Rev Richard Coles confirmed for Strictly Come Dancing 2017

Reverend Richard Coles is the fifth celebrity confirmed for the new series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The news was revealed today (11 August) on Radio 2’s Chris Evans Breakfast Show.

“Cometh the hour, cometh the overweight Vicar with arthritis in his knees.” – Rev Richard Coles

Reverend Richard Coles is a writer, broadcaster and Church of England priest and co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live. He is the only clergyman in Britain to have had a number one hit single with pop band The Communards in the 1980s, which went on to have three UK top ten hits and the biggest-selling single of 1986, Don’t Leave Me This Way.

Richard recently co-hosted BBC One’s The Big Painting Challenge and is a regular contributor to ‘Pause for Thought’ on the Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast Show, BBC One’s Have I Got News For You and QI. He was a consultant on the beeb comedy Rev whose main character was inspired by him.

Richard is Vicar of St Mary’s Church in Finedon, Northamptonshire. He joins Gemma Atkinson, Ruth Langsford, Davood Ghadami and Mollie King who have also been confirmed for the new series. More contestants will be announced in due course.