Richard Keith Robert ColesFRSAFKC (born 26 March 1962)[1] is an English writer, radio presenter and Church of England priest. He first came to prominence as the multi-instrumentalist who partnered Jimmy Somerville in the 1980s band the Communards. They achieved three UK top ten hits, including the No. 1 record and best-selling single of 1986, a dance version of "Don't Leave Me This Way".
Coles was born in Northampton, England. His grandfather was a prosperous shoe manufacturer. The company failed under Coles's father, because of the increasing popularity of cheaper foreign imports, and the family lost much of their wealth.
Somerville left Bronski Beat and in 1985 he and Coles formed the Communards,[8][4] who were together for just over three years and had three UK top 10 hits, including the biggest-selling single of 1986, a version of "Don't Leave Me This Way", which was at number one for four weeks.[9] The band split in 1988 and Somerville went solo.
Post-music career and church ministry
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Finedon, Northamptonshire
Coles provided narration for the Style Council's film JerUSAlem in 1987[10] and also started a career as a writer, particularly with the Times Literary Supplement and the Catholic Herald. He took up religion in his late twenties, after "the best of times, the worst of times", pop success and the deaths of friends as a result of HIV.[11] From 1991 to 1994 he studied for a BA in theology at King's College London. While at university, Coles became a Roman Catholic and remained so for the next ten years before returning to Anglicanism in 2001.[12]
Coles was an inspiration for the character of Adam Smallbone (played by Tom Hollander) in BBC Two sitcom Rev. and was also an advisor to the show.[17] Coles mentions in his book Fathomless Riches that he is also the inspiration for the character "Tom" in the Bridget Jones novels.[18] In January 2011, Coles was appointed as the vicar of St Mary the Virgin, Finedon in the Diocese of Peterborough.[19]
Coles retired as vicar of Finedon on Low Sunday 2022. Looking back on his time as a "half-time vicar", he said: "'How do you do all the things you do?' I am frequently asked, and the answer is by neglecting important things and disappointing people. I was once called in the middle of the night to attend a parishioner's deathbed and I could not because I was in Glasgow doing Celebrity Antiques Road Trip. I found someone to cover, but it should have been me." He explained: "I will still be a priest, I will always be a priest, and I will minister where I am able. Next month I am going to my first conference of prison chaplains and I hope I can make myself useful as a volunteer with inmates in the criminal justice system."[23]
In April 2022, Coles announced that he retired from parish duties due to the Church of England allegedly increasingly excluding gay couples, and what he described as its "conservative, punchy and fundamentalist" direction.[24]
Writing
On 1 November 2012 (All Saints' Day), Darton, Longman and Todd published Coles's book, Lives of the Improbable Saints, illustrated by Ted Harrison, a précis of the life stories of nearly 200 lesser-known saints. The following year volume two, Legends of the Improbable Saints, was published.
In 2014, the first volume of his memoirs, Fathomless Riches, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. In 2016 a follow-up volume, Bringing in the Sheaves, was published.
In June 2022, Coles's debut mystery novelMurder Before Evensong was released. It is the first in a series about Canon Daniel Clement.[25] The sequel, A Death In The Parish, was published on 8 June 2023.[26] The first book has been optioned for a television adaptation, with Coles serving as an executive producer.[27][28]
In 2023, Coles signed a deal with W&N to write three more Canon Clement books. The first of these, Murder at the Monastery was released in June 2024.[29][28]
Broadcasting and media career
Coles still works as a broadcaster, which he describes as "just showing off",[30] including Nightwaves on Radio 3, which he formerly presented, and Newsnight Review on BBC Two. He has appeared on the Radio 4 panel game show Heresy twice; first in May 2008 and then in May 2010.[31] Coles has appeared seven times as a guest on the topical television news quiz Have I Got News for You, in 1994, May 2009, May 2013, April 2016, June 2017, April 2020 and May 2021. He presented a special edition of Songs of Praise in January 2010.[1] He was a guest on the Children in Need special of the BBC quiz Only Connect in November of the same year. In 2011, he presented a four-part Radio 3 series called Out in the World: A Global Gay History.
He regularly guest-hosted the Radio 4 programme Saturday Live, while the regular host Fi Glover was on maternity leave from 2008 to 2009. Coles replaced Glover permanently in 2011. On 1 September 2011, he presented a short piece on his home town and parish of Finedon for the Radio 4 programme You and Yours. In December 2012, December 2013 and November 2014, Coles appeared as a guest on the BBC comedy quiz show QI. In January 2014, he won the BBC's Celebrity Mastermind, with his specialist subject being the Mapp and Lucia novels of E. F. Benson.
Coles featured as the subject of Fern Britton Meets... on BBC1 in December 2014. Since 2014 he has appeared regularly in the "Pause for Thought" slot on Radio 2's The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, for which he won a Jerusalem Award in 2014.[32]
In July 2016, Coles appeared on the BBC cooking series Celebrity Masterchef, finishing in fifth place. In December 2021, he once again appeared on the programme, this time winning the edition.[33] In February 2017, he co-presented The Big Painting Challenge with Mariella Frostrup on BBC1. From September 2017, Coles was a contestant in the 15th series of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. He was paired with professional dancer Dianne Buswell. They were the second couple to be eliminated after scoring 14 points for their Paso Doble to the theme from Flash Gordon – at the time, the lowest scoring Paso Doble in the history of the show.[34]
In August 2022, Coles appeared in the Channel 4 documentary Good Grief with Reverend Richard Coles, discovering some of the different ways people deal with bereavement.[40]
From 7 to 11 November 2022 Coles guest hosted Channel 4's game show Countdown as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations.
