To celebrate the imminent release of The British Guide To Showing Off – a marvellously mad documentary centring on the annual Alternative Miss World pageant – we reckon it’s important to remember what it is about cinematic cross-dressing that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. From Patrick Swayze to Robin Williams, from Toni Collette to Tony Curtis – we don our heels, our moustaches and our classiest bejelewed thongs and embrace the wonderful world of drag…

The British Guide to Showing Off offers a behind-the-scenes look at Miss Alternative World, a pageant that began 40 years ago as a drag contest and has since morphed into an extravaganza of living art. The film follows the show’s creator Andrew Logan as he creates his 2009 show. With guest spots from Ruby Wax, Zandra Rhodes and about three hundred men in drag, be warned: this is the documentary that will make you want to run away with the circus all over again.