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Glittering with sequins on Strictly's dancefloor, drag queen La Voix is the jewel in the crown of this year's show with her iconic, devil-may-care strut.
But the flamboyant star has been keeping an extraordinary secret. Sixteen years ago, the performer – whose real name is Chris Dennis – was at the centre of the largest jewellery heist in UK history, inadvertently helping a gang of robbers to raid £40million worth of gems.
In a tale worthy of a Hollywood studio, Mr Dennis was working as a theatrical make-up artist in London's Covent Garden when he was booked by two men who said they needed to look like much older.
The then 29-year-old spent four hours fitting the duo with liquid latex masks and wigs and altered their skin tone. The men told him the disguise was for a music video.
But it was an elaborate ruse: an hour later Aman Kassaye and Craig Calderwood, walked into the Graff diamond store on New Bond Street before ordering staff to empty the display cases at gunpoint.
The daring raid became known as the Graff Diamonds Heist and made headlines around the world thanks to its similarities with films such as Ocean's Eleven. Mr Dennis, who was not named at the time for his own safety, was put under police guard after he told officers he feared for his life.
But it can now be revealed that he was the make-up artist who played a central – if innocent – part in the audacious August 2009 plot after he spoke about his involvement in a video uploaded to YouTube.
Interviewed on the Little Did You Know podcast in 2021, the star, who rose to fame as La Voix on RuPaul's Drag Race UK, told the astonishing tale of how he and a female colleague working for Charles Fox, a supplier of theatrical make-up, became involved with the gang.
Mr Dennis explained: 'I was booked to do two men who wanted to be made to look older, and I was told it was for a music video. We started doing things you could do with latex and all the ageing make-up.'
The men, who he described as ordinary if 'a little bit standoffish', then asked the make-up artists to leave the room while they discussed the results, before asking for a few changes. After a total of four hours, and paying £450 for the transformation, they left – only to head to the Graff store.
The first Mr Dennis knew of the crime was when he picked up a newspaper the following morning and recognised them in a CCTV photo of the crime. He told the podcast: 'I thought, "That's those two men that I did the make-up on yesterday!"'
Scotland Yard detectives arrived at the make-up studio to interview him and took make-up brushes, gowns, banknotes and rubber masks to test for DNA, which eventually helped lead to the arrest of the two men and some of their accomplices.
Five men were eventually convicted after Mr Dennis gave evidence in court – which he described as 'very frightening'.
Kassaye, who planned and executed the raid, was jailed for 23 years while Calderwood got 21 years. Accomplices Solomon Beyene, Clinton Mogg and Thomas Thomas were each jailed for 16 years.