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Character Profiles > Annalise Hartman Kimberley Davies

Annalise Hartman was a pretty mixed up kid growing up, with only her scheming, money-grabbing mother Fiona as a role model. Fiona had always told Annalise that her father, Tony, had died but when she was 17, Annalise discovered that Fiona had lied and had actually walked out on Tony.

Annalise followed Fiona into hairdressing, regarding it as a glamorous profession. She was always obsessed with her looks and clothes, and was never seen without her make-up on. Fiona began to resent her daughter’s good looks as Annalise blossomed into a stunningly beautiful young woman, surpassing her ageing mum. By this stage, mother and daughter began to clash which led to Annalise moving out of home. Her friend Beth Brennan was lodging with Lou Carpenter at No.24 Ramsay Street and when Beth introduced him to Annalise, he quickly offered her a room there too. Annalise was immediately attracted to Lou’s money and Lou to Annalise’s beauty. It wasn’t long before they started seeing each other and despite disapproval from the neighbours due to the age gap (Lou had just turned 50), the couple became engaged. However, Lou was shocked when Fiona arrived on the doorstep of No.24 and announced Annalise was only 17 - Annalise had led Lou to believe she was 21. He called off the engagement, but agreed to let her continue living with him and Beth.

Fiona, meanwhile, persuaded Annalise to return to school and complete her HSC. Annalise reluctantly enrolled at Erinsborough High and clashed immediately with her maths and science teacher Wayne Duncan, who had turned down her advances some weeks before. She demonstrated a truly devious side to her character when she falsely accused Wayne of sexual harassment. It was only when it looked like he would lose his job that Annalise’s conscience got the better of her and she admitted to the principal that she had made it all up. The episode made Annalise realise that school simply wasn’t for her, and she packed it in to work as a chambermaid at Lassiter’s Hotel.

Annalise had settled well into Ramsay Street and became good friends with her neighbours, with the exception of Gaby Willis. Annalise and Gaby were constantly at loggerheads - Gaby saw Annalise as an airhead while Annalise thought Gaby had too high an opinion of herself. Relations were strained further when Annalise got a job as a barmaid at The Waterhole and Gaby became assistant manager of Lassiter’s - technically making her her boss.

After Fiona began seeing Jim Robinson, who also lived on Ramsay Street, Annalise had reservations about her mother getting her claws into such a nice man. Her fears proved to be well founded for when Jim had a fatal heart attack and died while at home with Fiona, instead of calling the paramedics, Fiona fled town with all of Jim’s money. Annalise was horrified by her mother’s behaviour, but rather than being ostracised by the community, Annalise found herself embraced and welcomed into the Robinson home by Jim’s elderly mother-in-law Helen Daniels. Helen proved to be a loyal and trusted friend to Annalise, and encouraged her in all her endeavours. Annalise in turn provided a lonely Helen with some much needed comfort and support in the weeks and months that followed Jim’s death. Indeed, it was Annalise who saw the signs when Helen became increasingly reliant on a drop of sherry to see her through the day, and Annalise helped Helen put a stop to it before it developed into a bigger problem. Also living at No.26 was Wayne Duncan, who was the son of Helen’s cousin. But like Helen, Wayne recognised that Annalise was a nice person who had simply been somewhat mixed up when she crossed swords with him in the past, and the two actually grew to become good friends.

When smooth talking Harvey Johnson started working as a chef at Lassiter’s, he tried his luck on with both Annalise and Beth. The two girls unknowingly went on various dates with Harvey over the course of a few weeks, before eventually discovering he had been stringing the two of them along, as well as trying his luck on with Sarah Lim and Debbie Martin too. Annalise and Beth finally got their revenge on Harvey by luring him to a suite at Lassiter’s and making him think they were going to take part in a threesome. Just as Harvey got out of the shower, they left the hotel and left him with the bill.

Annalise’s job at The Waterhole had been going fine until she smelled gas in the cellar one night and forgot to report it to the bar manager, Gaby’s brother Brad. Tragedy struck when, just as the pub was closing up that night, an explosion swept through it. Brad, Beth and Stephen Gottlieb lay trapped in the rubble, and although Brad and Beth escaped unharmed, Stephen ended up paralysed from the waist down. Racked with guilt, Annalise confessed to Lassiter’s boss Philip Martin that she had forgot to report the gas and he retaliated by sacking her.

