Will Strictly vicar be lord of the dance?
The Rev Richard Coles, an Eighties pop star-turned-church of England vicar, will appear on Strictly Come Dancing. He is not too confident of his chances, however. “God does not always endow us with gifts equally,” he told The Daily Telegraph
THE wardrobe department of Strictly Come Dancing is already a thing of sequinned wonder, but it will have a fresh challenge on its hands this series, in the shape of a diamanté dog collar.
The BBC show has signed up the first vicar to take to its dance floor, as the Rev Richard Coles swaps sermons for samba.
He has already warned his dance skills leave a little to be desired, admitting: “God does not always endow us with gifts equally”.
Although he will continue with his day job throughout training, he may miss out on the hotlyanticipated live tour, because it “does rather clash with Epiphany”.
The BBC, which last year promised to do more to put religion on air, has announced Coles as the fifth contestant for the 2017 series. His wardrobe has not yet been confirmed, with insiders disclosing he could choose to wear a diamanté dog collar to match his Lycra outfits.
The show does not film on a Sunday, leaving Coles free to deliver his sermon as usual at St Mary’s Church in Finedon, Northamptonshire.
The vicar, who also works as a broadcaster and was an inspiration behind the TELEBRITISH vision show Rev, is understood to have arranged for baptisms on Sunday afternoons to be performed by colleagues during the series, to allow him time to travel and rehearse.
Coles, who rose to fame with Don’t Leave Me This Way in the 1980s with band The Communards, is already the first vicar in the UK to have a number one hit. He described his moves on the dance floor as “remarkable” and added: “I’ve got form. Bruno Tonioli choreographed me in a Communards video. There were moves. “I’m from the David Brent school of dance. I love dancing and I love music, but God does not always endow us with gifts equally… But I’m not going to let that stop me.” Gill Foster, parish clerk, said: “He will have a lot of votes, we will be rooting for him.”
Coles said his excursion into the world of dance was not so extraordinary: “Vicars have always been doing knobbly knee competitions or taking a little role in the panto, so prancing around on stage in front of people is nothing new.”
Coles will be joined by soap stars Gemma Atkinson and Davood Ghadami, television host Ruth Langsford and singer Mollie King, with more contestants to be announced soon.
Coles is currently 100-1 to win, but even his own mother does not seem wholly confident about his chances. Coles said she had responded to his news with the words: “Oh well… you’ll be done by Michaelmas”.