Rev Richard Coles: 'Intense grief is the tribute that you pay for the person you've lost'

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

Showbiz divas are nothing new to writer, broadcaster and retired vicar The Rev Richard Coles, whose first Canon Clement book Murder Before Evensong is currently being adapted for TV.
'I have spent some time around divas. I've always been rather fascinated by them.
'It's interesting, because a diva is a rather disparaging term for someone who's extremely difficult, capricious – and they can be all those things.
'But often they are operating in a very competitive world and they are doing their thing – and that sometimes mean you take no prisoners. I rather like divas and I have some divas in my life and enjoy their company.'
Coles, 63, whose latest tour Borderline National Trinket is a title which arguably sums him up, says he loves fame and indeed has fuelled it with his fair share of reality TV gigs, including Strictly Come Dancing and I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! (he came third in 2024), and his appearances on numerous panel shows, his bestselling novels and several podcasts.
Now in an enclave of cosy crime writers – he has known Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club king of cosy crime, for some years – who gather at crime festivals, he says that far from being competitive, it's a very supportive, friendly world.
'When Murder Before Evensong went to number one, Richard sent me a little note saying, 'Do you remember when years ago, we used to talk about murder mysteries? And here we are.' That was very generous of him.'
Coles has taken to asking everyone he meets about how they would murder someone in their profession, he continues.
'I had a fascinating conversation with some dentists in Egypt about how they would murder someone, which I'm definitely going to use, and I'm spending an evening with The British Tunnelling Society which will be useful on how to dispose of a body,' he says dryly.
Richard Coles. Picture: Matt Crockett
Being on set during some of the filming of Murder Before Evensong, due to be broadcast in October on Channel 5 and starring Matthew Lewis (who played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films) and Amanda Redman as the canon's indefatigable mother, Audrey, also provided the spark of inspiration for the latest novel, A Death On Location.
Set in 1990, it sees Daniel Clement and his sidekick Det Sgt Neil Vanhoo – for whom his interest is both professional and personal – investigating the stabbing of a local woman, an extra on the set of a Hollywood movie being shot at the fictional Champton House in the eponymous rural village.
He jokes that his title of executive producer for the TV adaptation isn't as grand as it sounds.
'You get a bacon sandwich from catering,' he muses. 'I get given a set of headphones, then I can walk around looking important. I don't know anything about adapting books for television so I'm very happy to leave that to people who know how to do that.
'I talked to the actors quite a lot, especially Matt Lewis, about what it's like being a priest, with some suggestions.'
One of the main characters in his latest novel is acting diva Gillian Smith – not based on anyone he knows but you get the impression he writes with authority – one of an array of suspects along with directors, assistants and others in the film-making process.
His fictional diva relies on her minions to do everything for her, is deliberately unreliable and makes outrageous demands – and Coles has witnessed similar in real life, although he's far too diplomatic to name names.
'There are little things, like spectacular lateness. I mean hours late, days late, weeks late. I write a bit about Gillian that whenever she goes out to dinner, her poor PA has to fax instructions to the host saying what she will do and what she won't do. That's all based on real life experience of a certain diva I know.
The Rev Richard Coles with his dogs Pongo and Daisy (Matt Crockett/PA)
'If you are cossetted and people jump when you want them to jump, you get used to that pretty quick.'
Diva behaviour isn't something completely alien to the former Church of England vicar. He recalls that as a member of Eighties band The Communards it was easy to forget that fame wasn't a natural state of affairs.
'What's tough is when you stop being a pop star and return to civilian ranks. I remember once going to the airport just after The Communards had finished, and just presenting myself at the VIP check-in, and the computer said no. And I thought, 'How could you be so rude?' Then after a while I realised I just wasn't in that category anymore.'
These days, he still loves being in the spotlight, he admits.
'I do like attention. Put on a spotlight and I'll run towards it.'
His showbiz pals include influencer GK Barry, whom he met on I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! He's hoping to work on a new project with her.
'We got on so well and it was such an unlikely friendship and people seemed to enjoy it. I like visiting her world and trying to figure out what's going on and I think she quite likes visiting my world, so may a little trip together would be fun to do.
'I love the TV reality format because you always have a 'bromance', but I've never had a bromance with a 25-year-old lesbian before, and that's great.'
He doesn't bring his showbiz life home to East Sussex, he stresses. His partner, actor Richard 'Dickie' Cant, son of the late actor and children's TV presenter Brian Cant, whom he met in 2022 on a dating app, is about to move in.
'I think I'm quite difficult to live with. I'm very chirpy in the morning, which doesn't always go down well. And we have to negotiate our way around things like Match Of The Day. He's not very keen on football. He asked me one day if Arsenal was Spurs.
'He's quite tough, and he doesn't take any messing from me. If he needs to put me right on something, he does, and that's fine. He's just a great guy.'
Will he marry again?
'I think so, probably, but all in good time.'
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson/PA)
He says he's enjoying his 60s enormously, yet life hasn't been all glitterballs and glamour for the famous vicar. He has suffered his share of grief – the death of his husband David from alcohol addiction at the end of 2019 while Coles was still vicar of Finedon, Northamptonshire, of his mother last year and recently his two dogs, Pongo and Daisy.
Yet he can see the positive side of grief.
'Intense grief is the tribute that you pay for the person you've lost. So I don't begrudge it at all. I'm used to the feeling of grief.'
When he's home, he helps out in his local parish but doesn't have the same day-to-day connections with the community that he had as vicar of Finedon.
'I do miss it – I loved being a vicar, it was great.'
But he has plenty to keep him busy. He'll have another Canon Clement novel out at Christmas, is writing a children's book, and away from the spotlight loves cooking and playing the piano.
'I used to be ambitious but that's burned away now and I'm quite content with my life. I don't have a bucket list, the only thing I can think of is that I'd quite like to learn to yodel.'
A Death On Location by Richard Coles is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on June 5.