In the first episode of GCN presents Q+A: The Queer and Alternative Podcast, Panti revealed more information about her upcoming Sky Atlantic television show centred around a fictional version of Pantibar that she’s been working on.

Panti has been delving into the rich history of Dublin’s drag scene for stories and characters to include in the show which is bound to make an impression.

Of course, the details will be changed just enough to ensure that no legal fallout ensues Panti explained.

The show is currently in development and a decision will be made before Christmas about whether it will get to pilot stage.

“So Philly, who I do all of the theatre stuff with, we have a TV show in development with Sky Atlantic and we’re writing it at the moment and all that. And it’s set in a fictional version of Pantibar,” Panti said.

“We have been mining the last twenty-five years of stories from the Dublin drag scene and all the characters that we love.”

Powderbubble Power

Panti explained that trying to convey the intricacies of the Dublin drag scene to people who work in television in England has taken some time.

We are spending days in meetings with English people trying to explain who DJ Karen is and why we’d want to have a version of her

“We are spending days in meetings with English people trying to explain who DJ Karen is and why we’d want to have a version of DJ Karen in the show,” she said.

“So we’ve been trawling through all this stuff and it’s amazing then once you get into these conversations, you find these archetypal characters and Dublin is just full of that stuff.

“And half of it is out of all this stuff that me and Niall [Sweeney] had been involved in, so all of that going out and getting drunk in Powderbubble or whatever, in the end, turned out to be just amazing material. ”

While casting has been organised for most of the characters in the show, the biggest role has yet to be decided upon, so for actors it might be time to see if Panti’s shoe fits!

Keep your eyes on GCN.ie for more updates about Panti’s show as they arise.

Princess Diana Trips

If the promise of Panti’s show isn’t enough, the drag queen has her hand in several other pies with a new show in the works.

“I’m supposed to be writing a new [show] now, but I’m also touring with RIOT at the moment and from January onward that’s going to be pretty full on. So it’s a bit of a juggle at the moment.

“One of the weird things that’s come out of the Panti thing in the last few years is I’ve started to do these Princess Diana trips. I do these trips with Irish Aid and they bring me to various places, this time it’s Vietnam.”

“Irish Aid is the Department of Foreign Affairs that spends our development money around the world in other countries. They do a lot of work around rights issues. LGBTI is one that they’ve grown a lot in the last few years,” Rory said, before identifying the rights of women and gender-based violence, and AIDS-related issues too.

Rory praised the work of those in the Department of Foreign Affairs, saying that what they do is “incredible!”

The full conversation with Panti and Niall Sweeny is in episode one of GCN present Q+A: The Queer and Alternative Podcast, which is now available on iTunes.