Janey Godley’s daughter recollects poignant joke she made about her mom’s demise

The daughter of comedian Janey Godley, Ashley Storrie, has recalled a joke she made about her mother’s terminal illness before she passed away.

The Scottish comedian died on 2 November after a battle with ovarian cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2021, forcing her to cancel her final tour of the UK.

Storrie, who is a stand-up comedian in her own right, recently won a Scottish Bafta for Dinosaur, a series which she wrote and stars in as an autistic palaeontologist, a condition she was diagnosed with in her 30s.

Speaking to The Guardian, the 38-year-old called the experience at the awards ceremony, which happened on 17 November, “surreal” as most people could only talk to her about her mother’s passing, despite the fact she’d just won an award.

Storrie shares that she and Godley had made a joke about something like that happening. “I said: I’m going to win a Bafta, but you’re going to die that day and it will all be about you,” said the comedian.

Dinosaur was nominated for four awards on the evening, with Storrie winning the gong for film and television along with Matilda Curtis, beating Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd and One Day’s Nicole Taylor in the process.

After her mother’s death, Storrie, who also works as a presenter on BBC Radio Scotland, thanked fans for their well wishes, describing how she felt her mother stayed with her longer because of “all of the support and the love in the world.”

Godley’s funeral took place on November 30 in Glasgow, where she was laid to rest at St Mary’s Cathedral.

Storrie told the congregation she had been asked to “headline” the funeral, saying she would not be able to do any of her mother’s jokes as she was in “a house of God”.

She added: “My mum is very grateful to all of you who came out yesterday to Edinburgh and lined the Royal Mile and lifted your voices in song, and the people who’ve come today to remember her in the best way possible.

“My mum was very much a daughter of Glasgow, she loved her city dearly, it was her favourite place in the whole wide world.

“The emblem of Glasgow is the tree that never grew, and the bell that never rang, and the bird that never flew, and the fish that never swam, and I think she took that as a challenge.

“It felt like the world was telling her, be quiet, stay small, don’t get big, so she did the opposite.

“She ventured far from her shore, she swam very far indeed.

“She travelled across the world where she found people who loved her in every corner, in New Zealand and Australia and Canada.

“She never quieted, no matter how many people told her, I remember one of my earliest memories of my mum is her standing behind the bar and people telling her, ‘you talk too much’, and her talking more just to spite them, and she grew bigger than she could have possibly imagined.”

Becoming emotional as she finished her speech, she told mourners: “For one last time, can you please put your hands together, for my ma, Janey Godley.”