Gail Porter on Comedy: "Has anyone here been sectioned?"

Image source, Joe Maher/Getty Images

By Beth RoseBBC Access All

"Someone here has was he severed?" TV presenter Gail Porter jokingly asks her audience. Famous for her drive as well as her mental health struggles, she turned to comedy to take control of her own story.

Comedy is a new adventure for Gail. She has just wrapped up a run of her one-woman show Hung, Drawn and Portered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The show documents his life experiences and feels liberating.

"If I' I have a problem, I like to share it - whether it's homelessness or losing my hair," she told the BBC Access All podcast. "I've been in a psych ward and I'm just like 'you know what? I'm just going to tell you. What's the worst that can happen?'"

She got a taste for comedy last year after teaming up with stand-ups John Bishop and Tony Pitts for their Fringe show, Three Little Words.

"We just couldn't stop laughing," she says. The duo made a throwaway comment that she should write her own series - she did.

"It's only when everything was organized that I realized how much work goes into these things and how much money it costs and how much money you don't make."