The last time Joanne McNally hit the road, she broke several records; among them the London Palladium shifted more booze than ever before.

Now, the comedian is swapping stand-up stages for a rather more treacherous setting after joining the cast of Celebrity Traitors .

But before she was preparing to sniff out Faithfuls and Traitors, McNally spoke to Metro about the army of women who helped turn her tours into a phenomenon, being single and childless in her 40s and the unlikely circumstances that led her into comedy.

‘I’m always joking the bar bill was my own and the girls just added to it. I don’t have a big insight into it, but I do think that women just want to go out and enjoy themselves. A male comic messaged, “Congratulations, you’ve really found your niche.” I don’t think you can call that many women a niche.’

It couldn’t be further from a niche, but it does feel like a movement – an audience that has been strangely overlooked in comedy : girls who just really want to have fun.

The 42-year-old comic described her fans as ‘mentally frail, physically groomed, dopamine addicted women with questionable drinking habits and undiagnosed ADHD.’

There’s no data to confirm or deny Joanne’s theory, but I have borne witness to her crowd, and wherever they sit on the neurodiverse spectrum, I have never seen an audience so hysterical to be in the presence of a female comic.

It was a surprisingly moving achievement to watch, even if my eardrums never quite recovered.