{"id":53413,"date":"2024-06-18T01:01:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T23:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2057970"},"modified":"2024-06-18T03:25:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T01:25:57","slug":"richard-coles-on-crime-novels-and-the-80s-i-envy-richard-osman-enormously","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/richard-coles-on-crime-novels-and-the-80s-i-envy-richard-osman-enormously\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Coles on crime novels and the \u201980s: \u201cI envy Richard Osman enormously\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I would like to go forwards in time for one of the books in the series… I’d like to see what happens to the characters.” <\/p>

By Ed Grenby\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 18 June 2024 at 23:01 PM<\/p>

\n\n

This interview was first published in\u00a0Radio Times magazine<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Richard Coles says he has gone \u201ca bit demob happy\u201d since retiring from the BBC and the Northamptonshire parish where he had been vicar for 11 years.<\/p>\n

These days he can work on his podcast (with 68 episodes and counting, The Rabbit Hole Detectives has an impressive 4.8-star listener rating), write his crime novels (his third Canon Clement mystery<\/a> came out this month), and be more \u201cmouthy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read on for all that and more\u2026<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s start with the new novel. It\u2019s set in 1989 \u2014 how do you recall that time so well?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started writing these books, I watched a lot of TV drama from that period, just for the stuff that\u2019s at the back of the shot. And it reminds you of the texture and feel of the era \u2013 that, for instance, the sound of 1989 was car alarms.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there are other things you forget. One programme that was especially useful for me was Prime Suspect \u2013 one series, everyone in it smokes, and then the next, nobody does. You can almost see the memo going round saying, \u2018No more smoking.’\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019re signed up for several more Canon Clement books. Are you worried you\u2019ll run out of \u201980s cultural references? Don\u2019t you envy Richard Osman for setting his \u2018cosy crime\u2019 novels in the present day?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI envy Richard Osman enormously \u2013 for his huge success and considerable talents \u2013 but not for the settings of his books. I don\u2019t have to deal with mobile phones and CCTV in mine, and he does. That makes life much more complicated for him, because it\u2019s a lot harder to murder someone unobserved and undetected these days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to go forwards in time for one of the books in the series, though \u2013 maybe the last one. I\u2019d like to see what happens to the characters; there are some long story arcs I\u2019m interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are certainly some big surprises in the new one, Murder at the Monastery, with some characters confused about their sexuality. Does that come from personal experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I barked long and hard up the wrong tree myself before figuring out that it was the wrong tree. It was a very common experience for gay men of my vintage that we had formative experiences barking up that wrong tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was somebody I had a passionate thing for at school, for instance, and he wasn\u2019t interested in me in that way. But we became best friends, and we remain so \u2013 and it\u2019s a key relationship in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your protagonist, Canon Clement, is described as \u201cabout as sexually active as a fish slice\u201d. Is that from life, too?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI did have a period like that myself, when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do in the Church. And then I\u2026 stopped being as sexually active as a fish slice. Was I more of a butter knife then? Well, I certainly moved to a different part of the cutlery drawer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was very difficult in the Church, because it was kind of acceptable to be in a same-sex partnership but you were expected to have a celibate relationship \u2013 which I was unable to do.\u201d<\/p>

You felt forced to lie about your relationship?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t see any other way. I hated having to lie about it, but there are times when you must pick the lesser of two evils, and I think it would have been worse to have denied myself and David [Oldham, his late husband, who died in 2019] the kind of unique, wonderful thing that came with having a relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see anything in that that was inimical to my calling as a parish priest, although others would disagree.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to see other parallels between Clement\u2019s life and yours\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s one character in the books that\u2019s really based on someone, it would be Audrey, Clement\u2019s mother. She is a tribute to my mum, who died this year. I\u2019m just writing an Audrey section in the next novel, actually; it gives me great joy and comfort because it feels like I\u2019m with my mum again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m writing a bit that\u2019s related to my mother\u2019s vehement refusal to give me the recipe for her bread sauce, in fact. I tried for years to get her to reveal the secret, but she took the recipe to her grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

You spent time at a monastery, like Clement\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, and there\u2019s a part of me that is always there. I truly loved it, but I was probably not optimised for that life. I\u2019d hear traffic outside, and think, \u2018Where are you going? What are you doing?\u2019 I was too curious about life beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then in summer, I\u2019d be deep in my prayers \u2013 and the ice cream van would come along past the monastery walls playing The Entertainer. So\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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