‘I will love you forever Viv’: the death of a Liverpool drag superstar
The international drag community mourns the untimely loss of one of their best. Plus: events to kickstart your 2025
Dear readers — a wintery welcome to your Monday briefing, and of course, a very happy New Year. We trust you’ve had a restful Christmas break, and that you’re now looking forward to digging into all the investigations and colourful features we have planned for 2025. We think it might just be our best year yet…
We’re hoping you were able to enjoy some of the weekend’s picturesque snow before it almost immediately melted into a big, slushy mess. Here’s one of our favourite shots from the beautiful calm before the rain washed it all away:
ICYMI: In our first piece of 2025, the writer and historian David Swift explored the storied history and uncertain future of Liverpool’s middle class. Due to a technical mishap, comments for this post were deactivated upon publication. We’ve now turned commenting capabilities on, so if you have any thoughts to share with us please head back over to the piece and let us know!
Today’s edition includes your usual Monday news snippets and great things to do around the city this week. We’re also looking back at the extraordinary career of drag superstar The Vivienne, who brought irreverent scouse drag to the world stage on RuPaul’s Drag Race and warmed the hearts of millions before their tragic death this past weekend.
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The big story: Remembering The Vivienne
Top line: The drag community in Liverpool and around the world are shocked and in mourning after the sudden death of Liverpool’s own James Lee Williams, better known as drag queen The Vivienne, who has died at the age of 32.
Context: Over the weekend, Liverpool drag queen The Vivienne’s publicist, Simon Jones, announced on Instagram: "It is with immense sadness that we let you know our beloved James Lee Williams – The Vivienne, has passed this weekend. James was an incredibly loved, warm-hearted and amazing person.
"Their family are heartbroken at the loss of their son, brother and uncle. They are so proud of the wonderful things James achieved in their life and career. We will not be releasing any further details. We please ask that James’s family are given the time and privacy they now need to process and grieve.”
James Lee Williams’s first drag gig was working as a greeter on the door of Pink, the now-defunct gay club on Victoria Street, for which they were paid £25 and a bottle of blue WKD. Years later, they would remember jobs like that with affection: changing in disabled toilets and sitting on beer barrels before performing was all part of their “university of drag”.
Little did anyone, even Williams themself, suspect that their gigs at Pink were the beginnings of a career that would take the Welsh-born star to Hollywood and back, winning television talent shows, starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, and becoming a staple of British television as The Vivienne. That mercurial rise has now, tragically, come to an end.
The Vivienne, whose stage name came from their love of the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, rose to prominence after becoming the UK drag ambassador for the US series of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2015. But the moment that solidified them as a star came four years later, as a contestant during the very first season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
In a show hardly lacking in glitz, pizzazz, and humour, The Vivienne grabbed the spotlight with their impersonations of Donald Trump, Queen Elizabeth II, and Kim Woodburn, not to mention their sparkling, sharp-edged wit. Judge Michelle Visage would later describe them as "the best Snatch Game character in the history of the show", referring to the improvised impressions game in which contestants have to think on their feet. The Vivienne described their own style as “like a scouse wife who has come into money; she moved to LA and blew it all and then she’s had to move back to Liverpool.”
Later that same year, in collaboration with Jaguar and lifestyle magazine Attitude, they competed in a racing competition web series to represent Sahir House, Liverpool’s oldest LGBT charity that supports people with HIV.
The Vivienne subsequently starred in BBC Three’s The Vivienne Takes on Hollywood in 2020, in which they made their first music video. They would later release a single, “Tonight”, and release a cover of Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”, paying homage to fellow Liverpool star Pete Burns.
The Vivienne also appeared in the seventh season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, and finished in third place in 2023’s series of Dancing on Ice. Their stage work included playing the Childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz musical.
Williams’s success as The Vivienne was undeniable. Unfortunately, in both their career and personal life, they also faced homophobia and violence.
In 2023, an incident involving Williams brought Liverpool’s relationship with its LGBT community into disrepute. In the McDonald’s branch at Edge Lane retail park, Alan Whitfield, 51, punched the drag performer in the face in an attack Liverpool Magistrates’ Court later established was motivated by homophobia. Whitfield received a 12-week jail term, suspended for 18 months. In response, The Vivienne tweeted “I have no words”.
On Boxing Day 2024, a celebrity edition of Blankety Blank featured The Vivienne just days before their death alongside Jonathan Ross, Sara Pascoe, and host Bradley Walsh. The Metro reported that The Vivienne’s appearance inspired an online backlash, exposing the UK’s “warped homophobia” — especially since Blankety Blank had once been hosted by fellow Merseyside drag queen Lily Savage.
The cause of Williams’s death has not yet been announced, and Cheshire Police are not currently treating the death as suspicious. During their life, The Vivienne spoke openly about struggling with addiction, including to the party drug ketamine. In 2019, they said they had been told they would be “dead by the time I was thirty”.
Just days before their death, The Vivienne posted about Sahir House’s latest appeal, encouraging drag fans to donate to the cause. “It says a lot to Viv's character that her last social post was about our Pound for Sahir campaign,” said John Hyland, community partnerships lead at Sahir. “She just wanted to give back. I think we're going to be in mourning in this city for a long time. The Vivienne was an amazing character, an amazing influence."
