Inside Emmerdale’s Gillian Kearney’s life away from ITV soap after return – from forgotten soap roles to career change
GILLIAN Kearney made a surprise return to Emmerdale this week against all odds as part of a surprise twist.
Her character Emma Barton appeared to come back from the dead as part of the show’s explosive barn fire week.
However, in reality, it was a flashback from her previous stint on the programme from one of her many run-ins with Moira Dingle.
In the scenes, Moira was left perplexed and confused as a result of her then-undiagnosed brain tumour.
She mistook Ruby Fox-Milligan for Emma Barton and believed she was involved in another scary confrontation amid their bitter feud.
Fans know Moira previously killed Emma and let her son Adam take the blame for it, and amid her health battle, was left disturbed by thoughts of Emma.
Amid actress Gillian’s surprise on-screen appearance as Emma, the star has led a full life in the acting industry with a slew of forgotten roles and a surprise career switch-up.
Before making a name for herself as show legend Emma Barton, Gillian was best known for her role in the show Brookside.
The 42-year-old played the part of Debbie McGrath in Brookside starting in 1986.
Debbie became well known for her relationship with Damon Grant, played by Simon O’Brien.
The pairing became so successful on the Channel 4 soap opera that they were handed their own three-part spin-off series, titled Damon and Debbie.
Gillian eventually left her role after three years in 1989.
She spent the next decade picking up guest roles in a series of top TV hits including Heartbeat and Men of the World.
In the mid-2000s, Gillian bagged two more series regular roles that propelled her back into the glare of the spotlight.
In 2005 she kicked off a two-year role in Channel 4 show Shameless as Sue Garland.
She later left this role in order to join the BBC medical drama Casualty where she appeared as Jessica Harrison for a run of 93 episodes over two years.
CAREER SWITCH-UP
After leaving Emmerdale in 2017, Gillian opted to take her career in a different direction as she chose to say goodbye to the world of screen acting for a while.
Instead of being on-camera, she decided to turn her attention to the behind-the-scenes world of the TV industry.
She became a full-time director with her first full length series being the Channel 5 and 5Star prison drama Clink released in 2019.
She further went on to direct Moving On for the BBC in 2020.
Despite opting to focus on directing, Gillian did decide to take on her first acting role since Emmerdale at the start of the year.
She appeared in one episode of ITV‘s drama Vera where she played Deborah McSwain.