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Co-creator of hit TV series Gavin and Stacey, James Corden has been speaking about being brought up in the Salvation Army.
The popular actor was speaking to Kirsty Young on BBC Radio Four's Desert Island Discs. Mr Cordon began by praising the Salvation army, saying: “It’s brilliant in so many respects, it’s terrific.”
“Lots of people don’t even recognise it as a church, they just see it as a charity and the work it does and all those things are great. There are some wonderful people who are involved in the Salvation Army.”
However the actor criticized the congregation he was previously a part of.
“Looking back... I can only describe it as some of the least Christian people I’ve ever met. If anything, I didn’t want people to come and join this church, they would have been happier if the doors were shut. So insular is the only way I can describe it. I only realize that now.”
The comments were sparked after Mr Cordon was asked what his earliest memory was.
“We were a Salvation Army family so we would go every Sunday. All of us in uniform.”
“It was Ruth’s Christening and we went up on the platform and I was looking out and seeing this congregation of people and all these people were looking at me. So I started doing a little dance and pulling faces and there were a few chuckles. It got to a point when no one was really looking at the Christening they were just looking at me. I thought ‘this is great why don’t we do this every week?’”
The 33 year old actor and writer said, “my dream was always to be an actor” and praised his Christian parents for providing a “stable” and “balanced” home.
Mr Cordon also spoke candidly about the darker side of fame.
“I was 29 and single for the first time in my adult life. I got so lost. This door had opened to this world that I thought looked like fun where people go ‘you’re amazing, you’re great, can I have a photo? Do you want a drink? Come out with us.’”
“You end up on this path of 3am cab rides with people you don’t know heading across London to someone’s house who you don’t know either with a group of people who think it’s amazing that your there. This is an intoxicating thing to be part of.”
“I was at home, hungover and my Dad called. I answered the phone and he said we’re in Primrose Hill and we’re coming round. They sat on the tiny two seater sofa and I sat on the floor.
“I’d had such a great relationship with my parents but over the last year I’d done all I could to sever that. I felt embarrassed that they were seeing me like this. My Dad just stood up, he walked across to where I was and he put his arms round me and said ‘you’ve got to get through this, son’. I started to cry, as you do when your Dad hugs you and your 30.
“Dad said ‘I’m going to say a prayer for you’. The only way I can describe it is it felt like a every tear that was leaving my eyes was making me feel a bit lighter. It started as a light cry then it became a real sob. I think we went and had some lunch, as they left my Dad said ‘it will be alright but it can’t carry on like this, only you can decide what happens now.’
Mr Corden is currently engaged to Julia Carey and the pair have a child named Max.
The actor said that having a child, “really shows the important stuff to be important and everything else to be not that.”
Mr Corden and Miss Carey are expected to tie the knot during 2012.
