Jan Ravens Comes To West Wales

The star of BBC Radio 4 Dead Ringers – Jan Ravens – made her Edinburgh Festival debut which was a total sell out including her extra shows that were added due to overwhelming public demand. The show, ‘Difficult Woman’, delighted audiences and received much critical acclaim this August. The show sees her perform spot on impressions that include Theresa May, Nicola Sturgeon, Diane Abbott, Lyse Doucet and Fiona Bruce

as she puts her unique political stamp on the world. She is now set to take the show on the road this autumn with an initial handful of dates across the UK before spreading it out further in 2018.

This is the age of the powerful woman, particularly those who, like Jan, are in their fifties. Does a powerful woman have to be a Difficult Woman, as Ken Clarke famously called Theresa May? And what exactly did he mean? Difficult as in a quadratic equation, or difficult as in not agreeing with him? Or difficult in that she wasn’t keen on having a few beers in the bar? Whereas little boys are praised for strength and courage, little girls still have a tougher time growing up to be women who are tenacious and ambitious, without having those qualities held against them.

You can see Jan Ravens on Sat 21^st in CARDIGAN at Theatr Mwldan.

We were lucky enough to have an exclusive interview with Jan, who put her own stamp on the answers:

Hi Jan,

Thank you for spending some time to answer our questions, we will just jump in with them.

1. Can you summarize your tour in three words?
   Fast furious funny
2. Can you tell us about why or when you discovered that you wanted to get into comedy? It got into me and I couldn’t get it out….
3. What are you looking forward to most while performing in West Wales?
   Walking on the beach!

Now we have asked the obvious questions, we would like to ask a few out of the box ones if that is ok.

4. You are  a new addition to the crayon box. What colour would you be and why? P.S what would it taste like?
   Can I have some of what you’re on please?

I am a bright sky blue. It would taste of blueberries.
05. You are on stage with Heavy Metal band Metallica, would you join in a song?
No. Much prefer Bruce Springsteen.

6. You do some fantastic impersonations of politicians, who would you like to meet whilst looking just like them?
   None . Too embarrassing.
7. Can you tell the readers of the West Wales Chronicle a random fact that they probably didn’t already know?
   I used to be a Sunday school teacher
8. Why did you choose to share that fact?
   Cos all the others were too rude.
9. If you could have your own day of the week, would you name it after yourself & Why?
   [THIS WAS NOT ANSWERED]
10. Marvel or DC?
    DC I love Superman. I used his stories to teach my sons morality. Harnessing your good power.
11. Who is your favorite superhero and will you impersonate it on your tour for us?.
    Well Iron Man has to be the favourite. Who doesn’t love a superhero that does the ironing?
12. Can you describe your life using only film titles?
    Truly madly deeply
13. Besides from comedy, what makes you happy?
    Love
14. Where are you answering these questions?
    At my kitchen table
15. pretend that you just took over the West Wales Chronicle, what is the first thing that you do?
    Tell everyone they have to come and see my show on October 21st. Comedy will lift your hearts, guys
16. Can you please tell our readers what they can expect on your tour?
    Laughs laughs laughs. Something to think about, and lots to relate to.
17. After this, what is next for Jan?
    Dinner with an old mate. Oops, I’m late! Bye!

On TV she has been seen in two series of Hebburn for BBC2, Skins, Love Soup, Big Bad World, Midsomer Murders, Bremner, Bird and Fortune, Big Impression, Alexei Sayle’s Stuff, Carrotts Lib, The Grimleys, and of course seven series of Dead Ringers‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬.

She was also heard as many voices on Spitting Image. Her stage work includes Viola in Twelfth Night at Birmingham Rep, The Relapse at Chichester, and The Children’s Hour and 5@50 at Manchester Royal Exchange. She played Gabriella in David Edgar’s award winning Pentecost at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2012 she appeared at Edinburgh in The Intervention with the Comedians Theatre Group. She contributes to many topical programmes on radio and television such as Newsnight, Peston on Sunday, The Daily Politics, Mock the Week, QI, Question Time, Today and PM.

She wrote and presented her own programme on radio parody for 4Extra, Parody Please, and interviewed two heroines, Germaine Greer and Lyse Doucet for One to One on Radio 4. In 2009 she toured the UK with her own show ‘A Funny Look at Impressions’. More recently she has completed a UK tour with Rory Bremner in his show ‘Partly Political’.