Reverend Richard Coles on new show with Strictly pal Oti Mabuse: "I call it a 'Mabusive relationship'"

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but how did you two end up in South Africa together?

Oti: I’ve always been really proud of where I’m from, and for this programme I wanted to take a really good friend back with me to see my homeland. And Richard was on the list.

Richard I didn’t know there was a list! Who else was on it?

Oti: It doesn’t matter; you were number one! When we did Strictly [Coles was a contestant in 2017, when Mabuse was a professional], I loved the deep, meaningful conversations we had. Then, when we were in the jungle [on I’m a Celebrity in 2024], he was the only person I could trust with my truth.

Richard: We’re actual friends, not just “on-screen friends”. We go to restaurants together, and – because I’ve helped Oti immensely with her dancing, obviously – we do sometimes like to bust out a few moves together.

Did you hit the dancefloor in South Africa?

Richard: Oti forced me to dance. I call it a “Mabusive relationship” because she physically makes me do these things. The worst was doing Zulu tribal dance up on the Dolphin Coast: I looked like everything bad about “dad dancing” happening in one person in one place at one time.

Oti: I did not make you! But the local girls were like, “If you don’t dance, you’ll end up married” because, while the women go there to dance, the men only really go there to get a wife.

Richard: There was a lot of dancing, though. And wherever we were, just off-camera Marius [Iepure, Mabuse’s husband and fellow dance professional] would be teaching all the local kids to dance. In fact, Oti takes a whole retinue around with her, like a Tudor monarch. She has about 46 hair and make-up people.

Oti: The make-up artist was for both of us! And Richard needed her, because the sun was really hot and he went through the full spectrum of colours: he was blue then green then red then orange. He was turning all the colours of the South African flag!

Richard: It’s true, my face was a “rainbow nation”.

What about animal encounters? Did you safari?

Oti: We were chased by elephants! I saw one hiding in the bush, coming to attack Richard, who was like [passable Coles impersonation], “Oh my, what lovely animals! Oh, rather gorgeous!” But mum elephants can be very protective, and they’ve been known to tumble cars over, and suddenly it was coming at us fast, so I had to scream at our driver to reverse, and the elephants chased us out – and that safari didn’t happen any more.

Richard: I found everything so completely enchanting, I wasn’t really aware of the danger. If it hadn’t been for Oti, I’d have been trying to pat the elephant as it turned our Jeep over, and we’d all have been trampled into the red earth of South Africa. One of the few remaining things on my bucket list is to die nobly, but I don’t want Oti to die nobly. We also saw giraffes, which I loved, because I’d never seen one in the wild. And as a lanky person who moves slowly, I suspect the giraffe is my spirit animal. It was very moving for me.

So you didn’t go in for any adventure activities?

Oti: I was supposed to be bungee-jumping on Africa’s highest bridge, Bloukrans, on the Garden Route, but we’d had a dodgy meal the night before and I had the South African equivalent of “Delhi belly”, so I was nervous the camera would capture a moment no one would forget. Instead, I did sky-hanging, where you get roped up, stand on the edge of the bridge, then just lean out till you’re hanging horizontally off over the side of it. It’s petrifying!

Richard: I had a sit down with a cup of tea. I don’t want a white-knuckle ride in life; I want a pink-knuckle ride.

Will there be a series two, Oti, as you’re expecting your second child? Perhaps it will be a visit to Richard’s homeland of Kettering?

Richard: I’m not sure we’d get four programmes out of Kettering. Although if we took in Northampton as well…

Oti: I was thinking South America or Asia… I can still do it – I’ll just bring the whole family with me!

Richard: We might get some odd looks. We were walking along the seafrontin Ballito, in KwaZulu-Natal, and a local lady said something I didn’t understand. Oti told me the lady had been speculating on whether I was Oti’s old white husband.

Oti: Yes, my ATM! That’s what they call it if you get a rich European man. And I didn’t mind, because it meant I looked the part – only the pretty girls get that! And it was a compliment to you, too, Richard, because she was saying, “That looks like a good time for both of you.”

Richard: Oh. Well she was right about that.

Oti and Richard’s South African Odyssey airs at 9pm on 21 July on More4. Catch up via C4 streaming.

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