Pat Kerrigan
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Pat Kerrigan was a fictional character in the drama Bad Girls, produced by Shed Productions and airing on the ITV network in the UK from 1999 to 2006. She was played by British actress Liz May Brice and first appeared on UK TV screens in Series 7 (2005). She was serving life for murdering a man who is sometimes referred to as having been her boyfriend and sometimes referred to as having been her ex-boyfriend.
[edit] History
Series 7
Pat first appears briefly at the end of Series 7, Episode 5. We learn in a short scene that the transfer she has requested from her current prison to Larkhall has been approved, and that the staff at the facility at which she is presently held will be very glad to see the back of her.
In Series 7, Episode 6, we learn of Pat's crime. She has killed her ex-boyfriend by stabbing him in the genitals. Pat claims that he had been physically abusive to her and attempts she made to seek help only lead to her being labelled depressed.
Shortly after arriving on G Wing, Pat sets about attacking and then taking hostage one of the prisoners - nun Sister Thomas More (Colette O'Neil). At first, it seems as if Pat is living up to her reputation as a serious troublemaker, but it soon becomes clear that Pat has good reason to hate the nun. Pat grew up in a children's home run by, amongst others, Sister Thomas and a priest, Father Kelly (Peter Ellis), and they maintained a depraved regime of child sexual abuse as well as (at least on the part of Sister Thomas) physical violence. Pat's good friend at the home killed herself and Pat has been waiting twenty years to take revenge; she deliberately got herself transferred to Larkhall after by chance seeing a picture of the nun in an inter-prison newspaper and realising she was held there.
Pat suffers minimal punishment for her behaviour once the truth comes out about the Sister and the children's home. She is put on segregation but returns to a hero's welcome from her fellow prisoners, except self-appointed G Wing Top Dog, Natalie Buxton (Dannielle Brent). There is clearly tension between the two women. In Series 7, Episode 6, Pat manages to appropriate Buxton's lunch within a couple of minutes of stepping on the wing. Buxton clearly resents any implication that Pat is tougher than her and when in Series 7, Episode 7, Pat steps in to head off the relentless bullying of transsexual inmate Arun Parmar (Rebecca Hazlewood) by Natalie and her gang, the stage is set for Buxton and Kerrigan to come to blows.
Buxton and Kerrigan fight in the prison gym. Buxton initially has the better of the encounter, but Kerrigan finally manages to emerge victorious. As agreed, Buxton and her cronies are forced to withdraw their demands that Arun be dispatched from G Wing. Arun is grateful to Pat and begins to show more than just a friendly interest in her.
Jim Fenner (Jack Ellis), the G-wing governor, gives Pat a friendly "welcome chat" and makes it clear he will not put up with anyone who thinks they are smarter than he is. He gives Pat a job in the prison gardens, but this is largely because there is a fresh consignment of manure to be dealt with.
In Series 7, Episode 8, Kerrigan meets a new inmate on G Wing, Sheena Williams (Laura Rogers). There is an instant attraction between them when Pat picks up a toy rabbit that Sheena has dropped; it belongs to Sheena's baby son, Dylan. Sheena is a former drug addict and a single mother. She has recently been transferred from the prison's mother and baby unit as Dylan is now, at nine months, too old to stay with her behind bars; due to various machinations by a prison officer, Di Barker (Tracey Wilkinson), Sheena hands over Dylan to Di and her husband, Jim Fenner, so they can care for him.
Meanwhile, Arun has developed a serious crush on Pat and tries to tell her how she feels. However, Pat makes it clear that she does not want any kind of a romantic relationship with Arun, claiming that she would prefer to stay single altogether. She tells Arun she "doesn't do relationships", neither with men nor women.
By Series 7, Episode 9, Jim Fenner has had words with the governor of the prison in order to have Sheena Williams released early, as he does not particularly want to play happy families with Sheena's son Dylan. He reasons that if Sheena is set free, she will want her son back. Di, however, sabotages Sheena's release by managing to spike Sheena's tea with methadone, so that it appears that Sheena is hooked on drugs again.
Pat is suspicious of Di's motives and decides to intervene regarding Dylan. She arranges for a friend of hers on the outside, Colette, to care for Dylan instead of Di. Arun notices Pat's interest in Sheena and mentions this to Pat, much to Pat's chagrin. Pat insists she is only trying to help Sheena sort out arrangements for the care of her baby.
In Series 7, Episode 10, there is clearly a growning attraction between Pat and Sheena. Pat tries to push Sheena away and the pair have a near-kiss in the shed in the prison grounds. Sheena tries to tell Pat not to be a coward and to admit her feelings. Pat declares, to Sheena's surprise, that she not only very much likes Sheena, but thinks she might be in love with her. They eventually kiss on the way to the "Hanging Cell", the dark and dingy part of Larkhall where prisoner Yvonne Atkins died a year earlier (according to the series' internal chronology), and shortly afterwards hold hands at Yvonne's remembrance service.
