Kerry Godliman on her stand-up tour BOSH, and starring in After Life

Virgin Radio

31 Jan 2022, 10:56

Comedian and actor Kerry Godliman joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about her current stand-up tour, which continues this February, and about her time on After Life and Taskmaster.

Kerry is currently in the midst of her BOSH tour. Regarding performing stand-up as the country comes out of restrictions, she told Chris: “I did quite a few shows in the autumn as well, and then it still felt a bit like we were in transition, but now it just feels like we’re back. People don’t even want to talk about Covid anymore. They’re like, ‘Just crack on’, which suits me because the show is called BOSH. So, I’m like, ‘Let’s just crack on with the jokes.’”

On what kind of topics she covers in the show, the stand-up said: “I’ve got stuff about consumerism, I’ve got a talking cat, there’s stuff about flirting in the 80s, Speak & Spells, camping, my campervan...” 

The name BOSH is inspired by Kerry’s ability to just get things done, and the comedian explained that it also comes from “slight impatience.” She added: “Sometimes that doesn’t serve me well, so that’s where the comedy sits.” 

She continued: “This is what I talk about in the show. I mean, when it comes to parenting, BOSH doesn’t really work very well, but on Taskmaster, where I picked up the nickname, it works very well because I ended up winning.”

Kerry joked: “Greg Davies wanted 15 percent of takings for coming up with it!” 

Speaking more about her time on Taskmaster, the winner of series seven said: “I didn’t overthink things. I didn’t have a strategy. Everytime I did a task, the first thing I said to Alex [Horne] or the crew was, ‘Surely everybody did it like that?’ 

“They didn’t all do it like that! I just cracked on. That was my way of doing things. It was like ‘How do I get this over there?’ and I chucked it mostly. And I just didn’t understand how some people come at things very differently. We all have different ways of approaching tasks, don’t we?”

Kerry is also one of the stars of Ricky Gervais’ massive hit Netflix show, After Life, where she plays Lisa. She told Chris: “It’s been incredible, the response to that show, it's sort of overwhelming really. It’s amazing.”

Season three, which concluded the comedy-drama, has just aired. Speaking about Ricky Gervais deciding to do a third season, Kerry said: “From my understanding, he never intends to do more than two. He’s never done more than two before, but because the response was so incredible for this one, I think he just felt compelled to keep going with the story, and stay with people, with the characters a bit longer.”

Talking about her scenes with Ricky, and whether there was any ad-libbing involved, she explained: “The scenes where I’m in the hospital talking to the camera, that’s all very scripted and shot properly, on a proper camera and all the rest of it. The scenes with Ricky, where Lisa’s still alive and he’s filming her on a phone, they're very natural, they’re quite playful. Some are scripted, because they serve the narrative, but a lot of them are just us mucking about!”

As well as playing Pearl Nolan in crime-drama Whitstable Pearl, of which Kerry says season two will “start shooting in a few weeks”, the actor is also in new ITV show Trigger Point, alongside Vicky McClure. “It’s tense! It’s tense!” she told Chris: “Even the trailers are tense. You know when you watch a trailer, you’re like, ‘Oh God, I can’t cope with that!’. You’ve really got to brace yourself.”

For tickets and information on Kerry’s BOSH tour, visit kerrygodliman.com. After Life season three is available to watch on Netflix via Sky Q. Trigger Point is on ITV on Sunday nights at 9pm.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.