Janice Connolly

Janice Connolly
Born	Janice Connolly
Nationality	British

Janice Connolly BEM is a British actress, comedian and artistic director. She runs the Birmingham-based group Women and Theatre, and performs stand-up comedy as her character "Mrs Barbara Nice". In 2017 she appeared in the New Years Honours list in recognition of her work with Women and Theatre .She was awarded a British Empire Medal. Connolly has also appeared in Coronation Street, That Peter Kay Thing, Phoenix Nights, Max and Paddy's Road To Nowhere, Thin Ice and Dead Man Weds. She worked a lot at the Birmingham Rep with Roxanna Silbert as Artistic Director .

Connolly is best known for her character Barbara Nice - a caricature of a middle aged housewife and mother of five from Kings Heath, Birmingham. Her act is heavily reliant on interaction with the audience, for example acting as an agony aunt to the audience. She performs on the comedy circuit as a headline act and has performed one woman shows across the UK. She appeared as Barbara Nice in solo shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2012 and 2014.

In October 2015, Connolly recorded a pilot for BBC Radio 2's Comedy Showcase series, which will be made available on the BBC iPlayer in November before being broadcast later that month. The BBC said: "Barbara is worried she and Ken [played by John Henshaw] are at risk of adding to the numbers of silver splitters - they have nothing in common; Ken's idea of retirement involves a marathon session of Pointless and that doesn't fit with Barbara's idea of a well spent golden age. When a homeless Spanish busker (David Sant) needs some help, Barbara sees it as the perfect opportunity to do some good and stir things up home ... A little more than she expected." The pilot was well received and 4 episodes commissioned -broadcast in March 2017 .

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