Janey Godley dead: Inside the life of award-winning Scots comic who overcame abuse

Date: 2024-11-02

The following year she won Best Show Concept at the New Zealand International Festival, published her first best selling autobiography Handstands in the Dark in 2005 and has made numerous TV appearances as herself on the BBC satirical panel show Have I Got News For You.

In 2016 she went viral when she greeted Donald Trump as he visited Scotland his Turnberry golf course with the homemade sign declaring “Trump is a C***”.

Janey has also had acting roles in the BBC Scotland soap River City, the 2018 Jessie Buckley film Wild Rose and the BBC One crime series Traces in 2019.

But in 2021 she was sensationally axed as the face of a TV Covid Awareness campaign by the Scottish Government for historical racist tweets, with digs at black celebs including singer Kelly Rowland.

She apologised and donated her £12,000 fee to charity. Later the same year she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

After a full hysterectomy she announced in June 2022 that she was cancer-free, only for the disease to return in December that year.

a woman wearing glasses is laying in a hospital bed
Janey Godley revealed she was receiving palliative care in September
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Then in September Janey announced that she was receiving palliative care and would be moving into a hospice, apologising profusely to her fans for cancelling her nationwide tour.

But as Janey once said: “I have never been happier than when I am on stage in a comedy club making people laugh – even when my subject has been the darker episodes in my life.”

a woman stands in front of a wall that says the forth awards
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Comedian Janey Godley[/caption]

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