There’s always been one major difference between RuPaul’s Drag Race and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. Yeah, both shows are hosted by RuPaul and feature a dozen competitors (give or take a queen) serving and stunting in the hopes of winning a crown. But in America, that crown comes with a major cash tip to the tune of $200,000. In the UK, however, the crown comes with… you know in cartoons when someone opens an envelope and a lone fly buzzes out of it? Yeah, that.

But just because Danny Beard didn’t walk away from the Drag Race UK set with a ton of pounds after winning Season 4 doesn’t mean she walked away empty-handed. As the reigning queen of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Danny Beard was whisked away to Los Angeles for a development meeting with the producers of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Cut to a year later and The After Shave with Danny Beard was born.

Danny Beard’s winner’s show follows in the footsteps of previous winning entries The Vivienne Takes On Hollywood, Tartan Around with Lawrence Chaney, and Keeping Up with Krystal Versace — and it also forges its own path. Whereas previous winners’ shows followed their journeys away from Drag Race UK, either geographically towards Los Angeles or professionally towards their own production, The After Shave with Danny Beard returns to the scene of its host’s victory. Finally, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK has a proper after-show, hosted by none other than Liverpool’s distinctly camp bearded queen, Danny Beard.

With RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5 underway and The After Shave up and running, Decider caught up with reigning UK queen Danny Beard and chatted about her chat show, the state of bearded drag, and how the hell she snuck a larger-than-life-size man-eating plant gown into the Werk Room.

Decider: The After Shave with Danny Beard comes on the heels of your winning RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Series 4. What are your thoughts about your season of Drag Race a year later, now that time has passed?

Danny Beard: We were really lucky to have such a really tight-knit cast. I know from different people and different tours that our cast got on the most when we all went on the tour we got on the most. When we filmed we got on the most. If anyone watched The After Shave premiere, you could see the rapport between me and [Series 4 runner-up] Cheddar [Gorgeous]. We’re genuine friends and I think that made the season just that extra bit nicer. We wanted each other to do well. It was friendly competition and everyone was really talented in their area.

And now you’re involved with Series 5 as the host of Drag Race UK’s first aftershow.

Do you know what? A lot of the girls from my season are like, “Oh my god. I can’t believe this has come around so quick. But for me, I feel really lucky to be involved with it because I think it’s a killer season. I can’t wait for the world to see the rest of the season because they’re all so lovable. I feel like I’ve got a big head but I’m getting to do the things I always wanted to do, and that’s the power of Drag Race. So I feel dead lucky to be involved in the season and that people care enough that they want to see me still, hopefully.

When you won Series 4, were you immediately like, “Great, I want to do a chat show”?

So I went into a pitch meeting with World of Wonder, who produce Drag Race and produce The After Shave, and I was like, “Right — this is what I want to do: It’s like Big Brother’s Bit on the Side or The Extra Slice for Bake Off. I wanted to do a proper wacky after-show and there were references from old British TV like George Dawes, which is why we’ve got Bailey involved. And I was just like, I don’t want any green screen. I didn’t want it to feel too much like a YouTube show. And World of Wonder all just sat around the table and went, “Yeah, okay. We’ve been thinking of something similar for a while. We can’t think of anyone else who could host it. You’re the perfect host. Let’s do it.” And it was the most easiest pitch meeting I’ve ever been in.

America’s RuPaul’s Drag Race has both The Pit Stop and Whatcha Packin’. The After Shave already feels so different from those two thanks to the original comedy and having a sidekick, Bailey. What other things are going to be different about The After Shave?

I saw a lot of things when [The After Shave] was first announced, “Woo, we’re getting a Pit Stop.” And then some people were like, “Why’s Danny out of drag? Bianca [Del Rio] doesn’t do that on The Pit Stop.” I wanted it to be its own beast. And also it’s called The After Shave with Danny Beard, which wouldn’t work if it was The After Shave with anyone else. I was making sure that we didn’t let no one else jump in and steal the job.

Like you say, it’s got original comedy, it’s a review show, and it’s the first official exit interview [with that week’s eliminated queen]. And we actually cram quite a lot into 15 minute episodes. They’re short, they’re snappy. At first I wanted it to be longer than 15 minutes but because it’s the winner’s show, to be in line with the other winners’ shows, they all got 15 minutes on their shows. Actually watching it last night and seeing lots of tags online, people are doing viewing parties and then putting the show on in the venues, the viewing parties, and I think 15 minutes just keeps everyone’s attention.

You’re also introducing Bailey J Mills to American audiences.

There were two non-negotiables to World to Wonder: no green screen and you need to have Bailey. Please let me have Bailey Mills as a sidekick. There was a lot of back and forth about that and about whether it was right and acceptable, because obviously within the Drag Race franchise they like to use Drag Race queens. But for me, British drag is so wild and different and diverse and there’s so many subcultures, and to have to have a trans icon like Bailey on the show was just so special. And she’s just so weird and funny and not Drag Race. We wouldn’t see a queen like Bailey, self-professed bin bag drag. It’s just fun and if I’m honest, she’s the star of the show. And I’m quite happy for her to be the star of the show because it’s what the audience wants.

It kind of speaks to your status as the first bearded queen to win. Have you noticed a rise in the number of bearded queens in the last year?

I think so, actually. Even Copper Topp in fact, off my season, is now a bearded queen. And I never felt cool as a beaded queen, but I feel like now there’s a bit of a coolness around it. I think more people are accepting it, especially the way I do it. I’m probably the worst representative for bearded queens across the world because it’s not the be all and end all of my drag. It used to be. My name’s Danny beard for God’s sake. But I think as time went on, I felt less restricted by the facial hair. I go through phases and I’m in my glam phase still at the minute and maybe it’s taking a bit of a backseat. But I’m always gonna be hairy. I think there are more bearded queens. I’d like to think it’s because of me, but I’m a drag queen and big-headed and delusional so that’s probably why… 

You did garner a lot of praise when I interviewed the Season 5 queens. I asked them all to name some of their favorite runway looks in Drag Race UK herstory and your Audrey II look was mentioned by practically everyone. They all had one question, though: how did you pack that and get it to Drag Race?

I am a naughty, naughty, naughty, naughty, naughty girl. I sent the pictures to the producers and was like, “This is what I wanted to do. This is my idea.” And then we had to scale it back, first of all, to fit through the actual [runway entrance]. It was made to the exact measurements of the doorway and I still had to duck. I brought it [to Drag Race] in its own separate, giant, clear bag and just hoped that they didn’t say, “This is extra.” And they didn’t.

Honestly, I feel so lucky to be involved with [Season 5] and I feel so lucky that the vessel of my winner’s show is not just me, me, me, me. I know that sounds really stupid coming from a drag queen, but I like that the girls from Season 5 are getting to have their last say and have a final word — and that’s something that I think the fans want and I think that’s something that’s important for the girls to be able to do. So I’m really blessed that I’m just a part of it, really.

New episodes of The After Shave with Danny Beard premiere on Thursdays at 5:15 p.m. ET after new episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 5, all streaming on WOW Presents Plus in the United States.