Reverend Richard Coles on BBC: ‘I felt rather hurtled towards the exit’
R
everend Richard Coles has stated after leaving the BBC that he “felt rather hurtled towards the exit”.
The broadcaster, 61, stepped down from Radio 4’s Saturday Live in March after 12 years. He joined the company’s present in 2011.
His departure from the present, additionally offered by Nikki Bedi, got here following its relocation from London to Cardiff.
Coles instructed Radio Times: “I 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 arse sometimes.”
The ex-Church of England parish priest – who has additionally appeared on BBC comedy programmes similar to QI, Have I Got News For You and Would I Lie To You? and retired from clerical duties in 2022 – additionally instructed the journal that he hopes to be again on the BBC.
The former 2017 contestant on Strictly Come Dancing signed off his radio present on March 25 “thanking” listeners for “sharing their stories, surprising and moving us, a nosy man could ask for no better job”.
Bedi, 56, has stayed on to current the weekend collection in Cardiff.
Coles, who can also be a musician and was in synth-pop duo The Communards alongside Jimmy Somerville, continues to current a podcast referred to as The Rabbit Hole Detectives with archaeologist Dr Cat Jarman and historian Charles Spencer.
Over the collection, they chase “the provenance of historical objects both real and metaphorical”.
The BBC stated it “invited both presenters to Cardiff to continue the programme” and “his departure was marked on the final show, and he was given space to say farewell to listeners on air”.