MMA Rigby has shaken off the shackles of teen soap Hollyoaks with a strong performance in the BBC’s new drama Prisoner’s Wives that earned praise from critics.
The 22-year-old former De La Salle pupil plays the role of Gemma, the pregnant wife of a man arrested on suspicion of murder, who is forced to come to terms with the impact on her life.
It was a marked change from her role as Hannah Ashworth in Hollyoaks, for which she won a British Soap Award in 2008.
She succeeded in winning over the majority of critics. The Daily Telegraph said: “Rigby, whose previous credits stretched to a long stint in Hollyoaks, played Gemma with an appealing mixture of distress and defiance. Her face is almost aggressively open, always on the verge of tears but also capable of putting up a front.”
Mike Ward, writing in The Daily Star said Emma put on an “impressive performance”.
Online Emma’ s performance also attracted positive reviews.
Best British TV.com said: “The real star of Prisoners’ Wives was Emma Rigby. She plays the naive, innocent and perhaps ultimately tragic Gemma.
“Unlike the other wives, Gemma genuinely believes that her husband is innocent. Worse still, she can’t even share her problems with her foster mother because the woman in question has such a high regard for her that revelations about her husband’s arrest could have a devastating impact on the psyche of the foster mom.”
Source: St Helen’s Star.