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Five things we learnt about Queer Eye from Tan France

Fashion expert and member of Queer Eye’s Fab Five caught up with Laura Whitmore on 5 Live’s Must Watch and revealed five things about the show. Click here to listen to Tan's chat with Laura.

1. There will be more women

(Photo: Netflix)

Queer Eye is a remake of a TV show in the early 2000s called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy so the candidates or ‘heroes’ in Seasons 1 and 2 were predominantly men.

In Season 3 there will be more of a gender balance, so there are more women and Tan says the ‘first lesbian candidate’.

2. They had only met three times when they started filming Season 1

(Photo: Netflix)

When we first watched Tan, Antoni, Jonathan, Bobby and Karamo back in February 2018 they seemed like best friends but in reality when they started filming they had only met three times. Tan says:

“Watching us in season 3, I’m positive you’ll see a difference because you get to see so much about our relationships too.

“Now, they are my best friends.”

3. Antoni Porowski can cook

(Photo: Netflix)

If you love Antoni as much as us, it might surprise you that he has some detractors. Tan wants to make it clear that food and wine expert Antoni is a fundamental part of the Fab Five. He says:

“Antoni, I love more than life itself, and we’re incredibly close so it’s painful when I would hear people say ‘well what does he really cook on the show?’

“We’ve got to remember that the people he’s helping, two of those people literally had no idea where the knives were in their kitchen.

“He can’t teach them to make boeuf bourguignon; he has to start with something incredibly simple. But he’s an incredible cook.”

And it’s not just the candidates who learn from Antoni, Tan has him on tap for cooking advice.

“We FaceTime probably a few times a day so when I’m cooking, he will give me tips on how to make it better.”

4. The tension during the police officer scene was real

(Photo: Netflix)

In Season 1, when the team get pulled over by police and Karamo Brown is driving, it seems so real because Tan, Karamo and Jonathan believed it was.

Karamo, who is African-American, was asked for his licence and Jonathan even starts filming. In the end it's revealed that it was a set up organised by the crew and the officer was a friend of the episode’s candidate.

Tan says: “[Karamo] and I felt physically sick when he was pulled over by the cop. We all know watching the news what happens in America when a white cop pulls over a black driver, you are at risk of some real issues.

“We didn’t know it was a set up and thankfully it turned out that it was, and all turned out well but Karamo and I were truly uncomfortable.

“We don’t reshoot; we don’t stop a scene, that’s not the way our show works… What happened actually is shown on the show and we were so uncomfortable and so nervous.”

5. Most of the 'heroes' regularly FaceTime Tan

Tan says most of the people who take part in Queer Eye, the 'heroes', keep in touch with him.

“When they’re shopping they will ask my advice, they will show me options and say ‘what do you think?’

“I do love that they still value my opinion... It’s because the choices I’ve made have truly affected the way they perceive themselves.”

Queer Eye season 3 is released on Netflix on 15 March 2019.