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When the Rev Kate Bottley posted a flashmob video of her dancing at a wedding she had no idea it would launch her into a successful TV career.
Rev Kate Bottley was on the hunt to promote weddings where she was a Parish priest in North Nottingham. “One of the churches that I was looking after was Old Priory Church, in the middle of a village, which is an absolutely gorgeous building,” she tells New Life Publishing.
“It only did about six weddings a year and I thought this is such a great place we should be doing hundreds of weddings. So, I built up a wedding ministry. Then we came up with the idea of doing a flashmob dance at one wedding.
“It was posted on YouTube so the guests who weren’t able to be at the couple’s big day could see what had happened. We never expected it to go where it did and the current count on the original clip is over nine million hits.”
Not long after the video went viral, Kate and her husband Graham were approached by the studios, who produced the reality TV hit Gogglebox. But she says they were hesitant at first to appear on the show.
She adds: “We gave it some thought at first because when you wear a dog collar for a living you have to be aware that you’re not just representing yourself but the Church – and God also. But eventually myself and my husband Graham said yes because we thought maybe this was a chance to share that Christians are normal people. They just so happen to believe in God. Gogglebox is regularly watched by three million people, so to be a Christian on that show is such an amazing privilege.
Kate Bottley pic by BBC
Raised in a non-Christian home in Sheffield, Kate’s interest in church actually came about through a high-school crush.
“We never went to church,” she smiles. “It was only when I was at secondary school and my friend knew a boy who I liked the look of and she told me he was the vicar’s son. So I went along to church because I fancied this bloke. But God had the last laugh on that one really. In all seriousness it was from being in a place of invitation, a place where I was made to feel welcome, where there was friendship and community. I was given space as quite an angry and loud teenager. I was able to argue about the world as I saw it and try and figure out who I was.”
Little did Kate realise at the time but that angry teenager would later become one of the UK’s most recognised TV vicars. As well as writing for a number of national newspapers and co-presenting Radio 2’s Sunday Hour programme, Kate often hosts Songs of Praise. With more people watching the show than those attending church, she sees this as a tremendous platform to share her Christian faith.
“So, it’s not about bums on seats,” she insists.
“When we get to those gates Jesus is not going say, ‘OK, what’s your numbers?’… it doesn’t work like that. But what we will be asked is what did you do for the sake of the kingdom? And, for me, I believe that part of my calling is to be upfront to be outgoing.
“I genuinely believe that God wants to use every single bit of us – the bits that society might think are brilliant and the bits that they might think are rubbish. It’s about using the best of ourselves and the worst of ourselves for the kingdom. I do a lot of funerals where there’s nothing to say in the eulogy. I want the vicar who does mine to have a good half an hour’s worth of material to go at!”
SANTIAGO RISK
One risk Kate, 43, took was taking part in the TV series The Road To Santiago, when she joined a group of celebrities on a gruelling 500-mile pilgrimage through Spain.
“It was a tough gig because of the walking – everything else was easy. The people bit, the talking about God bit… I can do that! I do that all the time but the actual one foot in front of the other was the really tricky bit for me.
“The other tricky bit is that as a Christian lots of people presume that they know what you believe. But people who aren’t of the faith think that we still believe that God’s like some sort of cosmic Santa Claus. And so there’s a massive gap between where we think we are in the conversation about faith in popular culture and where we actually are.”
So how does Kate deal with the pressures of having such a high-profile media career today?
“I have a core group of about 16 friends in a closed Facebook group who I call ‘Team Bottley’, and they are my biggest mentors and advisors. That group ranges from the first person who ever invited me to church to a bishop to famous people to non-famous people.
“Whenever a piece of work comes in to me I will always run it by them. I post my daily diary in there and they pray it through. If they think something would be really bad for the kingdom then they will say that to me. If I mess up spectacularly then they’ll tell me. They help me to be the best version of myself that I can be so that I can fulfil my vocation.”
MEDIA ADVICE
Kate shares her advice for people considering going into the media:
“Well, first of all you’ve got to be convinced that you should be the person speaking. It’s about vocation and calling. Do I think that every single vicar in the land and every single Christian in the land should be on the telly? No I don’t!
“Some people are not called to that. Some are called to do other things for the faith. I happen to believe this is part of my vocation.
“You know God doesn’t look at the bishops and say, ‘They’re the best ones.’ Similarly, he doesn’t look at the person washing teacups and say, ‘They don’t matter.’ All are welcome in that kingdom vocation. So, find out what your thing is and do it as best you can… and value your thing whether others do or not.”
