00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - So Jenny, how does it feel to have the film
00:08 about your life story as the world premier
00:11 at Glasgow Film Festival as it's been closing gala
00:14 on the 10th of March?
00:15 - That's quite frightening that you've told me that.
00:18 For mine to be the world premier gala
00:21 at the Glasgow Film Festival seems bizarre.
00:25 I mean, I'm just a woman who talks really loudly.
00:28 I'm not even a comedian.
00:29 I'm just an over-friendly cleaner that wandered in.
00:32 So yeah, I'm really excited.
00:34 - And how are you feeling about the red carpet?
00:37 - The red carpet is gonna be quite an event.
00:40 I've got a lot of my friends are coming
00:43 and they're all deciding what they're wearing.
00:45 I'm just trying to figure out how my hair will behave
00:48 'cause right now I'm at the urwally stage
00:50 of the post-chemo hair.
00:52 I can't wait to see what it does by that time.
00:54 - And you mentioned that you've a long history
00:58 of coming to GFT to see films with your family.
01:02 Any favourite memories of coming to see anything here?
01:04 - Oh God, yeah.
01:06 I remember bringing Ashley to see "It's a Wonderful Life"
01:09 and it was at Christmas.
01:10 It was just such a special atmosphere.
01:12 And growing up in the cinemas,
01:16 the State Picture Hall in Shettleston where I was raised,
01:20 it means everything to me.
01:22 And Ashley has been a film buff since she's been tiny.
01:24 And she was a producer on this too
01:27 and she did a lot of camera work on it.
01:29 So she's exceptionally proud of it.
01:31 And I'm really proud of her.
01:33 The two years still, I just can't quite believe
01:34 that there is a film called "Janie".
01:36 I keep expecting somebody else to turn up on the screen.
01:39 - I was gonna ask how do you think you'll feel
01:42 when you see yourself on the GFT cinema one screen?
01:46 - I think my heart is gonna be that huge.
01:48 It'll burst with happiness.
01:50 That's the only way I can express it.
01:52 I am incredibly proud, especially of John Archer
01:56 and all the people at Hopscotch Films who made the film,
02:00 who made the documentary.
02:01 They were superb to work with.
02:03 I mean, they literally never even did much.
02:06 They just stayed in the background and pointed a camera
02:08 at me and Shirley most of the time.
02:10 - It's so important, I think,
02:11 to have that trust with someone
02:12 'cause you're sharing very personal, difficult things.
02:16 - We did have a lot of trust.
02:17 John let me take the absolute pew at him as well.
02:20 There's lots of outtakes of me slagging him off
02:23 and the car with him and his son.
02:24 And I wish they had included them.
02:26 There's a lot of fun in me just annoying John quite a lot
02:29 because I was very bored backstage at some time.
02:32 So I just took it out on John and he and I had such laughter.
02:35 But they cut that out.
02:36 They should have another film of the outtakes.
02:39 - For an extended version for the festival.
02:42 - Yes, absolutely.
02:44 - After its world premiere at Glasgow Film Festival
02:46 on the 10th, it's then going out to cinemas
02:48 all across the UK, I think from the 15th of March.
02:51 So I suppose it's, what would you feel for,
02:55 how do you feel about audiences seeing it
02:57 and maybe people who maybe not seen you live before?
03:00 - I can't believe that there's people
03:02 gonna be watching me in the cinemas across the UK.
03:05 That just seems absurd.
03:07 I think this is all a big mistake.
03:09 I still think this is a huge mistake that yous have all made
03:12 and I can't wait for people to see it.
03:14 And I can't wait to hear their feedback as well.
03:17 I can't wait.
03:18 I'm just super excited.
03:20 There's a part of me is really stressed and worried
03:22 because I'm waiting on the scan results
03:24 'cause I'm still living with terminal cancer
03:26 and there's still this part of me going,
03:28 you need to stay alive for all this.
03:30 So yeah, it's keeping me going.
03:33 - For viewers who aren't familiar with you,
03:35 maybe this will be their first sort of introduction
03:37 to you and your life and your work.
03:38 What can they expect?
03:40 - Well, there's a lot of old film footage
03:43 from my days in the pub.
03:45 They will see that.
03:46 Then we even have the cameras in the Beatson
03:49 where I'm getting chemotherapy,
03:51 which will be quite a shock to the people
03:53 who say I'm faking cancer.
03:54 They'll see a lot of standup.
03:58 There's a lot of footage of me,
04:00 especially on stage at the SEC, 3,000 people.
04:03 So they'll get to see that.
04:04 They'll see standup.
04:05 They'll see me backstage.
04:06 They'll see me and Ashley in the house.
04:09 There's quite a lot of, as I say,
04:11 archive footage of the pub,
04:15 which I saw for the first time in 30 year.
04:18 That was quite a shock.
04:21 Never knew my husband had that much hair.
04:23 There's archive footage from the mid '80s
04:27 right through to when we closed.
04:29 There's the last day of the pub.
04:30 You see Ashley pouring a pint
04:32 in the complete darkness of the pub
04:34 'cause it's closing down to get renovated.
04:37 And then there's video footage of me on stage,
04:41 me chatting with Ashley,
04:43 me and Shirley, who makes a brilliant chemo picnic.
04:47 Shirley always has a sandwich ready.
04:50 A lot of, there's gonna be a lot
04:52 of intimate conversations as well.
04:55 You'll see me talking about death,
04:57 talking about life, talking about being canceled,
05:01 talking about how I felt
05:03 when I was faced with the worst of adversity,
05:06 whether it be child abuse or my mother's murder or whatever.
05:09 You're getting to see it all.
05:11 And I can't wait for people to see that
05:13 and see how they feel about it.
05:15 The pub in the Calton was very influential in my standup.
05:19 I mean, people say to me,
05:20 how do you feel when you get people who troll you online?
05:23 They never stood behind the bar in the Calton
05:25 in the early '80s when wee drunk men came in
05:28 and went, "Do you want a sore face?"
05:30 And I'm like, "Why are you giving that one away?"
05:32 They don't know the schooling that I had.
05:35 We are the wee hard cases in the Calton.
05:37 So anything after that is literally
05:40 a skip in the picnic time.
05:42 So working in the pub really did ground me for standup.
05:47 Nothing scares me.
05:48 Nothing scares you.
05:49 After you've done a shift in the Calton
05:51 for a few years in a pub,
05:53 you literally could be on the front line in Afghanistan
05:57 and go, "Bring it on, boys."
05:59 Don't think the guys would really have much fight.
06:01 We had a lot of Glasgow women on their menopause.
06:03 That's who we should send to wars.
06:05 We should stop sending men.
06:07 Just send a lot of women to feed the gorbals
06:09 and cast them out on their menopause to war zones
06:12 to see if that would sort them out.
06:13 "What are you looking at?"
06:15 Yeah, I think that would work.
06:17 That'll be my next film.
06:19 (upbeat music)
06:21 (upbeat music)
06:24 [MUSIC]
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