Feeling Kind Of Funny
- Radio documentary
- BBC Radio Scotland
- 2014
- 2 episodes (1 series)
Radio documentary looking at women in comedy who address serious subjects on stage. Presented by Julia Sutherland. Features Julia Sutherland, Janey Godley, Felicity Ward, Keara Murphy, Debs Gatenby and more.
Press clippings
Radio Times review
Mental health issues are no laughing matter. Or are they? Julia Sutherland talks to four more funny people - Australian comedian Felicity Ward, actress Keara Murphy, performer Juliet Burton and comedy guru John Lloyd - about their experiences of depression, anxiety, psychosis and eating disorders.
While these chats are quite straight-faced, they are interspersed with clips of Ward, Murphy and Burton performing in Edinburgh, each using their bleakest moments to raise laughs.
My favourite line is from Ward who likens admitting you're seeing a therapist to saying you've just bought a slave - people are happy you're getting help, but there's still a stigma attached. Murphy's amateur radio ham from a remote corner of Scotland is an oddball delight, with some homespun advice on coping with depression.
Burton's charming tales of fulfilling her childhood dreams by stalking Prince Harry soon descend into an attempt to recreate the experience of psychosis, while Lloyd asserts it's essential to laugh at mental health issues and reveals that it was creating QI that helped raise him from a deep depression.
Part of a Changing Minds season on mental health, this manages to be both funny and informative - which is no mean feat.
David Crawford, Radio Times, 16th January 2014An example of how stand-up comedy can change your life
On Twitter, Derek Timothy reacted: "The real mind fuck is that when I was depressed my therapist sent me to see Janey Godley. My therapist believed comedy was a valid treatment and advised me to go to the club where Janey was on. Best advice ever."
John Fleming, 11th January 2014