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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
Entertainment
Sophie Buchan

Glasgow's Janey Godley opens up on life, death and counselling with BBC Radio show

Janey Godley's quick humour and brutal honesty may have turned her into a household name, but life isn't always a barrel of laughs for the Glasgow comic.

With more than her fair share of tough times to contend with this tough east end lady seems on the face of it to have risen above her troubles to carve out a successful career.

She's long since been open about her abusive childhood, the murder of her mum and her family's gangster past, but it's only since she was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer that she has come to terms with the toll on her mental health.

Now in a brand new BBC Radio 4 show The C-bomb, Janey opens up on her decision to start counselling and confront the inevitability of her death.

READ MORE: Glasgow comedian Janey Godley urges people to book mammogram as it 'could save your life'

Speaking exclusively to Glasgow Live, Janey explained that the 'C' in her new programme title doesn't stand for what you might think, pointing out: "It's not for cancer, it's not for the word I called Trump, and it's not for being cancelled - it's all about counselling and how I have been reflecting on all these issues that I have been dealing with all my life.

"I always kept saying 'oh I don't need counselling', but now I'm getting counselling."

Janey finally admitted to herself that she could benefit from mental health support after her cancer diagnosis in 2021, she added: "It was quite a revelation. I think because I've encouraged so many other people to get counselling and my husband's been in counselling for years.

"I think in reality, I thought I didn't have a problem and then when I got cancer, I thought I really have a problem. I think cancer, being a physical representation of all those problems, made me take the step to go and get counselling."

And she says she is benefitting from sessions already. She went on: "It's basically helped me unravel all the issues. We mostly talk about the cancer in counselling because I'm living with a death sentence. And that's more of an issue, is to talk about how that's affecting me. We haven't really got into my background stuff yet."

Many people turn to comedy to help them through the tougher moments in life - and it's something that has helped the stand-up comedian, actress and writer, who was presented with the inaugural Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award earlier this year.

She said: "Comedy has definitely helped me deal with this because, on one hand, I'm reminded every day that I'm dying. I could die quite quickly or I could die quite slowly. Or I could not die for years, but I've had this diagnosis.

"So comedy has been a great help for that. It has been brilliant. I've been able to get on stage and feel like I'm normal again."

Touching on the success of her Not Dead Yet tour, the 62-year-old said that with her sold-out shows and standing ovations, it was, at times, emotional with her "bursting into tears" when she walked on stage for the first time. And having her daughter Ashley Storrie by her side was "brilliant" as they laughed backstage and toured from venue to venue.

While also undergoing chemotherapy, Janey walked out on stage each night - and despite the possibility of needing to run off to go to the toilet, and almost choking on water, the show was a success.

She recalled: "I was doing chemo during the day and going on tour at night. I was tired, but I'm 62", she explained. "I think one day I had like really bad diarrhoea and I thought, 'Oh my god what if I go on stage and I need the toilet.' But I just told the audience 'If I have to run you're all gonna have to cope'.

"There was a moment in the SEC I thought I was going to choke to death on water and Ashley ran on, banged my back and said, I think mam's peed herself to 3,000 people."






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A post shared by Janey Godley (@janeygodley)

The love on her tour didn't go unnoticed with the comedian describing the feedback and response as "unbelievable".

"If love could cure me, I'd be saved," she admitted. "The audiences were fantastic and the response to the radio show has been brilliant, it's been getting great reviews all over, so yeah, I'm really proud of it."

Hoping to tour again next year, Janey added: "If I'm still alive, it's gonna be the still alive tour, the still no deed yet tour."

With her busy working away, her cancer diagnosis has changed the way she looks at life, ensuring she puts herself first explaining: "I mean of course a terminal cancer diagnosis changes your perspective. It's made me stop overworking.

"I come from a really poor background, so I had to do every single gig. Ashley used to stop me and go, 'you don't need to work for £100' and I'm like 'I know but it's £100 and it will only take me 15 minutes'. So it stopped me from over-working. It's not made me enjoy life more because you can't do that. You can't go 'Oh my god I've got cancer I'll go smell the trees'.

"I've got a very small circle of close friends and I've always nurtured those friendships. So I don't know what it's made me do. I think it's made me realise that I'm gonna have a controlled death.

"I think everybody thinks about how they're gonna die and I know that I'm very likely to have a controlled, pain-free death so in a way that's quite reassuring."

In the midst of writing the second part of her autobiography covering a range of topics from cancer to being a woman in comedy, "that Trump thing" and her iconic 'Frank get the door' voiceovers with Nicola Sturgeon, Janey is being kept busy.

Hoping to also do a second series of the BBC Radio 4 show, she wants to keep working "and eating strawberry tarts at Eusebi's" - and looking at them through the window of the iconic Glasgow eatery as we chat, we couldn't think of a better treat.

You can listen to all four episode of Janey Godley: The C Bomb on the BBC Radio 4 website here and on BBC Sounds.

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