Strictly vicar: I’ve quit my heavenly pork pies

HE describes his dancing style as ‘ambitious… if not always well executed’. But Strictly Come Dancing hopeful Reverend Richard Coles, left, with fellow contestant Gemma Atkinson, has a bigger mountain to climb than learning his steps having vowed to shed more than two stone during the contest.

The 55-year-old former pop star, who had hits with 1980s group The Communards, says: ‘I had a medical before the show and that was an experience of bitter disappointment.’

The writer, broadcaster and CofE priest says: ‘I am absolutely fine health-wise, apart from being almost obese, having arthritis in both knees, tinnitus in both ears and a wonky eye.’

Rev Coles, host of Radio 4’s Saturday Live, added: ‘I want to lose the weight. But I have eaten a lot of pork pies in my career so there is a long way to go.’