Smoggie Queens: BBC Three comedy explores Middlesbrough's LGBTQ+ community
Middlesbrough native, writer, actor and character comedian Phil Dunning is glad the entire cast of his new BBC Three series Smoggie Queens has been able to build a strong friendship on and off the screen.
The six-part out-and-out comedy follows a group of friends who are fiercely in love with their northeastern town of Middlesbrough and their small pocket of the LGBTQ+ community.
Volatile Dickie, played by Dunning who stars in Boat Story, along with drag queen Mam, played by English actor and TV presenter Mark Benton, 58, who stars in Early Doors, self-styled Lucinda, played by English actress and former Coronation Street star Alexandra Mardell, 31, awkward Sal, played by English actress Patsy Lowe, who stars in Vera, and newcomer Stewart, played by English writer and actor Elijah Young, navigate love, life and their pride for a town that feels neglected in its own little corner of the UK.
The title of the series was inspired by Smoggie (or Smoggy), a nickname given to people from Middlesbrough and the wider Teesside area, as well as the local accent and dialect.
And the show’s style of comedy is big, slapstick but with lots of heart
Dunning says: “I love writing silly slapstick humour, I come from live character comedy, and all my characters on stage are very much silly, stupid, and interacting with the audience. I started off by having that as a basis for the show, and then it was actually our producer Chris Jones who encouraged me to have a bit more heart. There was just a lot of punching and people getting run over before. At first, I was like, this is cringy as hell and I don’t like it. But the more I just opened myself up to it, the more I enjoyed it.”
Benton adds: “The overriding word for me about this job is probably joy because it was a joyful experience — from start to finish — working with everybody — not just us — but what I call the satellite regulars around us. You very rarely get a job like this and a lot of work coming out is so busy trying to be clever. And I’m not just saying that. Smoggie Queens is very well-written and Phil knows how to weave in and out of storylines, so it’s really an ensemble, where you get to follow all of us and our journeys.”
Why was it important to make the show so distinctly Middlesbrough?
"There’s a lot of characters there. Isn’t there? There’s a lot of fun, lovely, hilarious characters just living there. You can walk down the street and see them. So I always wondered why there had not been a sitcom set in Middlesbrough. It’s about what you know, at the end of the day. I grew up there, I know the queer communities there and Middlesbrough really well. I know the people. So it just made sense to do it there. And it became natural to do a script about Middlesbrough and to also highlight the area more positively was really important.”
Smoggie Queens comes BBC Three and BBC iPlayer on Thursday, November 28.