Comedian Rosie Jones: How my new sitcom about a woman who becomes a drug dealer after her benefits were cut is more timely now than ever

Since then Rosie, who has cerebral palsy, has taken the world by storm with numerous TV appearances and now her own sitcom which she not only stars in but co-wrote.

And if that wasn’t enough she has written a number of children’s books and just launched her own eponymous foundation which is on a mission to empower lives and change minds when it comes to adults with cerebral palsy – oh yes, and she’s heading out on another live tour of the UK.

"I’ve got a million different jobs and a million different hats, but stand up is my first love and I am really looking forward to being back out there,” she says.

On Jones’s debut international tour with Triple Threat, she was nominated for Most Outstanding Show at Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2023. She has since toured the UK & Ireland to sell out audiences and filmed her special at Brighton’s Theatre Royal.

"I loved my first tour because I got to meet my fans which I was really grateful for. It is because of people supporting me means I can do the job I do,” she says.

Her new tour I Can’t Tell What She’s Saying, will see her talking about the big stuff: being single, the pressures of representing huge sections of the population, and, being a good Yorkshire woman, gravy.

"There are brand new jokes, brand new stories. Of course there will be a little bit of politics, I am aware that I have a platform and one of the few disabled people who gets in TV and I think I would be going against who I was if I didn’t acknowledge how the Government is treating disabled people right now.

"A lot of disabled people are vulnerable and don’t have voices and are being ignored and overlooked and I think it’s my right to say what I think of this government and what I think would make the world a better place..

“But it’s about getting a healthy balance. My tour is probably two per cent political 98 per cent lovely little jokes about my boobs and at the end of the day people who come to my show want a night off and have a good laugh.”

A once proud Labour supporter Jones is clearly disillusioned when talking about Sir Keir Starmer’s government, something she’d had high hopes for when the General Election was called. This brings us nicely on to her new Channel 4 series Pushers which saw the first episode air on Thursday.

She and co-writer Peter Fellows had written and started making Pushers, well before the General Election.

Jones plays the main character Emily whom, after having had her state benefits cut to shreds after being made redundant, begins to build an illegal drugs empire. Jones feared that with a new government the subject matter would no longer be relevant – sadly she was wrong.

“We came up with the idea in 2018 – scripted shows take a lot of time to develop – because I had my benefits cut. It really made us think about working class disabled people who rely on that monthly income and suddenly not having it any more.

"I wrote all six episodes during a Tory government and it was very much based on how a Conservative government treated disabled people,” says Jones.

"After the General Election personally I was ‘yes brilliant’ but when it came to the sitcom we were a bit worried because we knew when it came out we would nearly be a year into a Labour government and we'd be living in this egalitarian eutopia where disabled people are treated so much better and there won’t be any need for a show like this – but unfortunately we need a show like this more than ever and I think its absolutely disgusting how the current government are treating not only disabled people but vulnerable people and minorities.”

Jones says to create a sitcom where the characters are predominantly disabled was so important to her.

"I get so frustrated when I watch a TV show and they have one disabled character in it. You kind of know they have created it just to say it’s a disabled character, and they will save the disabled storylines for that one character. That isn’t an accurate representation of the world. Being disabled is not a personality type.

“I really hope that even if you watch the beginning three or four minutes of Pushers, you can immediately forget that the majority of the characters are disabled. You are just watching bloody good characters telling bloody funny stories.”

Jones is no stranger to acting for television having appeared on series including Call the Midwife, Silent Witness and Casualty, but she says starring in a sit come is very different.

“Firstly, I find a sitcom more enjoyable because of its comedy, it’s my home, and I live to make people laugh. I love Call The Midwife and drama, but there’s nothing quite like making people laugh,” says Jones.

“Beyond that, it was an added challenge because I’ve never been the main character in a show before, I’ve never been number one on the call sheet. Being a main character in a sitcom was entirely different to anything I have done before, but I really enjoyed it.

"We had an access coordinator on set, which should be happening on every set and every workplace from now on. I was adamant that we needed one of them on my show.

“There was a breakout room in every set we were on to make sure that if anyone had sensory overload, they had a space they could go to. It makes everyone go to their job with more joy. For me, it’s a no-brainer.”

As if this wasn’t enough – Jones admits she doesn’t sleep much – she has just launched the Rosie Jones Foundation aimed at alleviating the mental health crisis among young people and adults with cerebral palsy.

"I got to a point in my career where I had a platform and I wanted to do more. I love my job, I love writing and I love telling jokes but from a very young age I’ve been extremely passionate about helping other people.”

Having struggled with her own mental health over the years, she wanted to do something to help other people with CP around mental health and was looking for a charity she could help but couldn’t find one.

“There was a hole that needed to be filled, particularly when it came to teenagers and adults, looking at their mental health.

"If you have cerebral palsy you are 44 percent more likely to have depression because everyday you are entering a world that isn’t set up for people like you. So I made a very big, scary decision to start my own foundation.”

With her “brilliant team” Jones has been working for a year creating a network of connections within the charity sector and launched two months ago.

Initally, the foundation will focus on two goals: connecting people with CP to appropriate, tailored mental healthcare, and creating events and spaces where they can meet each other and get peer support. “It’s the proudest thing I’ve ever done because its something bigger than me,” says Jones.

www.rosiejonesfoundation.com

I Can’t Tell What She’s Saying is at the Studio Bradford and City Varieties Leeds in September for details visit rosiejonescomedy.com

Pushers is on Channel 4