Stand-up favourite Janey Godley on why she cannot wait to get back out on tour again despite cancer battle

Comic will travel across Scotland this year

It was meant to document her final tour as a stand-up comic.

Janey Godley did not even know if she would live to see the finished fly-on-the-wall feature film following her on there road with her daughter, comic and writer Ashley.

But as she launched the documentary in her native Glasgow, her fans were told she is going to perform more and more in the coming months, despite her terminal cancer diagnosis.

Godley, 63, will be embarking on two major tours of Scotland in the space of eight months.

The first will see her take to the stage after screenings of Scottish filmmaker John Archer’s documentary Janey – which premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival.

The second will see her perform full stand-up shows as part of a tour entitled “Why Is She Still Here?”

It is a nod to last year’s “Not Dead Yet” tour, when a camera crew followed Godley and Ashley as they tried to come to terms with the impact of her illness.

Janey Godley and Ashley Storrie on the red carpet at the Glasgow Film Festival. Picture: Eoin Carey

Speaking after the world premiere of “Janey,” Godley admitted that watching the film with an audience had been a much more emotional experience than she had expected.

She said: “John had shown me the film a few times and I was okay with it. Watching it with so many other people was an incredibly different experience which I wasn't prepared for.

"It was incredibly moving for other people to be in the room with me - it was incredibly moving. I could hear people gasping and laughing - the reactions were just amazing.”

Storrie recalled the mixed feelings she harboured throughout last year’s tour, which had been pre-booked before Godley discovered she had terminal cancer.

Janey Godley visited the Glasgow Film Theatre ahead of the world premiere of a new fly-on-the-wall documentary on the comic in March. Picture: John Devlin

She said: “I was hyper aware that it might be the last tour I got to go on with my mum. We’ve shared such an amazing journey together. There was a slight feeling that this was the end of it. That was the sad part, but at the same time you wanted to enjoy it. I didn't know that we'd still be here.”

Godley admitted the most traumatic point of last year’s tour came when she had a coughing fit on stage and Storrie had to rush to her aid, an incident which features in the documentary.

She said: “It was terrifying. I genuinely thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to be able to breathe again. It was a very strange experience.

The 21-date Scottish tour Godley is planning in October and November will include shows in Edinburgh, Haddington, Greenock, Kelso, Perth, Aberdeen, Stirling, Airdrie, Glenrothes, Dundee, Dunfermline, Montrose, Inverness and Glasgow.

Janey Godley on the red carpet at the Glasgow Film Festival. Picture: Eoin Carey

She will be heading out on tour months after publishing a second memoir, which will chart her life and career from here emergence as a stand-up comic in the 1990s to her high-profile during the Covid pandemic, her experiences of being “cancelled” in 2021 and her cancer diagnosis just months later.

Godley said: "During filming I kept making the joke that I wasn't dying in time for the film. I just kept living and getting stronger and stronger.

"One of the things that John and the crew made me realise that they were there for every step of the way.

“I can't wait to get back on tour again because I loved it. I find that going on tour and being on stage does kind of keep me alive.”

Archer admitted that there was uncertainty over how the documentary would end but hinted that there could now be a follow-up film.

He said: “My approach was to try to make a film that Janey would make herself if she had the time.“About 30 years I commissioned Billy Connolly's World Tour of Scotland. I sort of had an idea that this could be Janey's version, and that we could start it and see what happened.

"We actually discussed that if we were having the premiere here at the festival and Janey wasn't here then Ashley would be. She has actually got better as it has gone on.

"She is going to tour more and more. She gains energy from it.”

The documentary recalls how Godley lost huge amounts of work in 2021 after she was accused of racism over social media posts and dropped from a Scottish Government health campaign.

She said: “John wanted me to speak about it in the film and I wanted to talk about it. It didn't want to say 'let's just skip over that.' I'm proud of who I am and what I came through.

“I’ve already said I am sorry, but people don't want an apology. They want you to either die or go anyway. I think th ere's no such thing as cancel culture now. It peaked and wore itself out.

"The weird thing with me is that it’s the right wing who want me cancelled. The people who are really easily offended at everything I say are the same people who say 'she’s as funny as a fire in an orphanage.' It's not as if I’m shouting through their letter box.

"One of the things I say in the film is that I'd never come off Twitter. But I did come off it because I decided that I am addicted to arguing with complete ********."