Reverend Richard Coles reveals if Murder Before Evensong's crime-solving vicar is based on him
TV has a new crime-busting priest.
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
“Do you know how many vicar detectives there are in fiction?” asks musician, priest and now writer the Rev Richard Coles. “No? There’s 200. If you think about it, vicars are very likely candidates for murder mysteries. You get stuck in everywhere and nobody asks what you’re doing.”
But even outside the world of so-called cosy crime, Coles says dealing with murder is a part of any priest’s job. “I was in central London, then left to become a vicar of a semi-rural parish for 12 years. Everybody said, ‘Oh, you’ll get bored. You’ll just be doing village fêtes.’ But there was a murder in my first week. Or rather, an alleged murder. It happens, you see. The human heart is the human heart. It’s darkness and it’s light wherever you go.
“Murder victims need to have funerals, just like everybody else. Often you’ll find yourself doing funerals not just for murder victims but for murderers, too. Everyone comes to your door in the end.”
With this on-the-job experience, plus the fact that his brother was a detective at Scotland Yard, it was perhaps fate that Coles would turn to writing holy whodunnits. His addition to the, er, canon is cultured cleric Daniel Clement, who solved his first case in the 2022 novel Murder Before Evensong, before returning for three more novels (and a short story).
Now he’s getting the TV treatment, with Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis stepping into a cassock for a six-episode adaptation, in which Daniel’s roped in to hunt down a killer in a 1988 Midlands village.
“Readers think that Daniel Clement is basically me and when I saw Matthew in costume, he actually does look like a hotter version of me,” says Coles. “So that’s a little bit of mental rearrangement!”
Given how closely the series cleaves to Coles’s own experiences – like him, Daniel has moved to a village parish after time in London, and has a fondness for sausage dogs – I wonder at an intriguing storyline in the drama that didn’t feature in the novels, where Daniel’s visits AIDS victims in hospital putting him under fire from the press and parishioners.
“That came from Nick Hicks-Beach [the screenwriter], really,” says Coles. “He took the trouble to get to know a bit about my life, and it was something that was so prominent in my own personal story, and he sensed that. I went through the AIDS crisis, like any gay man of my age living in London in the 1980s. it was a terrible experience. It devastated all of us.
“As soon as I saw the storyline in the TV version, I thought ‘Yes, that works’ - but I couldn’t have written that. They had to write it.’
Because it’s still too raw? “It’s hard to talk about,” he agrees. “I talk about it now to my friends who went through it at the same time, but it’s 30 years later we’ve really talked about it. I certainly don’t think it’s something I want to write about.”
Though like the priestly proximity to murder, this part of the show is also true to life. Some members of the church, like Daniel, really did break that taboo to help those suffering with AIDS. “I was involved with the London Lighthouse [a centre for people with HIV/AIDs], and there was this convent of nuns who were absolutely among the first who acknowledged that something needed to be done, and did so without any judgement or hesitation,” says Coles.
“I remember being impressed by that. It’s one of the reasons why I started thinking that the Church might not be such a bad idea. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now if it hadn’t been for that.”
There’s also a line of dialogue in the second episode, where Daniel ruffles feathers by praying for mercy for the mystery killer, telling his detective sidekick later, “I don’t believe in retribution.” Does Coles feel the same? “I think God’s mercy is coterminous with God’s judgement,” he replies. “To speak of them in isolation of the other is theologically… not quite “meaningless” exactly, but fruitless.
“There is always mercy for those who seek it and want it. My job as a priest would be to make it as easy as possible for anyone to find their way to it. A couple of people… I couldn’t forgive them. But then I would think, ‘I’m glad there is a God who could.’”
It seems that reassurance of things made right is also at the heart of the fictional genre. “It’s interesting: British murder mysteries were very popular at the end of the 1930s, because we sensed a world of menace,” Coles suggests. “Again, today the world is growingly uncertain. Murder mysteries condense that, and then someone fixes it, and makes us feel OK again.” Praise be!
You’re an atheist — what was it like playing a man of the cloth?
Well, I didn’t immediately burst into flames when I put on a dog collar, so that was a good start. When I told my family and friends what I was going to be doing, once they stopped laughing, they said, “That’s going to really push your acting chops.” I’m someone who’s not a particularly huge fan of organised religion, and yet can’t help but feel like it still has a part to play in society in some way.
What did Richard make of that?
I am, as an actor and a human being, fascinated by faith and Richard’s faith. I’ve had more than my fair share of theological discussions and debates with him, which have been a real pleasure. Because I find his particular faith fascinating and so interesting — as someone who has none!
A lot of readers have thought Daniel is basically Richard writing himself — do you agree? I think there’s more of him in Daniel than he cares to admit, but it’s not him.
Your first job was bringing a famous book character to life, as Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies — did you have any misgivings about doing it again? There’s trepidation. Much like we had with Harry Potter, we’re trying to appeal to new fans who haven’t read the books. But at the same time we really want to make sure that we don’t cast aside the people who have.
I’m a passionate reader myself, and I know some adaptations that have left me with a bitter taste. I want to make sure that people who read it and love it, still love this, too. I want to get it right.
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Murder Before Evensong premieres on 5 at 9pm on Tuesday 7th October.
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Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