On 22 March 2023, The Guardian reported that Coles was disappointed to be leaving the BBC Radio 4 Saturday Live programme following that week's edition, due to the programme's relocation to Cardiff.[41]
Richard Coles first came out as gay to his mother, in 1978, when he was 16. He played her the Tom Robinson Band's "Glad to Be Gay" four times, before she said "Darling, are you trying to tell me something?"[43] Coles has spoken about the "mental crisis" that he suffered following his coming out, which ultimately led to him attempting suicide and being diagnosed with clinical depression.[44]
Coles suffers from tinnitus in his right ear, the result of his performing loud pop music, which he described in 2020 as sounding "like something from the National Grid kind of powering through your ear ... can be very frustrating."[37]
In 2007, Coles began a relationship with David Oldham, who was also an Anglican priest.[45][46] In 2010, the couple entered into a civil partnership (which the Church of England has allowed clergy to do since 2005[47]), with David taking Richard's surname.[48] Coles asserted at the time that the relationship was celibate,[45] but later said that this had not been true, but he had to promise celibacy in order to maintain his job as a vicar.[49] David Coles died in December 2019,[50] with Coles stating in 2024 that he died from Alcoholic liver disease[51]. Coles said he had received hate mail saying that his partner is in hell.[52]
In June 2023 Coles revealed that he was in a relationship with actor Richard Cant.[53]
Coles's older brother, Andy, a former Metropolitan Police officer, was elected in 2015 as a Conservative councillor in Peterborough and was appointed deputy Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner in 2016. Following a reference to his earlier career as an undercover police officer in Coles's 2014 autobiography, he resigned as deputy commissioner over allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a political activist.[54][55] The relationship was part of a wider UK undercover policing relationships scandal in this period.[54]
Coles moved to Friston, East Sussex in May 2022 to be closer to his friend and former manager Lorna Gradden. He said "I'll be living in a charming 18th-century cottage with a bow window that looms over the street affording a privileged view of my neighbours' comings and goings, as the scent of lavender floats across the village green."[58][59]
Legal issues
In 1991, Coles sued accountants Coombes Wales Quinnell who allegedly had refused to hand over financial records until £30,000 fees were paid.[60]
Bronski Beat were a British synth-pop band formed in 1983 in London, England. The initial lineup, which recorded the majority of their hits, consisted of Jimmy Somerville (vocals), Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek. Simon Davolls contributed backing vocals to many songs.
James William Somerville is a Scottish pop singer and songwriter from Glasgow, Scotland. He sang in the 1980s with the synth-pop groups Bronski Beat and the Communards, and has also had a solo career. He is known in particular for his powerful and soulful countertenor/falsetto singing voice. Many of his songs, such as "Smalltown Boy", contain political commentary on gay-related issues.
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Richard Wilson is a Scottish actor, theatre director and broadcaster. He is most famous for playing Victor Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave. Another notable role was as Gaius, the court physician of Camelot, in the BBC drama Merlin.
The Communards were a British synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985. They consisted of Jimmy Somerville and Richard Coles. They are most famous for their cover versions of "Don't Leave Me This Way", originally by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes featuring Teddy Pendergrass, and of the Jackson 5's "Never Can Say Goodbye".
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Communards is the debut studio album by British synth-pop duo the Communards, released on 14 July 1986 by London Records. The album was produced by Mike Thorne, who had previously produced lead singer Jimmy Somerville's earlier band, Bronski Beat. Although the singles released ahead of the album were only moderately successful, the first single to be lifted from it after release, "Don't Leave Me This Way", topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and became the best-selling single in the UK that year. During the single's four-week run at number one, the album itself peaked at number seven, going on to spend a total of 45 weeks in the UK Albums Chart.
Mark Christian Ashton was a British gay rights activist and co-founder of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) support group. He was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and general secretary of the Young Communist League.
Rev. is a British television sitcom produced by Big Talk Productions. Written by actor Tom Hollander and James Wood, the show premiered on BBC Two on 28 June 2010 and ended on 28 April 2014. The show's working titles were The City Vicar and Handle with Prayer. The series revolves around a Church of England priest, played by Hollander, who becomes the vicar of an inner-city London church after leaving a small rural Suffolk parish.
Red is the second and final studio album by British synth-pop duo the Communards, released on 5 October 1987 by London Records in the United Kingdom and MCA Records in the United States. It reached number 4 on the UK Albums Chart and number 93 on the US Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum in the UK. Red features the singles "Never Can Say Goodbye", "Tomorrow", "There's More to Love Than Boy Meets Girl" and "For a Friend".
Nicholas Roderick Holtam is a retired bishop of the Church of England. He served as Bishop of Salisbury from 2011 until his retirement in 2021.
Scottish recording artist Jimmy Somerville has entered the music industry as the frontman of the synth-pop act, known as Bronski Beat. Alongside, he would score an early international success with a series of top-ten hits, such as "Smalltown Boy", "Why?" and "I Feel Love Medley"; all taken from the trio's debut album, The Age of Consent (1984), as well the remix equivalent, Hundreds & Thousands (1985). A similar status enjoyed the follow-up hit singles: "Don't Leave Me This Way", "So Cold the Night" and "Never Can Say Goodbye"; these though, were recorded for the eponymous set of his later duo Communards (1986), or its Red successor (1987) yet. The singer's own full-length debut would see its eventual results at the very end of the 1980s, marking the ending of his former bands' years, or rather the beginning of his solo era since.
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