Here’s a documentary following the Glaswegian standup comic Janey Godley on her Not Dead Yet Tour; in 2022, Godley was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer, and she does the first gig in Inverness a day after chemotherapy. And God, is she funny, with jokes running the gamut from the disgraced peer Michelle Mone living in a static caravan to cancer. Her daughter, Ashley Storrie, also hilarious, does the warm up.
The title of the film is just Janey; no surname necessary – not in Scotland anyway, where Godley has a special place in people’s hearts. During Covid her voiceovers of first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s press conferences went viral (I remember watching one feeling almost guilty for laughing so hard). Before that, in 2018, she hit the headlines protesting outside Donald Trump’s golf course with a “Trump is Cunt” placard. Fans will not be surprised to learn the film has an 18 certificate for “very strong language”.
Godley grew up in the East End of Glasgow in the 60s, covered in “nits and fleas” and left school with no qualifications. In 1982, when she was 21, her mum drowned in the Clyde; murdered, the family believes, by her violent partner. By then, Godley was already married and running a pub – what she didn’t know was her husband’s family ran a gang. In her routine, she tells the stories, hilarious and heartfelt, never sentimental. As an adult she reported her uncle to police for sexually abusing her when she was a child; he was convicted.
Director John Archer takes us behind the scenes of the tour. Godley talks about being cancelled after offensive tweets she wrote in 2010 came to light. She discusses dying with daughter Ashley and her friend Shirley, who is on tour and brings the cheese sandwiches to chemo. Even in a hospital bed hooked up to drips, Godley is laugh a minute. She had a dream about David Cameron last night she tells the nurse and Shirley. “I’d rather be dreaming about an Alsatian dog shagging me, to be honest.”