1. The Best/Worst of Times

Despite growing up with undiagnosed autism, in a family of gangsters where police raids uncovering guns under the floorboards was normal, and with her teenage years spent guiding the career of her controversial comedian mother, Janey Godley, whilst caring for her depressed autistic father - Ashley has just had the most surreal, dramatic, tragic… and successful year of her life.

With a gift for comedy and performance since early childhood when she would entertain the patrons of her parent’s pub with musical parodies and hilarious impressions, plus a passion for writing scripts and stories, Ashley’s dream job was always in the magical world of TV with all its escapism, justice and happy endings.

Despite making a name for herself in the world of comedy as an acclaimed stand-up in her own right, she’d spent most of her life until now by her mum’s side - supporting her on tour, livestreams, podcasts and everything she did, personally and professionally.

But the universe has a twisted sense of humour, and just as Ashley finally gets her big break, Janey is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

In this episode, we get a peek inside the brilliant but unhinged autistic brain of our self-identifying “adult perma-child” protagonist and, with the help of some of the other characters that live inside her mind, hear the unbelievable story of how this profound, tragicomedy began.

Produced by Julia Sutherland
Sound Design by Sean Kerwin
A Dabster production for BBC Radio 4