Scots comedian Janey Godley will always be remembered for making the nation laugh during one of the toughest times.
Janey Godley Currie was born in 1961 in Stirling and grew up up in Shettleston and was the youngest of four children.
She attended Eastbank Academy but left at the age of 16 with no qualifications and a few years later she met Sean Storrie.
She married Sean in 1980 when she was just 19-years-old and they welcomed a daughter together, named Ashley Storrie, who followed in her mum’s footsteps and is also a comedian.
In 1982, when Janey was just 21, her mother Annie was found dead in the River Clyde and the comic claimed that Annie’s violent partner Peter Greenshields was to blame for her death.
Alongside her husband Sean and his family, Janey ran a pub in the East End of Glasgow called The Weavers Inn for 15 years – it is now known as the Calton Bar.
It was her time behind the bar that went on to inspire some of her comedy sketches and it’s where her famous line ‘Frank! Get The Door!’ originated from.
Her stand up career kickstarted in 1994 and used the stage name Janey Godley instead of using her married name Storrie.
In 2006, Janey was nominated and was close runner-up for the annual Scotswoman of the Year title as ‘the most inspirational woman in Scotland’.
She then went on to scoop the ‘Spirit of The Festival Award’ at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival.
Speaking on This Morning in 2020, Janey explained that her initial inspiration came from her time as a landlady, she said: “Frank was a man who used to drink in my pub in the east end of Glasgow in the 80s, and he just used to sit near the door and was always reading a cowboy book and when anybody needed thrown out I would shout ‘Frank! Get The Door!’ and Frank would get up and not even miss a line in his book and open the door and get people out.”
Janey became a regular five-star performer at the Edinburgh Fringe, in 2008 she won the Fringe Report Award as ‘Best Performer’ and two Nivea Funny Women Fringe Awards – as ‘Best Stand-Up’ and overall, for ‘Best Show’ as ‘one of the most prolific and extraordinary stand-up comedians working in the UK’.
In 2009, the New Zealand Comedy Guild nominated Janey as ‘Best International Guest’ after also nominating her in 2002, 2006 and 2008.
In 2012, Janey’s live Twitter description of a couple’s rapidly-deteriorating relationship on a train became a viral sensation.
At the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2012, she staged a five-star-winning one-off play #TimAndFreya based on the incident.
In 2014, her weekly podcast was shortlisted in the comedy category of the 9th annual People’s Choice Podcast Awards in the US.
The funny woman was also well known for taking a dislike to the US President Donald Trump and back in 2016, she lead a protest outside his hotel in Turnberry where she held up a sign which read: “Trump is a c**t”, which went viral on social media.
During the coronavirus pandemic Janey went viral once again for her Nicola Sturgeon voice overs which also won the ‘Best Online Content’ at the Scottish Comedy Awards.
Janey and the former First Minister even went on to collaborate on a sketch in aide of the STV Children’s Appeal.
In 2023, Sir Billy Connolly hailed Janey as a “great comedian” as he announced her as the winner of the inaugural Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award, which was an honour as Janey said Sir Billy was ‘her hero’.
She was presented with the award at the 2023 Glasgow International Comedy Festival, just minutes after she closed the show at the official Closing Gala at the King’s Theatre in the city.
Throughout her career, Janey penned three books.
In 2005, Janey penned ‘Handstands In The Dark’ a book all about her life being brought up in the east end of Glasgow and her story of sexual abuse by her uncle.
In the book Janey opened up about having to cope with the murder of her mother, violence, religious sectarianism, abject poverty and a frightening family of in-laws.
In 2020, the comedian then brought out another book named ‘Frank! Get The Door’, which was a combination of all of her lockdown sketches.
In 2023, she published her first fiction novel Nothing Left Unsaid which was written before her own cancer diagnosis late last year.
Nothing Left Unsaid is set in Glasgow between 1976 and 2019 with a woman, Senga, asking her family to see her in hospital as she reaches the end of a battle with cancer.
In November 2021, Janey announced that she had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer after doctors found a tumour on her ovary following a period of suffering stomach and back pains, a bloated tummy, loss of appetite, and frequent urination.
After undergoing a hysterectomy, she also underwent chemotherapy and at the time, shared a poignant image of her husband shaving off her long curly locks before ‘chemo took it from her’.
After successfully finishing the treatment, she was given the all-clear however, she faced a setback when further scans indicated the return of the disease within her abdomen.
The comic began raising money for Beatson Cancer Charity by arranging Soup Pot Tours and raised over £42,000.
She tweeted that the tickets alone raised £39,037.58 with a collection raising an extra £2693.95 and Merchandise raising £1211.85.
Janey told her followers: “You all raised £42 GRAND for @Beatson_Charity I want to thank everyone who performed, attended, bought my Beatson merch from my site & filled @Beatson_Charity buckets at The Kings Theatre shows back in March -We raised £42,943.38. Thanks @GlasgowComedy My agent @ChrisDavisMg.
She added: “Thankfully I didn’t do the show I was too exhausted- all my comedy friends did the shows for me and all my profits went to @Beatson_Charity.”
She continued to work at the start of 2024, Godley performed dates across the country in towns and cities including Bristol, Epsom, Norwich and Milton Keynes as part of her Not Dead Yet tour but in September 2024, she had to cancel her Why Is She Still Here? tour after contracting sepsis.
Then a week later, Janey told her followers that she was receiving “end-of-life” care after her cancer spread and that she would be moving into a hospice.
After stating that she could no longer go through chemotherapy, Godley said the “devastating news” was difficult to speak about. She said: “The chemo ran out of options, and I couldn’t take anymore of it. The cancer has spread, so it looks like this will be getting to near the end of it, and it’s really difficult to speak about this and say it to people.”
“It is devastating news, to know that I’m facing end of life but we all come to an end some time.”
She added: “I don’t know how long I’ve got left before anybody asks, I’m not a tick tock, I just want you all to know that I appreciate all the love you’ve gave me. Cancer affects one in two people and it’s affected me.”
Janey is survived by her husband Sean and her daughter Ashley.
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