Scottish comedian, writer, actress and political activist Janey Godley died on Saturday, November 2, at the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow.
She was diganosed with ovarian cancer in 2021 and, despite receiving the all-clear from doctors following a hysterectomy a few months later, she announced the cancer had returned and spread by the end of 2022.
Godley was brought up in poverty in Glasgow’s Shettleston neighbourhood by parents with addiction issues and was abused by her uncle for a number of years. He would later serve two years in prison after being convicted of the offences.
She ran a pub in Calton with her husband and his family for 14 years, but branched out by making her debut as a standup in 1994.
Over the next 30 years she became one of the best-known faces in Scottish comedy, selling out numerous tours, writing a best-selling autobiography called Handstands in the Dark, and appearing on television in shows such as Have I Got News for You.
Then there was the infamous picture of her outside Trump Turnberry holding a placard declaring him a ‘runt’, shared around the world.
She reached a new audience over the global pandemic when she started to release voice-over videos of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s daily briefings which were viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
Awards included the Scots Language Award's Speaker of the Year Award and the the inaugural Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award.
And a film following her on the 2023 ‘Not Dead Yet Tour’, following her cancer diagnosis, opened this year’s Glasgow Film Festival.
Here are 10 quotes that show she was as fearless in interviews as he was in life.
1. Janey Godley on...ADD
"I've got Attention Deficit Disorder. To other people it's a disability. To me, it's a career." | National World
2. Janey Godley on...growing up in poverty
"It’s a bit like being in a cult; you don’t know you’re in it when you’re in it. But when you leave it you go, 'Oh my God, why did I think that was normal?'" | Getty Images
3. Janey Godley on...joking about the abuse and poverty she suffered
“I make a joke of it because it’s my...life. It’s my lived experience and it’s my right to take it anywhere I want. Nobody can tell me what my lived experience means to them if I’m not allowed to say what it means to me.” | Getty Images for BFI
4. Janey Godley on...violence toward women
“Violence towards women is still very prevalent and people just, every time you talk about it, they’ll say it happens to men too. We’re not allowed to talk about it.” | Getty Images