Janey
John Archer’s admirably judged documentary about the Scottish comedian Janey Godley is funny, tragic and uplifting.
The Scottish comic Janey Godley is so loud-mouthed that her favourite words have landed this documentary with an 18 certificate. Some of us (and I include myself here) are resistant to humour which constantly features strong language and yet rather to my surprise Janey Godley when seen here soon won me over. The swearing seems a natural part of her personality, both on stage and off. When performing she has real stage presence and knows exactly how to deliver her lines and when she is off and among family and friends the language used is part of her defiance against a world that has given her a rough ride.
Janey Godley was born in 1961 in Glasgow’s East End and from the poor conditions of her childhood onwards life has been cruel to her. That her parents were alcoholics added to her fraught circumstances but far worse was the fact that her mother's brother sexually molested her and her sister. At the age of nineteen she married Sean Storrie who had his own disorder in the form of Asperger's Syndrome and was in addition a member of a gangster family. Then when Janey was twenty-one her mother drowned in the River Clyde in all probability a murder victim. It was following all that that Janey broke away to work in London opting to take the risky path of a career in show business. By then she had a daughter, Ashley Storrie, who is herself autistic but with whom she would develop a very close bond even taking to the stage with her after Ashley had also branched out in that direction.
As if that did not amount to problems enough, after Janey had achieved success through stage appearances and on TV and as a writer, she would be hit by a double whammy in the 2020s. First, tweets that she had made years earlier came to light in 2021 and she found herself cancelled because of their insulting and even racist character. She recognised her past errors of judgment and apologised but it was a real drawback nevertheless and one that was quickly compounded in December 2022 when she acknowledged that, having seemingly overcome cancer, it had returned with further chemotherapy required.
All of this might suggest that this portrait of a comic’s life might well be a grim affair, but the filmmaker, John Archer, is totally aware that the most remarkable feature of Janey Godley is her energy which is positively ebullient. An indication of that lies in her decision to go ahead with a 2023 tour despite the cancer diagnosis, the tour taking her all around Scotland as well as to Belfast and London. But the extra proof of what makes Janey Godley the person that she is lies in the name that she chose for it: the "Not Dead Yet Tour”. Archer was obviously the right person to make the film recognising the wisdom of not making it over-long and using music appropriately including the song ‘High Life’ which strikes an upbeat note at the start. But most importantly of all Archer knows how to capture Godley’s personality and recognises the need to achieve balance by threading together examples of her stage appearances with scenes that show her with her daughter, her friend Shirley and her manager Chris. With them she discusses her past life and revisits old abodes. This mix ensures that the film never loses sight of the humour but also enables us to recognise what Janey has had to handle and to admire the spirit that lives in her.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Janey Godley, Ashley Storrie, Shirley Doig, Chris Davis, Jimmy Carr, Nicola Sturgeon.
Dir John Archer, Pro John Archer, Screenplay John Archer, Ph Laura Kingwell, Ed James Alcock, Music John Lemke.
Hopscotch Pictures-Cosmic Cat.
77 mins. UK. 2024. UK Rel: 15 March 2024. Cert. 18.
