I was hurtled to the exit from BBC says Rev Coles
THE Reverend Richard Coles says he “felt rather hurtled towards the exit” when he stepped down from his Radio 4 show this year.
The former Communards pop star had hosted Saturday Live for 12 years but was disappointed by how BBC bosses handled his departure in March.
He told the Radio Times: “I felt rather hurtled towards the exit. Working for an organisation like the BBC, you devote your energies to it and yet they perhaps don’t always respond with similar devotion. It’s a great national institution and more power to its elbow.
“It would just be nice if it could distinguish that elbow from its a*** sometimes.”
Rev Coles, 61, who had to leave after the show was relocated to Cardiff as part of a wider strategy of moving programmes from
London, added: “I feel no ill will towards the BBC. It just…annoys me sometimes.” The ex-Church of England parish priest – who has also appeared on BBC comedy programmes such as QI, Have I Got News For You and Would I Lie To You? and retired from clerical duties last year – told the magazine he hopes to return to the broadcaster.
Nikki Bedi, 56, has stayed on to present the weekend series.
The musician-vicar-broadcaster is a crime writer too – A Death in the Parish, his second book with sleuth Canon Daniel Clement, is being published this week.
Rev Coles also co-presents podcast The Rabbit Hole Detectives with archaeologist Dr Cat Jarman and historian Charles Spencer where they chase “the provenance of historical objects real and metaphorical”.
The BBC has been contacted for comment.