Queer Eye has been a huge hit since Netflix revived it in 2018. Following six seasons with the Fab Five, the streaming service debuted a German spin-off in March.
When talking to Queer Eye's fashion expert Tan France about his new BBC documentary Beauty and the Bleach, Digital Spy couldn't help but ask for his thoughts on the international spin-off.
"OK, to be fair, I've only seen two episodes," he admitted. "I have a baby, and I can't watch much TV right now. It's almost impossible.
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"But I think they've done such a beautiful job. I love that they have given us an even greater representation of the queer community. We have the luxury on Queer Eye of having access to so many queer people here in the US. And we have more episodes and more seasons.
Related: Tan France talks Queer Eye criticism and BBC's Beauty and the Bleach
"So we can really dissect what it is to be a queer person, and many versions of it that are multifaceted. Whereas the German version – I think there's only five episodes.
"But a lot of the criticism that we get from the queer community is that us five don't represent the millions of queers all across the world. And I'm like, 'Yeah, duh. There's five of us.' We can't possibly represent everyone. So we try to do that with our heroes.
"And with the German version, they've given us even more queer representation, and I think it's beautiful. I'm really impressed by them. I think they're so sweet."
Tan also admitted that it was "really weird" watching the German version as it's so similar to the main show, stating: "I didn't know what to expect.
"I thought they would switch it up a little bit but even the way they read off the card made me giggle, thinking, 'The way you guys are doing it is so like us.' Which I think is lovely. I loved it."
He added: "I can imagine that our version was weird for the original [2003 version Fab Five] and those guys on that show, I'm sure they found it so weird watching us. And I find it equally watching the German crew. But I think that they're wonderful."
Related: Queer Eye star joins Jim Parsons' new movie
Elsewhere in the interview, Tan talks about the impact skin bleaching has on people's lives, and brushes off criticism of his Queer Eye cast.
Beauty and the Bleach is available on BBC iPlayer now, while Queer Eye can be streamed via Netflix.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
