Rita

Rita is part of the Briggs household, a working-class Bolton family at the centre of this children's sitcom. She moves through the ordinary friction of home life — squabbles, teasing, the small territorial disputes of siblings sharing space — with the brisk, unimpressed manner of someone used to holding her own.

Sue Devaney plays her with the kind of deadpan exasperation that made 1980s family sitcoms feel lived-in rather than written. Rita never has to carry the plot to be memorable; she's convincing as an actual sister, quick with a look or a line that punctures whatever nonsense Jonny has started.