Reverend Richard Coles is the latest celebrity rumoured to be heading for the jungle (Image: PA)Get daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inboxMore Newsletters SubscribePlease enter a valid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later.More NewslettersWe use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More infoThank you for subscribing!We have more newslettersShow me See OurPrivacy Notice See OurPrivacy Notice×Group 28 Get daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inboxInvalid emailSomething went wrong, please try again later.Sign UpNo thanks, closeWe use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info×Group 28Thank you for subscribing!We have more newslettersShow MeNo thanks, closeSee our
Privacy NoticeStrictly legend and former Communards musician Reverend Richard Coles is rumoured to be heading for the jungle to appear in the new series of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! The 62 year old retired vicar who also hosted BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live programme until last year, previously competed on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, where he was partnered with Dianne Buswell and performed a memorable Paso Doble to the theme from Flash Gordon before they were eliminated. Sources say he will be joined on I’m A Celeb by fellow DJ Dean McCullough, who presents on BBC Radio 1. A source told The Sun: “As always, the jungle bosses have cleverly put together a sensational line-up guaranteed to make for compulsive viewing. Rev Coles will have a variety of tales to tell from his wild days as a pop star in the eighties, through to performing on Strictly and his later life as a man of the cloth. Meanwhile, Dean isn’t known for being a shrinking violet and is sure to be outspoken — plus he’s one of the youngest men lined up for the show so far.”
Richard danced as Flash Gordon on Strictly in 2017
(Image: PA)
The pair could be joining rumoured jungle mates Coleen Rooney, Tommy Fury, footballer Ally McCoist, Loose Women panellist Jane Moore and Dancing on Ice’s Oti Mabuse on the show hosted by Ant and Dec, which launches next month. However, an ITV spokesperson told OK! that “any names suggested for I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! are just speculation.” The Rev Richard Coles would be an interesting addition to the celebrity reality show. While he first came to prominence alongside singer Jimmy Somerville in the pop band The Communards, who scored the best selling single of 1986 with their version of Don’t Leave Me This Way, Richard later left pop stardom behind and trained for the priesthood and was the inspiration for the lead character in the sitcom Rev, played by Tom Hollander, as well as the character Tom in Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones novels. Richard continued to make TV appearances while working as a vicar, including as a guest on Have I Got News For You, University Challenge and Countdown, and as a competitor on Celebrity MasterChef as well as Strictly. Sign up to OK!’s TV newsletter to get updates sent to your inbox for free
Richard with The Communards bandmate Jimmy Somerville in 1985
(Image: Getty Images)
In an interview with the Times in 2022, he explained his continued TV career was one of the reasons he decided to retire from his position in the church. “‘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.” It’s possible Richard may reveal some stories about his exit from his BBC radio job last year while he is in the jungle, too. In 2023, he told Radio Times he felt “rather hurtled towards the exit.” “Working for an organisation like the BBC, you devote your energies to it and yet they perhaps don’t always respond with similar devotion. It’s a great national institution, and more power to its elbow. It would just be nice if it could distinguish that elbow from its a**e sometimes.”Story SavedYou can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnStrictly Come DancingColeen RooneyReverend Richard ColesTommy FuryAnt and DecI’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
