Record companies have much better biscuits now... we never got any with The Communards
BRITAIN’S MOST FAMOUS VICAR, THE REVEREND RICHARD COLES, TELLS MARION MCMULLEN HOW HIS DREAM OF BEING A STRICTLY COME DANCING SUPERSTAR CAME CRASHING DOWN
You joked ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the overweight vicar with arthritis in his knees’ when you joined this year’s Strictly Come Dancing line-up. Are you still dancing, despite being the second celebrity to leave the latest BBC1 series? I RECENTLY recorded the Christmas show and it was lovely to go back and see everyone. I was gutted to go so early.
I loved the whole experience. Was it embarrassing watching myself dancing? (Laughs) Yes.
I actually thought I would be a great talent waiting to be discovered and I had a rude awakening.
You become very close to the other contestants and I’ve been watching the shows since I left.
They are all so dazzlingly good. You enjoyed chart success with The Communards in the 1980s with songs like Don’t Leave Me This Way and Never Can Say Goodbye. What’s it like bringing out a new Christmas album? (CHUCKLES) It’s the first time I’ve been back at a record company doing interviews in 30 years.
They have much better biscuits now. We never got biscuits at all when I was with The Communards, well maybe a Kit Kat. How did the album come about? I WAS approached about doing an album and I said I’d very much like to do a Christmas compilation that was more about the stable in Bethlehem then Santa and his sleigh. There’s nothing wrong with Santa and his sleigh, but I wanted to do something different. I suppose you can say I curated the tracks on the album and I had enormous fun listening to all the different songs. I had about 40 on the shortlist and had to decide what would go on the album. Do you have any favourite Christmas tracks? I WANTED to really stay traditional with songs that people would know. Away In A Manager actually makes me very emotional. It reminds me of being a child at Christmas. Then there is O Come O Come Emmanuel and I just had to include Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy and In The Bleak Midwinter. The best music of the year is at Christmas. What do you remember most about Christmas when you were little? I WAS a chorister as a kid and I have good memories of Christmas.
The family tradition for us would be my brother and I would get little presents in a stocking, but the big presents would be locked up in the sitting room.
We couldn’t peek through the window because the curtains were drawn and on Christmas Day we would be like ‘Wake up Mum.’
We had to have breakfast first and were sometimes made to sing a carol before we were let into the room to unwrap the presents.
I remember I got an orange Chopper bike one year when I was about 10. I loved that bike. Is Christmas in your parish a busy time of year for you? I’M ORGANISED for work, but disastrous at Christmas.
Luckily my partner David is brilliant at it. He does the Christmas decorations and everything.
He does take it a bit seriously though. Last year he even did stockings for the dogs
On Christmas Eve the dogs were running around before going to bed and I asked what he had got them and he just looked at them and went ‘Sssh, we shouldn’t spoil their surprise.’ You’ve appeared on Celebrity MasterChef so do you end up cooking the turkey dinner? DAVID does everything at Christmas and is very good at it.
Mum makes the best bread sauce – she’s never given away her recipe – and I love cooking, but I’m busy in church over Christmas so David does it all.
So much of Christmas can be tinsel and jingle bells. We’ve recently had the Christmas tree festival at the church in Finedon and it’s always a busy time of year for me.
We had a Christingle with 400 children, which is great, although you are looking to make sure no one gets poked with cocktail sticks or sets fire to anything.
Christmas actually begins on Christmas Day, but preparations begin back in September. What would be your perfect Christmas present? I’D love to do a course in natural history. I’d like to know a bit more about birds and plants and have the time to enjoy them.
I love Christmas. It’s the best time of year. Part of me would love a quiet Christmas where I didn’t have to do anything and I could just go to church and sit in a pew.
My ideal Christmas TV wish list? Agatha Christie, The Sound Of Music and anything with Victoria Wood.