Janey Godley (born Jane Godley Currie, January 1961) is a Scottish
stand-up comedian
Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up.
Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...
, actress and
writer from
Glasgow.
Early life
Jane Godley is the youngest of four children born to Annie and Jim Currie. She was raised on Kenmore Street in
Shettleston, a district in the
East End
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
of
Glasgow and attended
Eastbank Academy
Eastbank Academy is a Scottish secondary school in the suburb of Shettleston in Glasgow.
History
The school was founded in 1894 originally as a senior secondary or Academy, before the abolition of the two-tier system of junior and senior seconda ...
. Living in poverty, which was rife in the East End during that time, Godley left school at 16 with no qualifications.
Her parents were alcoholic and her mother was also addicted to tranquilisers.
Godley and her sister, Ann Crawford, were
sexually abused by their maternal uncle, David Percy. Percy, who was 12 years older than Godley,
molested her and her sister for a number of years during their childhoods. Percy was charged for the crimes in 1993 after the sisters decided to come forward, and was later found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison in 1996.
Godley married Sean Storrie in 1980 at the age of 19. Storrie, who has
Asperger syndrome, was born into a Glasgow
gangster family. Their daughter, Ashley Storrie (born 1986), who also has
autism spectrum disorder, is a stand-up comedian and
BBC Radio Scotland presenter. Godley ran a
public house in
Calton, Glasgow with her husband and his family for 14 years during the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1982, when Godley was 21, her mother died after drowning in the
River Clyde
The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...
. Godley believes that her mother was
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
ed by her violent boyfriend. He was never charged by police for Annie Currie's death despite calls for an investigation from her family.
On 31 December 2010, her brother Mij Currie died from a drug-related illness.
Career
Godley began her stand-up career in 1994. Godley decided to use a stage name, saying to her husband: "I don't want to be Janey Storrie any more, because your family let me down, and I don't want to be Janey Currie because my family let me down. I'm going to use my middle name and legally become Janey Godley. The only family who haven't let me down are the Godleys because I don't know them." She legally changed her name from Janey Godley Storrie to Janey Godley in 1995.
She won an award for the "Best Show Concept" at the
New Zealand International Comedy Festival in 2002, and the "Spirit of the Festival" in 2006. In 2005 her autobiography ''Handstands in the Dark'' was published. In 2006, she was a finalist for the Edinburgh Evening Times' "Scotswoman of the Year" award. In 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2009, she was nominated as "Best International Guest" by the New Zealand Comedy Guild.
Her TV appearances include ''
River City'', ''
Sam Delaney's News Thing'', ''
The Alex Salmond Show'', ''
Have I Got News for You'' and ''
Traces''. She appears in the film ''
Wild Rose''.
Godley often makes spoof
voice-overs of videos. In 2020, Godley wrote and starred in a series of short films titled ''Alone'', about a recently widowed housewife whose abusive husband has died of
COVID-19, as part of the
National Theatre of Scotland's ''Scenes for Survival''
webseries.
In December 2020, the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
commended Godley's voice-overs of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's COVID-19 briefings for helping engage the public with the warnings.
In 2020, she won the Scots Language Award's Speaker of the Year Award.
In September 2021, tweets Godley had sent in the past were publicised by ''
The Daily Beast'', leading MSP
Douglas Lumsden
Douglas Aaron Lumsden (born 31 August 1971) is a Scottish Conservative Party politician. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region since the election in May 2021. He was previously the co-leader o ...
to question the decision to cast her in a pantomime performance of ''
Beauty and the Beast''. Some of these tweets included insults based on the
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...
and disabilities, and racial insults towards African American musicians
Kelly Rowland,
50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...
and
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...
.
Godley apologised for the tweets. Additionally, she was dropped from a
Public Health Scotland campaign.
[
In November 2021, Godley announced via Twitter the cancellation of the last weekend of her tour, explaining that she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was being treated in hospital. She had a full ]hysterectomy
Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus. It may also involve removal of the cervix, ovaries (oophorectomy), Fallopian tubes (salpingectomy), and other surrounding structures.
Usually performed by a gynecologist, a hysterectomy may b ...
in January 2022 and announced in June that she was cancer-free. On 13 December 2022, she announced that her cancer had returned and that she would need further chemotherapy.
Political activism
Godley is a supporter of Scottish independence
Scottish independence ( gd, Neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba; sco, Scots unthirldom) is the idea of Scotland as a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom, and refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about.
S ...
.Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
.
Books
*
* Illustrated by Christina Connelly
*
References
External links
Janey Godley's official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godley, Janey
1961 births
Living people
People from Calton
Scottish autobiographers
Scottish stage actresses
Scottish bloggers
Scottish stand-up comedians
Scottish women comedians
Scottish women writers
Scottish women bloggers
Comedians from Glasgow
20th-century Scottish comedians
21st-century Scottish comedians
Women autobiographers
20th-century Scottish women