Bottom line: Williams’s success as The Vivienne was hailed as a triumph for LGBT performers. But the homophobia they faced as an openly gender-nonconforming public figure also highlighted how much work the city, and indeed the country, still has to do when it comes to acceptance of and support for the queer community. The Blankety Blank incident may be an indication of how tolerance have in some ways gone backwards since Paul O’Grady’s alter ego Lily Savage last hosted the game show in 2002.
Since the news of The Vivienne’s passing, other Drag Race stars and members of the wider drag community have paid tribute to their dear colleague and friend.
“I will love you forever Viv”, fellow performer Cheryl posted on Instagram.
“Your laughter, your wit, your talent, your drag. I loved all of it but I loved your friendship most of all”, judge Michelle Visage wrote on social media.
“I don’t entirely have words,” wrote American drag queen and Doctor Who star Jinkx Monsoon on X. “She has made her mark in our hearts and on her stages. It’s too soon for a curtain call but I know it’s a standing ovation. I love you Viv.”
Your Post briefing
A nearly two-year long investigation has found that Wirral Council misled the public over information it dispersed about Birkenhead Market. The market has been the subject of controversy over the last few years after the council announced it would be moved to a former Argos building, which many traders feared would seriously affect the future of the market. Complaints made by local market traders alleged there was a “hidden scheme to reduce the number of market stall holders, putting the market into managed decline”, prompting an internal investigation by the local authority. A total of eight allegations against councillors and council officers were investigated, and a new report found that the council had indeed misled traders, specifically over rent increases for vacant lots. The report also stated its findings did not warrant any wrongdoing being referred to the police. Auditors have now urged the council to review its rents within the next few weeks, with rates to be made public in the future.
Construction work is due to begin at a new interactive museum in Birkenhead. The museum will showcase the rare German World War Two submarine U-534, which was originally housed in the U-Boat Museum in Liverpool before its closure in 2020 due to issues with its roof. The new museum, named the Battle of the Atlantic U-Boat Museum, is expected to open in 2026, with works overseen by community interest company Big Heritage.
A leisure company has urged the government to do more to help save Southport Pier. The pier, which is one of the oldest seaside piers in Britain, closed in 2022 due to “serious health and safety fears”, with a debate ongoing between the council and government over who should pay for the pier’s costly repairs. Silcock Leisure Group, which has operated attractions in Southport for decades, told the BBC that everyone in the town had suffered as a result of the "national treasure" being closed for so long, with many local businesses forced to shut. A government spokesperson has since said it was providing more money to councils, and that local authorities were best placed to decide which projects they should support.
And some joyous news for those of you who read Laurence’s piece on the Whitechapel Centre before Christmas. Terence Crolley, who chairs the board of trustees for the Liverpool homelessness charity, has been appointed an MBE for his services tackling homelessness in Merseyside. He said: "Although I've been given the award personally, this is an award for Whitechapel. It is one of the great homelessness charities in Merseyside and it's for the frontline workers really who deserve all the credit." Catch up on our piece about the incredible work Whitechapel does here.
Home of the week
The Christmas décor in this one is already giving us the January blues. On the upside though, this four bedroom home in Southport has plenty of garden space for some winter’s morning bird spotting, plus a colourful tiled bathroom to add some pep to your step. Take the tour here.
Post Picks
📚On Tuesday, St Helens Book Stop is hosting a night themed around the fantasy series Empyrean. Head there at 6pm for a quiz based on the book Fourth Wing, and a chance to pick up some fantasy goodies.
🕯️On Thursday, Pocket Café Bar is hosting an evening of candlelit yoga, manifestation and journaling to set some 2025 intentions. Tickets are £15 and doors open at 7pm — find out more here.
⛸️For those of you wanting to embrace the snow this week, why not give ice skating a go? On Thursday, Deeside Leisure Centre is open from 10.30am to midday, with skate hire included for £5.
🎸In support of his new album Anchor Chains, Plane Motors & Train Whistles, Skydaddy heads to Jacaranda Baltic on Friday for a live performance and album signing. Tickets here.
Recommended reads
The Guardian recently published the fascinating story of Toxteth resident David Clarke. When Clarke inherited £100,000 from his mother, he could not decide what to do with it, so wrote to 600 of his L8 neighbours inviting them to nominate where the funds should go.
Caroline Blackwood, the muse who inspired poems by Robert Lowell and paintings by Lucien Freud, was also a writer in her own right. One of her pieces, described in a recent New Yorker profile as “vivid, acerbic [and] unflinching,” was a New Journalism-style 1979 report into a gravediggers’ strike in Liverpool which left “hundreds of bodies decomposing” and “the mortuaries, the hospitals, the funeral homes [...] full to overflowing.”
Football is not our forté at The Post, but this Telegraph piece on how Liverpool and Manchester United are seldom both good at the same time caught our eye after yesterday’s 2-2 draw. Over the past 49 seasons, the two most successful clubs in England have finished in the first and second league positions on only two occasions — a phenomenon that definitely deserves some explaining.
Sorry to hear that The Vivienne has died so young. Absolutely tragic! I have no time for drag, and see no purpose to it apart from mocking and insulting women. At least that's my take on it