Rita Brannigan

Infobox Emmerdale character 2


name=Rita Brannigan
portrayer=Emma Kearney
years=2006, 2007
born=
death=
occupation=Life model
father=Jeff
mother=Sue
sisters=Sally

Rita Brannigan was a fictional character in the ITV1 soap opera "Emmerdale". She is played by Emma Kearney.

Character's background

Rita was first seen in late 2006 when she ran in to Marlon Dingle, Donna Windsor-Dingle, Paddy Kirk and Toni Daggert in a night club in Hotten. She recognised Marlon straight away but he couldn't place her, but it was Paddy who remembered her. It turned out that they met up before, much to annoyance of Paddy's love interest, Toni. Paddy spent time with Rita in the club but when he saw Toni get rejected he left Rita and went home with Toni.

Rita wasn't seen again until Paddy went to an art class and when he saw Rita he followed her. Much to the surprise of Paddy, Rita stripped down and started posing. After the class Paddy brought Rita for a drink in the Woolpack. Rita gave Paddy her number by writing it on his hand. But he foolishly didn't write it down and it got smudged, so he was unable to call her.

Eventually, Paddy went part to the art class and explained to Rita what happened with the number and she accepted it. They planned to meet up but a prank from the Dingles caused Paddy to get stuck in the middle of nowhere, but Rita came to the save. Paddy and Rita finally went out for a date but it nearly came to an abrubt end but Marlon's cab nearly hit Rita, only o be saved by Paddy.

From then on Rita wouldn't stop talking about her "superhero" Paddy and even told him that she had told her parents and that they wanted to meet him. Paddy started to get very sick of all the praise and Rita's parents, Jeff and Sue where just the same. Paddy snapped at a meal with the four of them which caused Sue to run to the bathroom crying, followed by Rita. Jeff made Paddy aware that Rita's sister, Sally, was killed eight months prior in a hit and run incident. Paddy felt terrible and tried to apologise but Rita wouldn't listen.

Soon after Paddy managed to win Rita back after posing nude as a model in one of her art classes, but soon after things went sour again after Paddy's veterinary partner Hari Prasard stole money from the company's accounts, Rita noticed this but thought of it as a mistake. When the vets started to lose trust in its patients Rita tried to cheer Paddy up by talking to budding journalist Jasmine Thomas, to see if she could advertise the place and make an article reassuring patients about it. However, Jasmine's boss, John McNally, wasn't pleased with the article and edited it to a story detailing the scandal caused by Hari, put also made it sound that Paddy was in on it. When Paddy found out he was furious and Rita was left worse off, once more she tried to make things better by trowing a party for him in the Woolpack, but once more Paddy was too upset to even begin enjoying himself.

Soon after Paddy made the decision to put all his energy into reviving his business and decided to put his relationship to the side until it was all sorted, leaving Rita gutted.