“I’ve got parkin, Chorley cakes, and Lancashire sauce in my pantry now and everything from Yorkshire has been hidden.” The Reverend Richard Coles is fully committed to his trip to Greater Manchester next month.
The retired vicar has been touring the UK since September with his evening of anecdotes and comedy, Borderline National Trinket. Like his cupboards, Cole’s motivations for embarking on his first full tour of the country reveal his North West allegiances.
“That rather cutting label of Borderline National Trinket was given to me by a Mancunian, my late husband David, after someone warned that I was in danger of becoming a national treasure,” Coles tells me. “This show is really just my attempts to work out what being a borderline national trinket involves.”
One can forgive Coles’ bewilderment at his National Treasure status. With a career that has been anything but predictable, it is clear that the Reverend has never aimed exclusively for public acclaim. Coles first achieved success as a founding member of the Communards in the 1980s, before turning to religion and becoming ordained as an Anglican clergyman. Since then, he has worked as a prolific broadcaster, become a Sunday Times Bestseller, and even dabbled in Strictly (for which he is deeply apologetic).
It is this process of “swaying like a drunk from one thing to another” that will provide the comedy for Coles’ new show. Certainly, the performance will bear the marks of many of the identities that Coles has assumed over the years. By swapping television and radio for face-to-face performance, Coles hopes to recreate an intimacy that was previously only possible through his parish duties.
“This will be real people in the same place at the same time, which I am excited to experience,” Coles muses. “As a vicar, I always loved the chemistry that happens when there is a group of people together at the same time, so it will be nice to conjure that again.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this search for communion will also be accompanied by some gentle preaching. “Of course, we shouldn’t close our eyes to the realities of existence, but I’d like to think that people leave my show feeling affirmed in their willingness to engage with others and to have a good time.”
Much of Coles’ appetite for tolerance is a hard-won result of his experiences as a gay pop star during the AIDS epidemic. Coles hopes that reflecting on his pop prime during the 1980s will provide a snapshot of the profound shift in social attitudes that took place during that decade and the years since.
Beyond encouraging his audience to reflect on the trajectories of their own lives, Coles wants to share what he calls “a little bit of human solidarity” with others in celebration of these personal and societal gains. “As you go through life, and particularly once you pass 60 as I recently have” he tells me, “you just think that we’ve done well to come this far at all really – it’s nice to share that with people.”
In the current climate, Coles’ evening of comedy and contemplation feels particularly necessary. Whether you remember the 80’s or simply enjoy a good yarn, Borderline National Trinket promises to uplift and entertain in equal measures.
Reverend Richard Coles will be live at The Lowry on the 3rd of December. Tickets are available here.
Feature image: Reverend Richard Coles ©Matt Crockett
