Mr Gay UK

Mr Gay UK is a British annual beauty contest for gay men, with regional heats held in gay nightclubs with a grand final usually at a gay venue. The contests is owned and promoted by gay entrepreneur Terry George.

It began in 1982 as "Mr Hardware" (named after a fragrance) designed to promote a gay mail order company. The event, held in the Heaven nightclub, was filmed by the BBC as part of a documentary entitled Something For the Ladies.

In 1984, the competition name was changed to Mr Gay UK. Since then, the event has been recorded for video release (1993), featured on a Channel 4 series, Passengers (1994) and the event itself was broadcast on Channel 5 in 1998 and 1999.

In 2008 the first winner of the contest, Anthony Morley, was convicted of murder and cannibalism. Ironically, 2007–present judge and Bent (magazine) Features Editor Adam Lowe later covered the incident and the following trial in The Pink Paper.

Mr Gay UK Winners
Since 2005, the winner has gone on to represent the UK in Mr Gay Europe. No contest was held in 2009 and 2010.

2011 Contest
As with previous years, heats for the 2011 contest were held in various gay venues across the country. Participants could apply in advance directly with the venue, or just turn up on the evening and complete an application form. In total there are 14 finalists from the heats that took place between September and October 2011.

Voting In this year the rules and the feeling of the competition were changed. A public vore was put into place and contestants were expected to campaign for votes in any way they could. Each finalist could receive votes through a premium rate phone and text number, a 'like' on their individual Facebook page and a Twitter and E-mail vote accessible from the main Mr Gay UK website. Voting ended on the 29th November 2011 and the five finalists were announced. They were Greg Lumley - Middlesbrough, Charlie Drummond - Bristol, John Wheeldon - Leeds, Nik Chapman - Newcastle and Samuel Kneen - Cardiff, who eventually went on to win the competition

Promotion A media relations push was made on the competition with articles appearing in local and regional media and radio, but also had national coverage in guardian.co.uk and the three of finalists appeared on Loose Women bringing on Julie Goodyear

The Final The grand final was held on Saturday 10 December at Mission 2 in Leeds. Judges included Kieron Richardson from Hollyoaks, Rob Gunn from the competition's sponsor Manhunt and photographer Jay Eff

Hosts
Presenters have included Lily Savage, Jason Donovan, Mark Little, Robbie Williams, Jane McDonald, Terry George, Richard Newman, Nadia Almada, Brian Dowling and Philip Olivier and judges have included Jean Paul Gaultier, Michael Cashman, Danny La Rue, Scott Neal, Lea Walker, Jonathan Kerrigan, Su Pollard and Christopher Biggins. In 2007, the presenters were Andy Scott-Lee and his wife Michelle Heaton. The judges were Shahbaz from Big Brother 2006, James Sutton of Hollyoaks, long-standing Adam Lowe of Bent magazine and The Sheilas of Sheila's Wheels. The event was hosted at Flamingo's nightclub in Blackpool, where Daniel Broughton (also from Blackpool) won.

Jarrold Batchelor, winner of the 2003 contest, went on to appear in the Channel 4 reality series, The Games. In 2006, police officer Mark Carter made national headlines when he won the competition. Mr Gay UK 1998, Ben Harris, became the winner of the Channel 4 show Playing It Straight in 2004.

Notable non-winning contestants
Future porn star Mark Anthony was a finalist in 1993. Charlie Drummond was a contestant in the 2007, winning the Newcastle regional heat, and in 2009 became a Big Brother contestant. Charlie is now also the Bristol finalist in the 2011 competition.