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Janey Godley, the Glaswegian pub landlady who died at 63, used her pain and tragedy to fuel her successful comedy career. Born Jane Godley Currie in 1961, she was the youngest of four children. Her parents were both addicts, and she was sexually abused by an uncle. In 1982, her mother was found dead in the River Clyde, and she believed her mother’s violent boyfriend was responsible. Her mother’s murder was never investigated, and Godley remained haunted by the tragedy.
A former pub landlady, Godley’s comedy mirrored the city that shaped her: working-class, foul-mouthed, simultaneously angry and sentimental. She was known for wringing laughs out of the most unlikely material, delivering her comic broadsides at high speed like a street-fighter. In interviews, she spoke about how people came up to her and said, “I was abused, and I’ve never laughed before.” She became close friends with former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, and her viral videos voicing-over the FM’s Covid press conferences made her a household name.
Godley played a barmaid in the film Wild Rose, published a memoir and a novel, and became a regular on panel shows. In 2016, she gained global attention after being photographed at the Turnberry golf resort protesting President Trump’s visit. During the Covid lockdowns, she portrayed Sturgeon as a plain-talking, occasionally foul-mouthed figure, exasperated by the media’s questions and exhausted by the pandemic. She was an enthusiastic supporter of Scottish independence and was praised by Sturgeon.
Godley’s connection to Scottish politics was tested in 2021 after old tweets with “terrible, horrific undertones” resurfaced, causing her to be dropped as the face of a Scottish government health campaign. That same year, she revealed she had ovarian cancer. In December 2022, she announced that the cancer had returned and that she had been told she could die within the year. She continued working and documenting her illness on social media and through touring. She won the inaugural Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award in 2023 and remained a presence on BBC programmes until the end
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