, the event has been recorded for video release (1993), featured on a Channel 4 series, Passengers (1994) and the event itself was broadcast on Five in 1998 and 1999.
In 2008 the first winner of the contest, Anthony Morley, was convicted of murder and cannibalism. [3]
The competition's website has not been updated since 2014 and no winners are listed after 2013. [4]
Year | Winner | Hometown | Profession | Heat Won |
---|---|---|---|---|
1993 | Anthony Morley | Leeds | Body Heat @ The Ritzy, Doncaster | |
1994 | David Jackson | Manchester | DJ | Cruz 101, Manchester |
1995 | Lance Trimble [5] | Birmingham | Subway City, Birmingham | |
1996 | Roy Fairhurst [6] | Leeds | DJ | Primos II, Leeds |
1997 | Sean McVeigh [7] | Manchester | Cruz 101, Manchester | |
1998 | Ben Harris [8] [9] | London | Builder's Mate | |
1999 | Mark Ledsham | Preston | Business Student | |
2000 | Harry French | Glasgow | Lifeguard | Bennets, Glasgow |
2001 | Carl Austin [10] | Manchester | Events Manager | Cruz 101, Manchester |
2002 | Rob Conn [11] | Bristol | IT manager | Queens Shilling, Bristol |
2003 | Jarrod Batchelor [12] [13] | Newport, Isle of Wight | Fireman | |
2004 | Mark Roberts [14] | Walsall | Plasterer | The Golden Lion, Walsall |
2005 | Richard Carr [15] | Birmingham | Supermarket Manager | The Nightingale, Birmingham |
2006 | Mark Carter [16] | Huddersfield | Police Officer | Birmingham |
2007 | Daniel Broughton | Blackpool | Stage Manager | Flamingo Club, Blackpool |
2008 | Dino Gamecho | Cardiff | Student | Ritz, Manchester |
2009 | contest not held | |||
2010 | contest not held | |||
2011 | Samuel Kneen | Cardiff | Hairdresser | |
2012 | Arjun Marwaha | Glasgow, Scotland | Car sales | Mansfield |
2013 | Scott Lawson [17] | Doncaster | Future Next Engineer |
Since 2005, the winner has gone on to represent the UK in Mr Gay Europe.
As with previous years, heats for the 2011 contest were held in various gay venues across the country. Participants could apply in advance directly with the venue, or just turn up on the evening and complete an application form. In total there are 14 finalists from the heats that took place between September and October 2011. [18]
Voting In this year the rules and the feeling of the competition were changed. A public vore was put into place and contestants were expected to campaign for votes in any way they could. Each finalist could receive votes through a premium rate phone and text number, a 'like' on their individual Facebook page and a Twitter and E-mail vote accessible from the main Mr Gay UK website. Voting ended on 29 November 2011 and the five finalists were announced. They were Greg Lumley – Middlesbrough, Charlie Drummond – Bristol, John Wheeldon – Leeds, Nik Chapman – Newcastle and Samuel Kneen – Cardiff, who eventually went on to win the competition
Promotion A media relations push was made on the competition with articles appearing in local and regional media and radio, but also had national coverage in guardian.co.uk and the three of finalists appeared on Loose Women bringing on Julie Goodyear.
The Final The grand final was held on Saturday 10 December at Mission 2 in Leeds. [18] Judges included Kieron Richardson from Hollyoaks, Rob Gunn from the competition's sponsor Manhunt and photographer Jay Eff.
Presenters have included Dannii Minogue, Lily Savage, Jason Donovan, Mark Little, Robbie Williams, Jane McDonald, Terry George (entrepreneur), Richard Newman, Nadia Almada, Brian Dowling and Philip Olivier and judges have included Jean Paul Gaultier, Michael Cashman, Danny La Rue, Scott Neal, Lea Walker, Jonathan Kerrigan, Su Pollard and Christopher Biggins. In 2007, the presenters were Andy Scott-Lee and his wife Michelle Heaton. [1] The judges were Shahbaz from Big Brother 2006 , James Sutton of Hollyoaks , long-standing Adam Lowe of Bent magazine and The Sheilas of Sheilas' Wheels. The event was hosted at Flamingo's nightclub in Blackpool, where Daniel Broughton (also from Blackpool) won.
Mr Gay 2001, Carl Austin-Behan, became the 119th Lord Mayor of Manchester in 2016, serving until 2017.
Mr Gay UK 2003, Jarrold Batchelor, went on to appear in the Channel 4 reality series, The Games . [1]
In 2006, police officer Mark Carter made national headlines when he won the competition. [16]
Mr Gay UK 1998, Ben Harris, became the winner of the Channel 4 show Playing It Straight in 2004.
Mr Gay Newcastle 2007, Charlie Drummond, became a Big Brother housemate in the 2009 series, where he sparked an "are they?/aren't they" relationship with fellow bisexual housemate Rodrigo Lopes. He made it to the final, finishing in 4th place. [19] Drummond later went on to become Mr Gay Bristol 2011.
Mr Gay UK winner 2013, Stuart Hatton, went on to represent the United Kingdom in Austria at Mr Gay Europe and was second runner up. Two months later Hatton travelled to Rome, Italy to represent the United Kingdom once more as Mr Gay UK but this time at The Mr Gay World Contest where he won the Mr Gay World title becoming the first United Kingdom winner to receive the global award.
The United Kingdom held a national preselection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1971.
Melodifestivalen is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959. In the early 2000s, the competition was the most popular television program in Sweden; it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the heats averaged 3.3 million viewers, and over an estimated four million people in Sweden watched the final, almost half of the Swedish population.
