Mark Benton admits enjoying playing drag queen 'too much' as he brands it an absolute joy

Actor has told how he had abuse hurled at him while filming new comedy in his home town of Middlesborough.

The series sees Mark, best known for his roles in Waterloo Road, Shakespeare & Hathaway and Early Doors, playing a drag queen called Mam, who leads a silly, camp, queer gang of friends. He said he was delighted to be filming in Middlesborough - but not all the locals were as thrilled as he was. “There was one bit where I'm a fairy godmother on top of this big carriage. I just remember this guy came up and he just stood there, and he's going, ‘This is disgusting. This shouldn't be allowed. Look at him. Our kids shouldn't see this.’ And I'm on the thing, going, ‘Yeah.’

Despite this, Mark said he was very happy to be putting the town on the map. “It feels great because, for a long time, I think a lot of people thought there was just a wasteland between York and Newcastle. There isn’t. So, it meant an awful lot that it was from Middlesbrough. It really did. Filming where we grew up is kind of unheard of.”

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Mark, who is married to Sarah and has three children, said the job had been “an absolute joy” and he had loved getting dressed up as kindly matriarch Mam, even though her look took hours to create. “It was a long day. I would come in and it would be two and a bit hours to get into all the gear - tiring for an old codger like me.” He said he had fully embraced being a “drag queen diva”, laughing: “There was one particular dress I wore, and I found myself going, ‘I'm not wearing this dress.’”

Mark added: “I've never played anything like this on screen, and I think I enjoyed it slightly too much. People should go in with their eyes open, because it doesn’t matter what someone’s sexuality is. I want audiences to want to spend half an hour with these characters, and have a laugh. I think the show is about love, friendship and family and I hope viewers want to see them get up to their mad antics.”

Fellow local Steph McGovern has a guest role and, at a screening to launch the series, admitted she’d been shocked by the amount of swearing they’d got away with. Writer Phil Dunning, who also stars as Dickie, revealed that BBC bosses told him to tone down the swears - but he ignored them. “We were told that we had to take it out, but we just didn't. So, sorry, BBC."

He hopes the show will appeal to a wide audience. “I think what I was wanting to do was just make quite a stupid sitcom,” he said. “I was like, ‘It's just silly, fun.’ It could be any old sitcom, but it just happens to have queer people in it as the main focus.”

.- Smoggie Queens, Wednesday 28 November, 10.10pm, BBC3/ (MUST)

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