In the 1970s, Italian drag troupe Le Sorelle Bandiera (The Flag Sisters) had a weekly television audience of 20 million. They were the toast of the entertainment elite, with stars like Sophia Loren and Isabella Rossellini beating a path to their dressing room door. But it wasn't all frocks and frivolity - The Flag Sisters are credited for spearheading the social change of an era.

Out of drag, the sisters were Tito Le Duc from Mexico, Mauro Bronchi from Italy and Neil Hansen from Perth, Australia. By any stretch of the imagination, it was a long way from parochial Western Australia to the heart of Italian culture and entertainment.

Now living back in Perth, Hansen says his rise to fame in The Flag Sisters was the result of a fortuitous string of events.

"When I left Perth, I went to drama school in London, and then on to Venice. I couldn't continue with theatre work because I couldn't speak Italian, so I used my art school training and I was doing watercolours and portraits in the piazzas," he recalls. "There I met a journalist who told me if was an actor I should be in Rome, where he knew an agent."

In Rome, Hansen linked up with Le Duc and Bronchi, who were putting together a drag show in the city's burgeoning gay scene. The drag act caught the attention of Renzo Arbore, who was talent hunting for a new program on Italy's state-run television station.

"We thought 'drag on Italian TV, it'll be the end of our careers'", says Hansen. "But the show was popular with everybody - including the critics - and it became very mainstream."

The name The Flag Sisters was a parody of the Italian war heroes The Flag Brothers and The Andrews Sisters. The troupe's signature tune was their take on the famous Andrews Sisters' song, Drinking Rum and Coca Cola. Hansen became known as "the redhead with the best legs in Europe."

The trio are the subject of a documentary screening on SBS this week.

The film's director, Franco di Chiera, says the troupe was very much a product of its time, touching a chord with an Italian population that was moving away from conservatism.

"Somehow, The Flag Sisters' choices landed them in the middle of one of Italian's most turbulent eras (Red Brigades terrorism) and they appeared, at least unwittingly, to be one of the nation's greatest advocates of change," he says. "The film is a timely reminder of how any form of rigid politics and religion can restrict freedom of speech."

The Fabulous Flag Sisters
SBS, Friday July 4, 7.30pm
www.sbs.com.au