Dear Viv review – this fascinating tribute to The Vivienne is astonishingly candid

Family, friends and fellow queens create a warm portrait of a funny, sharp joy giver – and are impressively honest about their personal struggles

The Vivienne was well on her way to becoming the 21st century’s answer to Lily Savage or Dame Edna Everage. Comically gifted and with a very modern mastery of makeup – there was nothing remotely slapdash about Viv’s transformative glam – she won the first UK edition of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2019, before parlaying her victory into appearances on Dancing on Ice, Celebrity Hunted and Emmerdale. By 2024, she was living the dream, wowing as the Wicked Witch of the West in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Wizard of Oz.

But James Lee Williams never got the chance to turn his status as a fledgling household name into proper cultural ubiquity: in January of this year, he died from cardio-respiratory arrest, a result of ketamine consumption. He was 32.

Dear Viv aired on BBC Three and is available on iPlayer