IF you didn’t know who Janey Godley was before the coronavirus pandemic, you will by now. The Scottish comedian’s Nicola Sturgeon parody videos have made her the voice of lockdown. And there’s something significant about that voice – it speaks in Scots.

Fresh from her September Scottish Comedy Award win for best online content, Godley is also up for Scots Speaker of the Year at this weekend’s Scots Language Awards.

However, speaking to The National ahead of the release of her latest book – Frank, Get The Door! Ma Feet Are Killing Me!, featuring those voiceovers of the First Minister’s daily Covid briefings – Godley plays down her influence on the revitalisation of Scots.

“People are accepting that people have their own tongue that they speak in, I don’t think I’m a pioneer in it by any means,” she says. “I think I’m just telling people this is how I speak, and this is how I sound, and it hasn’t stopped me and it shouldn’t stop other people either. It’s no longer seen as a handicap.

“There would always be that wee back-heeled kick about your accent and your slang Scots. [TV producers would ask]: ‘Will they understand you?’. Well, you understood Rabbie Burns and were able to get your heads round Shakespeare so I’m pretty sure you’ll get your head round [this].”

The book, which is a collection of transcriptions of the famous voiceovers, is also in Scots. The choice of language helps the humour keep its identity even on the page.

But again, Godley plays this down: “It’s not complete Scots, you know. A lot of people are just using their own tongue to portray their own stories. It’s not an anomaly. A lot of people do it. There are people in America, Canada, Australia, Guatemala, Brazil that love the voiceovers, so obviously the tone and language I use hasn’t put people off.”

The book, with illustrations by Christina Connelly, charts the journey of Scotland and the UK throughout lockdown, from the first lockdown announcement, Prince Charles contracting Covid and Catherine Calderwood’s resignation to Dominic Cummings in Durham and household bubbles. In her introduction, Godley explains the origin of the Frank Get The Door! catchphrase. Frank was the bouncer at the pub he owned in Glasgow’s east end. Godley says: ‘He always had a cowboy paperback book which never fell as he lifted up the drunks with one hand and opened the door inward with the other and threw them out on to the street, without missing a beat or a breath.

“He simply dusted down his book and went back to his beer in silence. That was Frank. Nobody knew his surname. He became known as ‘Frank Get The Door!”

While Godley has made a name for herself around the world during the coronavirus pandemic, other comedians in the UK have been struggling to get by.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme was sadly lacking when it came to helping the arts, and the UK Government has recently come under renewed fire for suggesting those employed in the sector should retrain and change career.

Asked why she thought the arts were being treated this way, Godley said: “The arts is a billion-pound empire, but I think they’ve been left behind as they’re seen as frivolous and not needed. Also, possibly because the arts has always been entrenched in the left-wing. You don’t get many pro-Tory plays. You don’t get many Tory comedians.

You don’t get many pro-Brexit operas – although I’m sure Nigel Farage has got a song he could belt out, counting the boats off the cliffs of Dover. The arts have always been a bit left-leaning, so I suppose it’s just revenge in a sense. And, of course, because they just don’t think the arts are important.”

But the comedian adds: “I don’t think I’m even interested in Brexit or independence right now. I’m interested in the leaders of our nations getting us through this really dire time. There will be nothing left to have independence for if we all die.”

It’s no secret that Godley is an SNP supporter, although she has previously shown support for left-wing figures such as Jeremy Corbyn.

Being as outspoken as Godley (as with her Trump Is A C*nt sign) when the US president visited Turnberry, can make you a target for online abuse. However, the comedian isn’t fazed: “I owned a pub in the east end of Glasgow for 15 years,” she says, “and once you’ve dealt with one arsehole you tend to have the blueprint to deal with them all.”

“People will want to hurt you, especially as a female voice amongst a lot of men, but if women stop speaking online because men shout them down that’s a bad thing.

“Women should be able to put their head above the parapet, and if men don’t like it – and it is not all men but mostly men who tell us to shut up – well I tend to talk louder.”

Let’s hope Godley isn’t done talking for a while yet.

Janey Godley’s new book, Frank, Get The Door! Ma Feet Are Killing Me, is out today, published by Luath Press