Janey Godley: The C Bomb

Comedy of the Week

This show was first broadcast in June 2023, as Janey faced a terminal cancer diagnosis.

Last week, Janey revealed she is now receiving end-of-life care.

This is another chance to hear Janey's powerful personal story of strength and survival, all told in her brutally honest, brutally funny signature style.

In this episode, Janey does what she’s always done: turning her own dark and difficult experiences into laugher, as she paints a vivid picture of life in the East End of Glasgow in the 60s, and recounts a childhood steeped in poverty and abuse. As she faces her own mortality, she and daughter Ashley Storrie talk, laugh and cry as they unpick some of the experiences she shares onstage.

Relentlessly authentic, she's also had to face up to her own mistakes - taking responsibility and apologising both publicly and onstage, as well as sharing the shame of being ‘cancelled’ and the very dark place that took her to.

Then, just months later…. the hand grenade of a cancer diagnosis forced her to start fighting for her life.

Now, after finally admitting that after everything she’s been through in life, maybe she‘s not “fine”, and with a terminal diagnosis, she’s submitted to the ultimate ‘C bomb' for many men and women of her generation - counselling.

And as a result of this insight, she’s more hilarious and compelling onstage than ever.

Janey’s experienced a life of extremes but has come out the other side with rare insight, still able to make light of all its trials and tribulations in her signature dark and uncompromising style.

Recorded live in front of an audience in her hometown, Glasgow.

A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4