The United Kingdom participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 with its entry "Runner in the Night" performed by the group Ryder. The song was chosen through the A Song for Europe national final which consisted of eight songs in 1986. At the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 held in Bergen, Norway, Ryder and the song placed seventh with 72 points.
The United Kingdom competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. In addition, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was also the host broadcaster and staged the event at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on 9 May 1998 after the nation won the competition in 1997 with the song "Love Shine a Light" performed by Katrina and the Waves. The BBC organised a public selection to select its entry for the contest, The Great British Song Contest 1998. Eight songs competed over two rounds, with four songs selected through a radio-broadcast semi-final advancing to the televised final round, held on 15 March 1998, where viewers selected the winning entry through televoting. Imaani received the most votes and was selected to represent the UK in the contest with the song "Where Are You?". Imaani performed 16th at the international contest, and at the close of the voting process the UK finished in second place with 166 points, the nation's 15th second-place finish since its debut.
Eurovision: You Decide is the most recent name of a BBC television programme that was broadcast annually to select the United Kingdom's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The show had previously gone under several other names, including Festival of British Popular Songs (1957), Eurovision Song Contest British Final (1959–1960), The Great British Song Contest (1996–1999), Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up (2004–2007), Eurovision: Your Decision (2008), and Eurovision: Your Country Needs You (2009–2010), but was known, for most of its history, as A Song for Europe.
Scooch is a British pop group, comprising performers Natalie Powers, Caroline Barnes, David Ducasse and Russ Spencer.
International Mr. Leather (IML) is a multi-day conference and competition celebrating the leather, kink, fetish, and BDSM communities. Originally established in 1979, IML is held annually in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend, drawing participants from around the world.
Helen Adams is a Welsh television personality who rose to fame in the United Kingdom when she was chosen to be a contestant on the second series of the reality television show Big Brother, in 2001.
Miss Gay America is a national pageant for female impersonators. Established in 1972, the pageant is based on the Miss America contest and follows a similar format.
Britain's Got Talent is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global Got Talent franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, it is produced by both Thames and Syco Entertainment, distributed by Fremantle, and broadcast on ITV every year in late Spring to early Summer. The show was originally intended for production in 2005, but filming was suspended in the wake of a dispute between ITV and the programme's originally planned host. Following the success of America's Got Talent that year, production resumed and the programme eventually premiered on 9 June 2007.
The 1909 FA Cup final was the final match of the 1908–09 FA Cup, the 38th season of England's premier club football cup competition. The match was played on 24 April 1909 at Crystal Palace, and was contested by Manchester United and Bristol City, both of the First Division. Manchester United won by a single goal, scored by Sandy Turnbull midway through the first half. This was the first of Manchester United's twelve FA Cup titles to date.
The British Basketball League Cup, often shortened to the BBL Cup, was an annual cup competition for the British Basketball League (BBL). It was one of two peripheral competitions operated by the League during the regular season, with the other being the BBL Trophy. The competition was usually played as a single game knock-out tournament, and was only contested by members of the British Basketball League. The final takes place in early January at the Arena Birmingham in Birmingham.
Brian Belo is an English television personality and writer. He rose to fame after winning the eighth series of reality series Big Brother. Since then, he has become an internet columnist for entertainment magazine, Heat magazine, as well as a TV segment entertainer for Harry Hill's TV Burp and Big Brother's Big Mouth.
The second series of British talent competition programme Britain's Got Talent was broadcast on ITV, from 12 April to 31 May 2008. Following the success of its first series, ITV commissioned the programme for additional episodes, with more venues used for auditions than in the previous series, and the number of semi-finalists, semi-final rounds, and finalists increased by production staff. Both the judges from the first series – Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan – and Ant & Dec returned to co-host the second series, along with Stephen Mulhern returning to front the second series of Britain's Got More Talent on ITV2.
Big Brother 2009, also known as Big Brother 10, was the tenth series of the British reality television series Big Brother. The show followed a total of twenty-two contestants, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one or more of the housemates were evicted by a public vote. The last remaining housemate, Sophie Reade, was declared the winner, winning a cash prize of £71,320.
Bristol Bisons RFC is an inclusive English rugby union club based in Bristol. Founded in 2005 as the south west’s first inclusive rugby team, the Bisons have welcomed players of all abilities, backgrounds and sexualities from Bristol, Somerset, South Gloucestershire and the surrounding areas since that time.
Celebrity Big Brother 13 was the thirteenth series of the British reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The series launched on 3 January 2014 on Channel 5 and was originally meant to end after 22 days on 24 January 2014. However, it was extended due to ratings success and instead ended after 27 days on 29 January 2014, making it the longest Channel 5 series of the show and the joint-longest series, along with Celebrity Big Brother 7 in 2010. It is the sixth celebrity series and the ninth series of Big Brother overall to air on the channel. Emma Willis returned to host the series, whilst Rylan Clark returned to present spin-off show Big Brother's Bit on the Side along with Willis.
Stuart Hatton is an English pageant winner, model, and dancer. He was a former Mr. Gay World and for two consecutive years and Mr. Gay UK in 2013 and 2014. He was the first North East man to win the title of Mr. Gay UK.
The 1971 Irish Greyhound Derby took place during July and August with the final being held at Shelbourne Park in Dublin on 7 August 1971.
Jarrod Batchelor, 24, took the drastic action when he was bullied at school because of his sexuality.
Charlie Drummond won the Newcastle heat of Mr Gay UK in 2007 and has worked as a model in the past. The 22-year-old, who works in customer services for the JobCentre, says his favourite part of his job is walking into the office in the morning and saying Good morning angels to his colleagues, who reply Good morning Charlie. Charlie, from Newcastle, thinks he has a good chance of winning BB – now in its tenth year.