Communards legend and former Church of England priest Reverend Richard Coles has said taking part in Strictly Come Dancing was a "brutal awakening".

The 62-year-old took part in the 2017 series of the popular BBC show and partnered up with professional Dianne Buswell.

However, he was sadly eliminated from the ballroom programme fairly early in what was dubbed a particularly challenging year.

That year saw big names like JLS star Aston Merrygold, soap star Davood Ghadami, singer Alexandra Burke and Holby City actor Joe McFadden take part.

Reverend Richard Coles says taking part in Strictly Come Dancing was a 'brutal awakening'

Discussing his time on Strictly Come Dancing, Reverend Richard Coles said: "For some unfathomable reason, I thought I’d be good at Strictly Come Dancing."

The BBC star added: "I found out, simultaneously with 10 million other people, that was not the case. It was a brutal awakening.

"Being kicked off it was like being sent home from a party when you were a kid because you’ve wet yourself. Maybe people felt sorry for me, because they were nice to me afterwards."

Despite making a name for himself as a "novelty" act during the series, he won over millions of viewers.

His performance to the Eurythmics’ There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) was one of the acts which curried favour with viewers at home.

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In the new interview, he also discussed how he is plagued with depression, saying that this is "part of my make-up" and revealed how he struggled with the death of his husband David in 2019. David Coles died five years ago after a long illness.

He said: "The loss was too big to conceive of. I went a bit mad. It took a while to realise that I wasn’t really coping.

"I see a bereavement therapist who says, 'Everyone’s mad for at least five years.'  Maybe I’m just coming to the end of the madness."