Joanne McNally is back on the investigative trail…. and with the Avril / Melissa theory no longer giving her sleepless nights, she’s keen to find a new story to get her teeth into.
Top of her list, after some deliberation is a story from the late 90’s… about a soft toy, the Furby, which took over the world and became the no.1 gift for Christmas. But Joanne has found headlines that claim the toy was banned, suspected of being a spy, linked to international espionage… there couldn’t be any truth to it… could there?
Joanne McNally is back on the investigative trail…. and with the Avril / Melissa theory no longer giving her sleepless nights, she’s keen to find a new story to get her teeth into.
Top of her list, after some deliberation is a story from the late 90’s… about a soft toy, the Furby, which took over the world and became the no.1 gift for Christmas. But Joanne has found headlines that claim the toy was banned, suspected of being a spy, linked to international espionage… there couldn’t be any truth to it… could there?

There’s a story going around, that punk-pop sensation Avril Lavigne ISN’T who you think she is. That she was replaced at the start of her career by a look a-like. It’s an internet conspiracy theory which has been eating comedian Joanne McNally ALIVE, and she’s going to do something about it. In this 6-part series, Joanne immerses herself in a mind-bending world of fake celebrity deaths, doppelgangers, conspiracies in an effort to understand how this rumour started, and if there’s any truth to it.
Who Replaced Avril Lavigne? Joanne McNally Investigates is produced by What’s The Story Sounds – for BBC Sounds and CBC.
Coming March 6, 2024.