KERRY Godliman has been a part of some of the UK’s most celebrated comedy institutions, and even appeared in internationally renowned TV and film, including the likes of After Life, Taskmaster, Mock The Week, and Spinal Tap II.
With a resume that includes ventures as diametrically opposed as Miranda, The Quatermass Experiment, and Whitstable Pearl, which she leads, Kerry has never stepped away from stand-up for long.
This week she’s coming to Reading’s Hexagon with the second leg of her latest stand-up show, Bandwidth.
Kerry says: “I was noticing that phrase of not having the ‘bandwidth’ for things seemed to be a recurring phrase– it covers everything from emotional overwhelm and day-to-day admin.
“A lot of that is about peri-menopause, but I think blokes are going through it as well.
“We use those metaphors which are tech-based because our lives our increasingly tech-based.”
And this, in turn, comes with its own existential worries, she says: “I keep failing the ‘are you a robot’ test, and now I’m worried that I am a robot– I can’t identify a water hydrant.
“My life is increasingly dominated by technology, from the news to the parents’ Whatsapp groups.
“I’m not able to rationalise all that data that’s coming at me in a way that I can moderate.”
During her time on Taskmaster, Kerry garnered the nickname ‘Bosh’– a moniker which spawned from an inadvertent catchphrase and one which referenced a tendency to cut through the nonsense at the heart of the show with an unwavering practicality.
“That’s always been my style of approach; I kept saying to the producers during the show ‘surely everyone must be doing it like this?’
“But when you see how people have done in the studio–I don’t even think they were doing it to be funny or contrived– I couldn’t believe it.
“I had a radio show a few years ago called Kerry’s List, and I just rattled through it, ticking off tasks, and that’s how I approached Taskmaster–and life, really.”
Despite a militant practicality, however, Kerry doesn’t neglect the more existential concerns of being a modern human.
“I’ve always enjoyed philosophy, it really sits next to the nuts and bolts of day-to-day existence– it’s the only way of coping with being a human being, to philosophise.
“In everything really, from why we’re here and who’s gonna put the knickers away; I do like the juxtaposition of those sitting next to each other, that’s what I’ve always loved about comedy.
“There is satire in the domestic, and philosophy in every crevice of life.”
Among the newer spheres in Kerry’s life that she has found such to be true is gardening: “What comes up a lot in that is the Climate Crisis, which gets mentioned a lot on Gardeners’ World.
“Those two things together, they’re not far apart for me, as a middle-aged woman pottering around with her geraniums.
“Comedy is such a great place to move back and forth between those kinds of things; I’m not highly political with a capital P, but I love using emotion and the language of emotion.
“I’ve always loved adults having tantrums.”
She cites fellow comedians Rhod Gilbert and Gina Yashere, as well as Oliver Hardy: “That’s what it’s for, it’s clowning: we all despair comedically together.
“I always enjoyed American shows because they mix comedy and drama much more; here in the UK, comedy was comedy, no jeopardy.
“In something like Whitstable Pearl, the humour is quite wry, but the drama is quite low jeopardy–although some people don’t make it– I love to use them both together.
“But as Ricky [Gervais, After Life creator] says, that is life: people laughing harder than they’ve ever laughed when in grief, it’s just part of our existence.”
This has been borne out in her work, too: with the likes of serious drama like Our Girl, Poppy Shakespeare, Mayday, and Trigger Point sitting alongside comedy institutions like Miranda, Him & Her, and Derek.
Perhaps the most stark example of this duality is with her role in the bittersweet After Life, in which creator Ricky Gervais’s Tony wrestles with the loss of his wife, Lisa, as played by Godliman.
Not only does it firmly fall into both the comedy and drama camps, but it also proved to be an internationally acclaimed series.
“I feel very lucky: some of these breaks come later–like Whitstable Pearl was a result of being free during the pandemic–you get luckier the harder you work.
“There have been times where I’ve wonder whether I should calm it down with comedy, and I have come off the circuit, but I’ve been able to do lovely rooms like the Hexagon because of the profile that brings.
“But you can’t take any of it for granted.”
As for what she most looks forward to performing in her latest show, she explains: “There’s kind of three acts, and I really enjoy working myself up to those peak moments.
“When you’re on a long tour, you do have to re-invent, I find the actor in me comes out, then.
“I’ve never done a long-running play– I love theatre, and I kind of did a few years ago, but my career didn’t really go that way.
“The lovely thing about stand-up is that there’s no gatekeeper. I write it, I direct it, produce it, perform it.
“It’s just me.”
Kerry Godliman: Bandwidth comes to The Hexagon this Sunday, October 12.
Full details and tickets are available via: whatsonreading.com/venues/hexagon
Full tour dates are available via: kerrygodliman.com
