The Funny Life Of...

honest and unique Interviews with Scotland's best talent


Continuing the success of Dabster's "Funny..." series for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland, this series has given us the opportunity to give off-stage voices to some of the most interesting comedic talent in the country.

Written and presented by Julia Sutherland, each programme focuses on the personal life of an individual performer, charting the roots of their careers and the events that shaped them. Some of the best comedy performances are inspired by real life events. In this series we discover how these events and the comedians material are inseparable.

Due to Julia's personal relationships and intimate knowledge of the comedian's lives and work, this is truly a series that could not be made by anyone else.

Series two includes Iain Stirling, Elaine C Smith, Grado, Jim Smith, Jay Lafferty and Fiona O'Carroll.

A Dabster Production for BBC Radio Scotland.

"It was the last place I was expecting to contract HIV..."Scott Agnew
BBC Minisite


Scott Agnew


Scott hasn't led a 'traditional' life. With a bleak outlook and whilst battling with depression, he planned to commit suicide on his 25th birthday. Looking back now, he sees this as the first pivotal moment in his life; he survived, but sought refuge and comfort in all of the wrong places.

The second pivotal moment was discovering that he had contracted HIV. Scott quit the life of excess and promiscuity and now lives and works happily in Glasgow.


Ashley Storrie


Ashley was a born performer, and growing up above a pub, with a gangster family and a father with Aspergers Syndrome means she has more personal drama to draw on than most other comedians.

With such an unconventional childhood, it is perhaps no surprise that in 1999, she became the youngest ever stand-up to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe, aged just 13.

Now she’s become an online star, with a recent video garnering over 24 million hits, and she’s also found peace with herself.


Gary Little


Always the joker, and never far from trouble, Gary grew up in Maryhill and then Balarnock. Despite an apprenticeship with a local butcher, buying and selling became his specialty, and he was always looking to get people a good deal, while making himself a bit of cash in the process.

However, this entrepreneurial spirit took a more criminal turn, landing him in jail more than once. During his final period inside, a sense of loss of this new potential comedy career was the motivation he needed to turn his life around.


Richard Gadd


Richard won the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2016, he’s an amazing comedian, a unique performer and a brilliant joke writer… however he’s known for taking on massive subjects such as toxic masculinity and sexual assault.

In this touching programme Julia gets under the skin of one of Scotland’s most talked about comedians and reveals some secrets, tragedies and laughs along the way.


Karen Bartke


Karen is best known as 'Officer Karen' in the popular BBC television series ‘Scot Squad’, but it was a long and tentative journey that led her into acting, then ultimately the world of improv comedy, where she excels.

Despite early signs of talent, she spent 15 years working in a job she 'fell into' after university, only pursuing acting as a career after taking redundancy. Emboldened with a fresh start in life, Karen faced her fears and became determined to turn an obsessive acting hobby into a career to be proud of.