‘I’ve always had a thing for Glaswegians’
◆ As he brings his tour, Borderline National Trinket, to Scotland, Reverend Richard Coles talks to Gaby Soutar about his life and varied career, from keyboard player with The Communards to Church of England vicar
he clergy aren’t known for their thrilling lifestyles. We might imagine that it’s all tea and biscuits, with only the occasional jumping in a puddle.
Thus, not only can Reverend Richard Coles, 61, be classed as Britain’s most famous vicar, he’s probably the most exciting one too. His busy CV includes being half of Eighties synth-pop duo, The Communards, as well as spending 17 years as a Church of England vicar in Finedon, Northamptonshire, plus there’s a 12-year stint presenting Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4.
Even if you haven’t encountered him in those roles, you might have spotted the polymath priest on Strictly Come Dancing or Celebrity Masterchef, or read one of his half dozen books, including The Madness of Grief (2021), in which he shares his pain over his husband David Coles’s untimely death at the age of 43. Then there’s his half million or so followers on X, where he gently holds forth on grief, politics, his dogs, food and holidays.
Currently, he is preparing for the second stage of his recently extended tour, The Reverend Richard Coles: Borderline National Trinket. It was self-deprecatingly named after a quip that David once made when someone described Richard as a national treasure.
There are five dates in Scotland, with Glasgow tomorrow, Aberdeen on Monday, then Inverness on March 1, Edinburgh, March 3 and Dundee on March 4.
When I speak to him, he’s just back from a break in Madeira, and the trip to Glasgow is looming. He loves the ‘dear green place’, and not only because it’s the home of his Communards band member, Jimmy Somerville. The pair played this city a few times.
“There are certain areas where we’ve got a particularly warm reception. Scotland and the North East of England, especially Glasgow and Newcastle were where we were most warmly received. Maybe there was something we were doing that shone for people,” he says. “I’ve always had a thing for Glaswegians, I don’t know why, because my background is about as remote from Jimmy Somerville’s as you can imagine, but maybe it’s about opposites attracting. My life is full of Glaswegians, from when I was a teenager.”
Will he contact Somerville, who tends to avoid the limelight these days, when he’s in Scotland?
“When we’re in touch now, it’s usually condolences. It was Steve Bronski
last,” says Coles, in reference to the late singer-songwriter from band Bronski Beat, which Somerville was the vocalist for. “So maybe we should get our act together.”
Coles unearthed some of their old The Communards records during lockdown.
“The production and Jimmy’s extraordinary voice. I still find it thrilling and exciting,” he says.
It’s obvious that Coles is feeling reflective, though he is enjoying his seventh decade. His fifties, when he became a widower, were ‘tough’. He talks about that time of his life, as part of the live tour, as well as pop stardom, love, sex, drugs and other issues.
There’s something for everyone, and we imagine his fan base is pretty broad.
“The core audience I think is radio listeners. I remember very early in the tour, I did one in Christchurch in Dorset, which is in South West England – an absolute heartland for radio listeners. I had a look at the audience before I went on. It was basically all women apart from two Hell’s Angels,” he says. “The core is people who are kind of like me, at my sort of age and have been around the block and we share experiences. We went through the same stuff. And it’s nice now to have a kind of look around and think well, how did we get here? What did we learn? What did we do well, and what did we do not so well.”
The backdrop has Coles in a kind of minimal living room set. The floor will be open to questions, and he has had some interesting ones, including someone who wanted to share that they’d been to nursery together. He’s clear on what the crowd enjoys most.
“Mostly they like stories of my incompetence, or about vicars being naughty,” he says. “The other thing is, I’m actually not that unusual. Like everybody else. I’ve been through love and loss, work and money, all the usual stuff that everyone goes through and it’s just really good to share.”
As he’s clearly so busy, it’s strange to think that Coles has officially retired. In 2022, he hung up his dog collar, and gave up his BBC job. His plan is to travel more, including to the Red Sea and the slightly less exotic Kintyre, where he takes an annual holiday that involves a 12 hour drive from East Sussex. He’s also involved in campaigning, for causes like education, housing and the subpostmasters in the British Post Office scandal.
Any post-retirement fitness plan has been shelved, after he prolapsed a disc while using his partner’s rowing machine. “I see these awful Facebook reels of people my age looking like Hercules, but I’ve got better things to do with my time,” he says.
There are still plenty of irons in the fire – a seventh book and more telly appearances, including another reality stint. “I’m not allowed to talk about that,” he says, so I can only guess, though he confirms that there definitely won’t be an appearance on I’m a Celebrity.
“I think what’s changed is I’ve stopped having proper jobs. I’ve got more time to myself, but that time I’ve been spending quite actively. I’m enjoying it, but, it’s weird, you’ve got to decompress,” he says. “Both the BBC and the Church of England are big national institutions and you’ve invested in them. When you stop, you need to rediscover who you are. I quite like not having to be the representative of a public institution and enjoy the freedom to say what I think a bit more. It’s also nice not having to get up early on a Saturday and Sunday.”
The production and Jimmy’s extraordinary voice. I still find it thrilling