Janey Godley, Scottish stand-up who found humour in adversity
The Glaswegian stand-up comic was raised in Shettleston in the East End of the city.
After building a career as a comedian, actress and writer, Janey Godley did not let a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2021 stand in her way.
Godley, from Glasgow, even found dark humour in her illness, naming the tour she was due to embark on this autumn Why Is She Still Here?.
Born on January 20 1961 as the youngest of four children, Godley was raised in Shettleston in the East End of the city, and attended Eastbank Academy.
She left school aged 16 with no qualifications, but went on to become a highly renowned comedian, first starting her career in the business in 1994.
Godley performed stand-up around the world, including in New York and New Zealand, and was a regular co-presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, as well as fronting BBC Radio 4 series The C Bomb.
Having regularly performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, she won the Fringe Report Award after being crowned best performer at the 2008 festival.
Godley found viral fame with her dubbed pastiches of then-Scotland first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s coronavirus news briefings during the pandemic, but her career has not been without controversy.
After offensive tweets by her came to light following an investigation by the Daily Beast website, the Scottish Government coronavirus adverts she featured in were pulled.
Godley profusely apologised for the tweets and donated the fee she was paid (£12,000) to charity.
She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November 2021 but later returned to touring and told how comedian Jimmy Carr encouraged her to continue performing despite her diagnosis.
In a March 2024 episode of ITV’s Lorraine, Godley said: “The year before last, before I got into the tour, I was told that the cancer had come back.
“So, I decided to cancel the tour, and my mate Jimmy Carr said, ‘Is your mouth not working?’ I went, ‘Yeah, my mouth works’ and he said, ‘Well get back on tour.’
“And I thought, he’s right. What am I going to do? Sit in the house and draw wee cats?”
She added: “I have so much on that I keep forgetting that I have a terminal diagnosis.”
Her daughter BBC Radio Scotland presenter Ashley Storrie confirmed in October that Godley was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University Of Glasgow, something she said had “brought her so much joy in the final beats of her life”.
Godley was also a playwright, blogger and author and once had a column in The Scotsman newspaper.
One of her influences was Sir Billy Connolly, a fellow, highly successful, Scottish comedian.
In a memoir published in 2024 titled Janey: The Woman That Won’t Shut Up, she recalled meeting Sir Billy.
Godley said: “Billy and I chatted for over an hour. I managed to calm down, and tried hard not to gabble and talk utter shite.
“He has a way of putting you at ease – he is such a warm, genuinely lovely man.”
When considering Sir Billy’s influence, she recalled watching TV in her childhood.
“It was all Monty Python,” she says of the famous comedy team, adding: “And it was all men dressed as women.
“I never saw anybody that sounded like me.
“So I didn’t think comedy was for people like me.
“And then this man with long hair, and big wide flares of all many colours and platforms and not wearing a suit and telling a joke… I remember coming to the TV and going somebody sounds like me.
“And that just changed my life.”
In 2023 the comedian became the winner of the inaugural Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival.
Godley appeared in a number of TV shows, including River City and Have I Got News For You, and in the film Wild Rose.
In 2020, she wrote and starred in a number of short films titled Alone about a woman whose abusive husband had recently died of coronavirus.
Godley recently said she had accomplished everything she had ever wanted in life, stating in her 2024 memoir: “People keep asking me have you got a bucket list… there isn’t anything I haven’t done.
“I don’t want to jump out of a f****** helicopter or climb a mountain… I’ve done everything I want to do.”
Her death was announced by her management company Chris Davis Management on Saturday, November 2, who said she would be “hugely missed by her family, friends and her many fans”.
She is survived by her daughter, comedian Storrie, and her husband Sean Storrie, who she married in 1980.
