Gay Hero Rev Coles Visits Important Station

The Reverend Richard Coles, an out gay priest working in the Church of England and a celebrated voice for progressive theology, as well as being a veteran pop star and TV presenter, is currently on a journey round the British Isles to meet people who live and work in different parts of the Shipping Forecast, that enigmatic thrice daily transmission from BBC Radio 4 for British and continental shipping.  Reverend Coles learns about different parts of the jigsaw of shipping regions and what they mean to communities on land and at sea.  On Tuesday 11th November at 9pm on More4 Television (Freeview 18 plus Sky and other cable packages), Reverend Coles visits the radio vessel used by Radio Caroline, the former offshore, North Sea based pirate radio station.  Caroline has some significance in LGBTQIA+ broadcasting, in that it employed some of the UK's first out gay DJs, most notably Tony Allan (1954-2005), who came out on the air in 1973, as well as Andy Archer.  Tony Allan was one of life's natural anarchists and he did not fit well within a legal broadcasting framework, and hence much of his career was spent on land based and offshore pirate radio stations, including, in the 1980's, Radio Nova Dublin, a station which helped transform broadcasting policy in the Republic of Ireland.  In Tuesday's programme, Rev Coles tours the historic radio vessel Ross Revenge used by Caroline and other offshore pirates in the eighties, and meets with DJs.  He will also be travelling along the coastal communities of Essex and Suffolk.