Famed for his star turn as a pop-star in the 80s with the Communards, as well as his long stint presenting Saturday Live on BBC Radio Four and (until he very recently retired) his full time job as a Church of England priest; The Reverend Richard Coles has embarked on his first UK Tour this Autumn, and has already added extra dates across the UK from January 2024.
In his live show, Reverend Richard Coles is set to take audiences on an exhilarating journey of his life. He will delve into his multifaceted world, with tales encompassing sex, drugs, pop stardom, religious epiphany; love, a dream job, and the madness of grief. Prepare to be captivated as he lifts the lid on his extraordinary life, sharing compelling anecdotes, poignant insights, and unfiltered truths. Some or all of this may come out as Richard pulls back the curtain on a life truly and truthfully lived.
There are very few people in the world who can claim a career and life of such diverse events to have had the UK’s biggest-selling single of 1986 (Don’t Leave Me This Way, with the Communards), with their revolutionary synth-pop music, to beloved BC Radio 4’s Saturday Live presenter. With 17 years in the priesthood (a role he held until he very recently retired) and latterly a bestselling writer (his memoir of loss, The Madness Of Grief, about the sudden loss of his partner David, at the horribly early age of 43 was a Sunday Times bestseller and his novel ‘Murder Before Evensong’ reached #1 in the paperback charts) and, remaining an LGBT+ icon who’s appeal crosses genres and generations, the Reverend Richard Coles is such a man.
Reverend Richard Coles is a former pop star as one half of 1980s band The Communards, turned Church of England vicar, broadcaster and bestselling author. Until retirement in 2022, he was a parish priest in the quintessentially English village of Finedon, Northamptonshire, where two of his ancestors were vicars in the seventeenth century. During the 1980s The Communards had three UK Top 10 hits, including Never Can Say Goodbye and the biggest selling single of 1986, Don’t Leave Me This Way. This, therefore, affords Richard the unique position of being the only vicar to have had a No.1 hit record.
Richard co-presented BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live from 2011-2023 and is also a regular contributor to Pause for Thought on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show. He is a frequent guest panellist on shows such as Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You? and QI.
Often described as Britain’s most famous vicar, Reverend Richard Coles was the inspiration for the main character in the BBC hit comedy Rev, a programme for which he also served as consultant. In 2017, he was a contestant on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning prime-time show Strictly Come Dancing, and the year previous he was a semi-finalist on Celebrity Masterchef. He has a keen interest in classical music, art and ceramics, and co-hosted the BBC’s Big Painting Challenge alongside Mariella Frostrup in 2017 and 2018. In 2022, he presented Good Grief?, a Channel 4 documentary exploring the subject of how to live positively with grief.
As a prolific author, Reverend Richard Coles has written six books including three memoirs; the bestselling Fathomless Riches: Or How I Went From Pop to Pulpit (2014), Bringing in The Sheaves: Wheat and Chaff from My Years as a Priest (2016) and Sunday Times best-sellers The Madness of Grief (2021) and Murder Before Evensong (2022).