In the meantime, two inmates - Julie J and Julie S (Kika Mirylees and Victoria Acock)- are planning to bump off evil prison officer Jim Fenner. Fenner dies at the end of Episode 10.
In Episode 11, Pat is a suspect for Fenner's killing, largely because of a bloodied, sharpened garden cane that is found in the sleeve of her jacket. However, the blood is Pat's, not Fenner's. By the end of Episode 11, Di is in the frame for killing her husband (though we later learn she is apparently innocent). Meanwhile, Pat seems to be pushing Sheena away again. The plans for Sheena's early release have been put back in motion and Pat appears wary of getting too seriously involved with someone who is shortly to be set free. When Pat has a run-in with the new prison governor, Joy Masterton (Ellie Haddington), Sheena tries to encourage Pat to keep a low profile, but Pat is dismissive of Sheena's advice.
In Series 7, Episode 12, Masterton decides that a new system will be introduced for the sharing of cells. Those shortly to be released will be put in with those serving longer sentences. In this way, Sheena ends up sharing Pat's cell, but for one night only - she is due for release in the morning.
Meanwhile, Pat has been getting on with the serious business of dealing with Buxton. It has always irritated Pat that the women have been willing to accept a "nonce" as the Wing Top Dog, though Buxton has always insisted that she was wrongly convicted and is not really a "nonce" at all. With the help of corrupt prison officer Kevin Spiers (Andrew Scarborough), Pat manages to set up Buxton - Natalie is recorded on tape stating that she doesn't care about the women she used to get the money she made, nor does she care that a number of the women were underage and very young indeed. Kerrigan plays this tape back for the entire wing to hear, and Buxton is labelled a "nonce" by the prisoners, and locked up for her own protection.
That evening, Pat and Sheena share a cell, but Pat is initially cold towards Sheena. Eventually, she softens and the pair kiss before sleeping together. In the morning, Pat is cold once more. Sheena is being released and claims she will wait for Pat until Pat herself gets out, but Pat scoffs at this as she has around fifteen more years to serve; Pat suggests Sheena will have forgotten about this in as little as fifteen weeks.
Pat is dejected as Sheena leaves and Buxton shouts from her cell that she will have her revenge on Pat; she threatens to have Sheena killed on the outside.
Sheena, however, is back behind bars before too long when her ex-boyfriend, seemingly annoyed by the fact Sheena is now "clean" and free of her drug habit, plants drugs on her. Colette, the woman caring for Dylan and with whom Sheena is staying, calls the police and Sheena is hauled back to G Wing - and back into Pat's cell.
Christmas Special
At Christmas, Pat and Sheena continue to share a cell. Sheena enters into the Christmas spirit, but Pat is unwilling to join in, though she relents somewhat. Sheena suggests that she and Pat formally register their relationship as a civil partnership and that Pat become formal guardian to Dylan and Pat agrees.
Series 8
By the beginning of Series 8, Sheena has disappeared. She eventually receives a mention in Episode 5 of the series when she fails to visit Pat for what Pat says is the third time. It seems she has decided to move on. Meanwhile, Pat's rivalry with Buxton has developed and Pat appears to have developed an attraction for the new deputy governor of the prison, Lou Stoke (Amanda Donohoe).
In Episode 6 Pat Killed fellow inmate Natalie Buxton with a blow to the head. She was then faced with the problem of how to dispose of the body. Initially stashing it in a shed by the bins (where she'd killed Natalie), she then moved it to the freezer. However, the Julies discovered it and then ended up working with Pat to try and dispose of it for good. They moved the body to the servery for a time, but it started to thaw out and leak water over the floor (which the Julies hurriedly explained away as Pat having accidentally spilt a jug of water on the floor). Pat eventually managed to then move the corpse to the laundry room (now concealed in black sacks) and shove it in a washing machine, putting an "Out of order" sign on the door so no-one would open it. After a close call with a maintenance man coming to fix the "broken" washing machine, the Julies and Pat eventually managed to shove Natalie's body down a manhole, where it floated away.
[edit] Facts and points of interest
- We know very little about Pat's family and no relatives have been mentioned on-screen. She was raised in a Catholic children's home.
- Pat is short for "Patricia", and this is the name the nun Sister Thomas uses to refer to Pat.
- Between Series 7 and 8, Pat seems to undergo something of a makeover, with a new, more feminine haircut, makeup and a new wardrobe evident in Series 8, Episode 1.
