Richard Coles

"The Rev Richard Coles was brilliant, a lovely man and his speech was interesting and entertaining, witty and humorous. He was also really good afterwards talking to and having pictures with many of the audience."

"We wanted to say a massive thank you for all your assistance with organising Reverend Richard Coles for our Social Impact Spotlight Event. We would like to pass on and say a massive thank you for his exceptional keynote speech at the event. The audience feedback has been fantastic and we look forward to continuing on and highlighting this important discussion."

"On behalf of the M&G Pride Committee, I would like to express our thanks and appreciation both to Reverend Richard Coles and you for a fantastic anniversary event. We really enjoyed the evening, Richard’s talk, and the really great conversation with everyone."

"Your address was wonderful – full of humanity, humility and humour, and life affirming in so many ways. You have an amazing gift for affirming the spiritual in us – which is particularly uplifting, I think, for those who work with (some) young people who can express a thoughtless and casual dismissal of anything not material! And it was so good to hear of the amazing lives you have led: of your courage and your generosity, your positivity, and your care for others. It really was inspirational."

"I just wanted to pass on our hugest thank you to Reverend Richard Coles. He was an absolutely fantastic host, and our colleagues loved having him host our awards. Everyone has commented on how warm, funny and friendly he was, and he was happy to spend time chatting to people who were delighted he took the time to listen, ask their names and generally just be lovely. Please do tell him how appreciative we are and what a pleasure it was to have him. Thank you for all your help in making it happen."

"We were delighted with Richard Coles' presentation, it was amusing, well delivered and appropriate for the day. We also appreciated the efforts he made to network with our guests before his presentation."

"The BSIA usually invites a politician, journalist or someone from the security industry to deliver the keynote speech at the industry's leading awards ceremony however this year we decided to go left-of-field and choose the only Church of England priest with a number one hit record and wow did we make the right choice! Reverend Richard Coles blew everybody's socks off with his fabulous anecdotes from his life. From forming The Communards to becoming ordained, he had the whole audience in stitches as he recalled his time on the 80's pop scene, his journey into church life and his time on the dance floor of Strictly Come Dancing. Richard proved a real hit with the guests and I would recommend him in a heartbeat. His fabulous charm, wit and personality won everybody over"

"On behalf of the Chairman, Executive Committee and members of the ISBA, may I simply say an enormous thank you for taking the time to come and speak to us at our conference dinner in the Celtic Manor Resort. It was good to meet you and I hope that you enjoyed the occasion. We certainly appreciated your most amusing speech, which undoubtedly contributed to an outstanding dinner for our members and guests. The Executive Committee and Secretariat have absolutely no doubt that one of the key elements underpinning this success is the quality of speakers we have for the various events. It has been generally accepted that this been our most successful conference and the feedback we have received so far from our members and guests has been outstanding. Your after-dinner speech undoubtedly helped contribute to this."

"Thank you as always for your support in making the BMA Foundation awards night a success. I have had lots of positive feedback about Reverend Richard Coles from our guests. They commented on how usually speakers have a set 5 minutes about their background, another 10 on their current work and then may be 5 minutes with a tenuous link to the cause of the night, but with Richard he had clearly put much thought into what he was going to say and he threaded in the link between medicine and religion extremely well. Some doctors said it reaffirmed for them why they decided to study medicine. Richard was very easy going and approachable and our guests enjoyed meeting him very much. As you know this is a very high profile event and we think Richard Coles is one of, if not the best, speaker we have had."

"Reverend Richard Coles, as you would expect, produced an excellent start to our morning session at conference and it quickly became apparent how popular his BBC radio programme is amongst our delegates. His friendly, matter of fact approach was appreciated by everyone. It was a pleasure to host him and I would appreciate your conveying to him my best wishes."

"Reverend Coles was a pleasure to work with, he was an event manager’s dream. He rehearsed as requested. Delivered what we asked for and more. It was great to have a host who didn’t just read from the script. He added in a number of funny one liners which related to the audience."

"After dinner speaker, the Reverend Richard Coles was absolutely brilliant! We had a really good evening, he was really well received by the audience but ahead of that, he mixed with us all before dinner and weaved in things he had clearly picked up from conversation into his speech which was just. He absolutely made the evening."

"I just wanted to thank you so much for all your help and involvement in last night’s talk. Reverend Richard Coles was absolutely brilliant and with Cerys [Matthews] interviewing him it was a perfect fit. Everyone was engrossed with his brilliant and often very humorous stories, just such a charming man to listen to with a fascinating story. We have received such lovely feedback from both members who attended and staff."

"What an event, what a speaker. We knew how fabulous it was having attended but the amount of emails of joy and gratitude we have received is overwhelming. Thank you, thank you."

"It was an absolute pleasure working with Richard – he managed to strike just the right note with our audience and if the number of selfie requests was anything to go by, he was our most popular host to date!"

"Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for your expert hosting at this year’s Everyday Heroes. We have received wonderful feedback about the evening which is thanks, in no small part, to the role you played on stage that night. The stories we heard highlight how the brave and selfless actions of St John Ambulance trained first aiders and volunteers are saving lives and supporting communities every day. We hope you were also able to enjoy the evening celebrating all our incredible winners and nominees – thank you for helping to ensure everything ran so smoothly, for your inspiring words and good humour."

"I thought I would write, while we are still enjoying the afterglow, to thank you so much for your appearance at the Northern Aldborough Festival last Wednesday. It was fascinating, and in places very moving, to hear you recount your extraordinary life story, but it was also wonderful to discover on meeting you that you are every bit as warm, patient and amusing in the flesh as in a public setting. You really made my children feel included in the talk, no small feat, and they will have more football questions for you if they meet you again! We have had so many positive comments from the audience about the talk, and I do hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we all did!"