NICOLA Sturgeon has paid tribute to Janey Godley following the comedian’s funeral in Glasgow on Saturday.
The funeral was brought to a close with her catchphrase “Frank, get the door” and was held at St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow.
Mourners wore an array of colourful outfits – at Godley’s request – on an overcast day in the city.
Speaking to STV, the former first minister said: “It was a really, really beautiful service that encapsulated Janey perfectly and you know it’s no surprise having sat through it that she planned every single bit of it.
“I mean she was a special woman, somebody that was so close to my heart, close to the hearts of many people across Scotland.
'She was a special women' Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon attended a funeral service for comedian Janey Godley in Glasgow. https://t.co/JOtLRWupyv pic.twitter.com/EDCqRyZaZq
— STV News (@STVNews) November 30, 2024
“She’ll be greatly missed. It’s a sad, sad day. Lots of tears in the church there but also a lot of laughter and that’s how she’d want to be remembered – with joy and laughter and I think that’s what was achieved here today.”
Godley’s daughter Ashley Storrie (below) told the congregation she had been asked to “headline” the funeral, adding she would not be able to repeat any of her mother’s jokes because she was in “a house of God”.
Storrie, 38, a Bafta-winning actress, screenwriter and radio presenter, said: “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.
“And we once went to a place called Salt Spring Island, where we ended up staying with women who stole credit cards and ran a crab shop. We had to do a gig there, so it was tax deductible.
“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.”
A prayer Godley wrote as a child was read out during the proceedings, and a vicar told the story of how he met her when she wanted to look in the church but was worried it would “fall down” when she entered due to her jokes about religion.
He said she had been “making lists” of people she wanted to forgive before her death.
The vicar added: “Janey Godley died having forgiven everyone, but she still believed to her dying day that (Donald) Trump is a country mile away from being anyone who should ever have come near to power.”
The comment was greeted with cheers and applause from mourners, after Godley was photographed at Turnberry golf resort with her infamous “unwelcome” sign for the incoming US president in 2016.
