Joanne Rossi (River City)

Joanne "Jo" Rossi is a fictional character in the BBC Scotland soap, "River City" who was originally played by Allison McKenzie but is now played by Lisa Gardner.

Background

Joanne is the youngest daughter of Gina Buchanan. She was born to her and her husband Franco Rossi, an Italian immigrant. Jo also has an older half sister named Ruth Green, whom her mother had from a previous relationship. Jo was always shown to be more spoilt, and this became more evident when her father died. Gina doted on her youngest daughter especially due to the fact that she was Franco's child and Jo often took advantage of this, causing her mother nothing but heartache. She always loved performing and proved to be very over-dramatic during her time in Sheildinch.

History

Joanne was originally depicted as an immature, spoilt little girl. She had her mother Gina at her beck and call, much to the disgust of her older sister Ruth. The sisters constantly vied for Gina's attention but Ruth always lost out to Jo, which caused some animosity between the sisters.

However not so long into the show Joanne was forced to grow up after falling pregnant by her boyfriend Nazir Malik. Nazir made it clear that he wanted no part of their unborn child's life, so Jo had no choice but to go through her pregnancy alone. She gave birth to their son Franco Rossi Jr. and, to her dismay, Nazir still wanted no part in their son's life.

Despite gaining some maturity through motherhood, Jo could not handle the responsibilities that having a child had to offer, and she often left Franco in the care of her mother or her grandfather Malcolm in favour of partying. Her feud with her sister Ruth began to escalate when Jo was imprisoned for the murder on Marcus, a man who had raped her mother Gina. Whilst Jo languished in jail Ruth decided to apply for custody of her son Franco, which split the Rossi family apart. However Ruth's plans fell apart when Jo was released from jail after it became apparent that it was Heather Bellshaw, the girlfriend of Marcus, who had killed him. Ruth became more and more erratic in her behaviour, convinced that Jo was a bad mother, and also pushed Gina down the stairs which led to her being in a coma.

After Ruth was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, Jo supported her sister and they reconciled. Jo then began working at Moda Vida and began a relationship with the co-owner Billy Davies. Their relationship was severely tested due to her jealousy over his friendships with other female residents of Sheildinch. Things didn't help when Jo became jealous over Ruth's sudden marriage to Marty Green, as she began comparing their relationship to hers with Billy.

As her romance with Billy looked set to fail Jo embarked on an affair with Luca Rossi, whom she believed was her half brother. However Luca soon left town and Jo discovered she was pregnant. She pretended that Billy was the father and they got engaged, but soon Luca returned to Sheildinch and her old feelings returned. Her feelings became even stronger when she discovered that Luca wasn't really her half brother, but when her stepfather Archie Buchanan sent him packing a second time she decided that she was content with the way things were. She then gave birth to her son Romeo and convinced Billy that he was his. However not long after Luca returned and asked Jo to come away with him. After a lot of thinking, Jo left Billy and revealed the sordid truth before making her exit with Luca, Franco and Romeo.

However in December 2007, Jo turned up at her grandfather's house with her two sons and was met by her shocked mother. She revealed that Luca had walked out on them, but she had made him pay first. She proceeded to make herself a nuisance to everyone and on Christmas Day she drunkenly confessed to the stunned Rossi family that Gina's mother-in-law Liz Buchanan had killed Archie, a secret which Gina had confided in her daughter. Along with her children she began living with Ruth and observed as Marty and Ruth's marriage slowly began to crumble. She made it clear that she didn't like Marty and after it was revealed that Marty had been unfaithful to Ruth and gave her syphilis, she decided to make him pay by bringing him to Sheildinch and informing him that Ruth was pregnant with their baby. Jo planned this so that Marty would be forced to pay up child allowance, but instead Marty was determined to stick around and be a father, much to the chagrin of Ruth. Ruth was then forced to lie that she had had an abortion in order to get Marty out of her life. Afterwards she threw Jo and her two nephews out of her flat.

Jo then began living with her grandfather, but proved to still be a nuisance to everyone around her. She would frequently leave her children with anyone who was available and when Malcolm saw that his granddaughter had not got better in time but had in fact got worse due to her obsession with money he had a heart-to-heart with her, telling her what she really thought of her. This made Jo sit up and pay attention, and she began thinking of others a lot more starting with Ruth.

Jo soon became involved in a family feud between her mother and her aunt Eileen Donachie, who was convinced that Gina's husband Archie (now under the persona of "Douglas") had not changed. Jo sided with Eileen and the result was that mother and daughter became estranged. They reconciled at Jimmy Mullen and Scarlett Adams's wedding reception on 20 June 2008, but only briefly as Jo got carried away and began making a fool of her mother over her decision to remain with Archie. Saddened by the rift between her and her mother, Jo then made a play for Ewan Murdoch and successfully seduced him. Ruth was disgusted by this, informing her sister it would only end in tears, but Jo was determined to prove her wrong. However much to the chagrin of Jo Ruth was proved right as Ewan told her that it was just a one-night stand and nothing more.

Family

*Father: Franco Rossi (deceased)
*Mother: Gina Buchanan
*Half sister: Ruth Green
*Sons: Franco Rossi Jr., Romeo Rossi
*Grandfather: Malcolm Hamilton
*Grandmother: Rose Hamilton (deceased)
*Aunt: Eileen Donachie
*Cousins: Brian Henderson, Kirsty Henderson (deceased)

ee also

* River City

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/tv/rivercity/characters/ River City Cast]