The Reverend Richard Coles, affable, entertaining broadcaster, author and former pop star, is in an upbeat mood when we meet.
He’s promoting his new cosy crime caper, A Death In The Parish, following the runaway success of his debut novel Murder Before Evensong, is loving life in Sussex, where he moved after the death of his husband, David – and has found a new partner.
“The big personal news is that I’ve met someone and am now in a relationship, which is lovely. We met just before Christmas – it was my first go on a dating app and it’s worked very well.”
His new partner is actor Richard Cant, son of the late actor and children’s TV presenter Brian Cant.
“He’s lovely, he’s kind, funny, thoughtful, interesting – and he likes me!”
They haven’t moved in together yet, but Coles, 61, reflects: “If you’re dating in your golden years, you don’t exactly cut to the chase. You’re not looking for a roller-coaster – you tend to be looking for a smooth limousine, so things are sort of steady and nice, which I like.”
When they get time off together, he says: “We walk and we talk, we sing songs around the piano and I help him learn his lines, which I really enjoy – although at times he gets me to stop, because I’m enjoying it a little too much.”
Coles wrote about the loss of his husband David, a former vicar who died from alcohol addiction in 2019, in his bestseller, The Madness Of Grief. At the time, Coles couldn’t see a romantic future with anyone else.
READ MORE: INTERVIEW: Rev Richard Coles on The Madness of Grief
“After David died, I went into a sort of hibernation without realising it, ” he recalls.
“It [the new relationship] has opened up a chunk of life to me that I thought had closed down for good, so that’s lovely. I do feel a new happiness is beginning to blossom in my life, which I didn’t expect or anticipate.”
For now, he shares his home with his two Dachshunds, Daisy and Pongo. David used to breed them, he explains.
His latest novel, the second in the Canon Clement series set in a sleepy village in the late 1980s, sees the parish of Champton joined by two neighbouring parishes and their associate vicar, an evangelical churchman keen to put his stamp on the place.
When a wayward teenager is found with his throat slashed in an abandoned chapel, in what initially seems like a ritualistic killing, Canon Daniel Clement, rector of Champton, sets out to solve the mystery, surrounded by a clutch of familiar characters.
Coles was keen to explore the disagreements between church figures who adopt an evangelical approach, compared with those who take the middle-ground.
“I’ve seen people fight battles as bitter as ever I’ve known, over such matters as to what you should call Holy Communion, or what you should wear if you’re leading a funeral.
“I’m also interested in how people who are signed up to a professional life and a set of beliefs, which requires you to be mild and generous to your enemies, [and] just how very quickly that can break down,” he adds.
Since leaving the parish of Finedon in Northamptonshire, Coles has virtually retired from ‘vicaring’, he says, although he’s still qualified and has permission to officiate when required, but he’s quite enjoying the time off.
He left Radio 4’s Saturday Live after 12 years, because the show relocated to Cardiff from London, and says he found it odd that the station’s announcement of his departure came so late – five days before his final show.
“I was away in India and was expecting there to be an announcement, and it didn’t come, so I thought, ‘I’ll have to say something’, because I didn’t want listeners to think I’d deserted them.”
He says he’d like to return to the show – but not with a six-hour drive to Cardiff every Saturday.
He also has a new podcast, The Rabbit Hole Detectives, with his friend Earl Spencer and historian Dr Cat Jarman, in which they are each given an obscure topic to research, and talk to each other about what they’ve found out.
“Charles and I are friends and used to be neighbours – Finedon is not far from Althorp – so we got to know each other through the county circuit.”
He’s also doing a tour in the autumn about different aspects of his life. “I’ve got many, many dates including two nights in Chorley, which I’m very excited about.”
Retired or not, Coles is rarely out of the spotlight, having appeared on everything from Strictly Come Dancing and QI, to The Wheel and Would I Lie To You?
He’s also been outspoken on various church matters and recently made headlines when he described the government’s immigration crackdown as ‘morally indefensible’ on Question Time.
“We’ve got a government that’s very tired. It’s been in power for too long and run out of steam, and we all want a change. So much of what I care about and what I need is crumbling around us. The institutions that have given shape to my life – the Church of England, the BBC – feel very stressed; the roads are knackered, the seas are filthy, the trains don’t work.
“Another factor of that is how we treat people. I think because people are rushing to come up with solutions to what they think is a crisis in migration, they start treating people with less than the full dignity they deserve as human beings. I want to resist that.”
But he wouldn’t want to get into politics these days, he adds, saying he would be “useless and miserable”.
“Also, I couldn’t cope with the aggro. I’ve got friends who are politicians and when I look at what they go through, the daily diet of argy-bargy, and the horrors of social media sometimes, I just don’t want that in my life.”
Nor does he want to become a parish vicar in his new homestead of Friston in East Sussex, as he says it would feel like he was cheating on Finedon.
“I was there a few weeks ago, and it feels that I still belong in a way. I miss Finedon very much.”
There could be more TV in the pipeline, he hints. “Everybody thinks I’m a shoo-in for Love Island, but for some reason, I’ve not yet had the call.” Plus, there are more books to come in the Canon Clement series.
But Coles also wants to find time for his new relationship.
“I was rather hoping that I’d have more time in retirement, but having expected people to live around my work commitments, if you date an actor, you’ll find you live around their commitments. Dickie [Cant] was in a play when we met – six nights a week and two matinees. So we just have to plan ahead.”
A Death In The Parish by The Reverend Richard Coles is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, priced £18.99. Available now
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