Cathy Alessi took pity on Annalise and gave her a job in the Coffee Shop but her position was put in jeopardy when the food critic from the Erinsborough News tested her and she poured milkshake over him. However, her tolerance up to that point had convinced him that Annalise was good at her job and he wrote a favourable review in his column. Annalise soon began to love her job at the Coffee Shop and looked for all sorts of ways to drum up extra business. However, Gaby was furious when Annalise held a topless waiter service at the coffee shop on the same day that she was out to impress a conservative ladies group at the hotel. But Gaby couldn’t argue with Annalise when the women thought the promotion was a hoot and the Coffee Shop also upped its day’s takings by 50%.

When Lassiter’s new chef Mark Gottlieb arrived in town, Annalise and Gaby immediately clashed over who would get to date him. Gaby was first to snag a date with Mark, but when a business meeting meant she had to cancel, Annalise invited him back to No.26 to cook a meal for her instead. As Mark attempted to teach her French, Annalise came on to him and they shared a passionate kiss. Although Mark was attracted to Annalise, he also felt something towards Gaby and struggled to work out which of the two he should date. He ended up inviting them both out for meal, but cleverly arrived late so the girls would have no option but to talk to each other. But as soon as Mark showed up, their bitchiness toward one another returned. Further competition for Mark’s affections occurred when Helen’s granddaughter Lucy returned to Erinsborough for Helen’s birthday and left Mark with little doubt that she liked him. Annalise was furious when she heard Mark was taking Lucy out on a date but her mood improved when Lucy’s agent, David Kazalian, arrived from Singapore and revealed that as well as being Lucy’s agent, he was also her husband. Annalise took great pleasure in bringing David to the pub to interrupt Lucy and Mark’s date.

Annalise was thrilled when she landed a job with Jim Robinson’s former stockbroker Jeffrey Hockney, because she found working at the Coffee Shop tough since Cathy installed her son Rick as manager. Jeffrey welcomed Annalise to the firm by taking her out to dinner, and before long, they started seeing each other. It wasn’t long before Annalise started getting hassled at work for sleeping with the boss. Initially she put it down to jealousy by her colleague Shannon, but she was shocked when Shannon revealed Jeffrey was engaged. Shannon went further by telling Jeffrey’s fiancé Lindy Chatsworth about his affair with Annalise and Lindy told Jeffrey to either sack Annalise from the firm or their engagement was off. Jeffrey deviously told Annalise that he had finished with Lindy, but offered her the choice of continuing her relationship with him or staying at the firm on a purely professional level. Expecting her to give up her job, Jeffrey was surprised when Annalise announced that her career came first and that she would stay on at the firm.

A few weeks passed until Jeffrey invited Annalise out to dinner. She turned down the offer, and Mark was proud of her for sticking to the rule set by Hockney. But she was forced to join Jeffrey for a business dinner at Lassiter’s with an associate and his wife that night. However, it soon became evident to Annalise that Jeffrey had invented the whole story when the others failed to show for the meal and she confronted him. Jeffrey admitted that he was wrong to enforce the rule about them not dating but was interrupted by Mark bringing the deserts. Thinking Annalise had lied to him earlier about turning down Hockney’s invitation, Mark let the desert slip out of his hand and into Jeffrey’s lap. Disgusted with Mark for interfering in her business, Annalise left the hotel with Jeffrey. Back at Jeffrey’s apartment, Annalise and Jeffrey agreed to forget the rule about having only a professional relationship and slept together. But Annalise soon realised she had made a horrible mistake when a few days later, she called over to the apartment to find Jeffrey in bed with Lindy. Jeffrey followed Annalise to The Waterhole to explain that he had only started seeing Lindy again for the sake of the business. Unsure of whether to trust him, Annalise went round to No.30 to ask Beth for advice but with Beth asleep in bed, Mark lent her a shoulder to cry on instead. After deciding to finish with Hockney, Annalise slept with Mark but the next morning told him it had been a mistake and that they should just be friends. When she got to work, Annalise told Jeffrey their relationship was over and handed in one month’s notice. Disgusted, Jeffrey told a security guard to escort Annalise out of the building, telling her she could finish work immediately.

Annalise returned to work at The Waterhole in the wake of her disastrous foray into the world of stock broking, but it soon became clear she was deeply troubled over the way things had turned out with Jeffrey and her treatment of Mark. Annalise admitted to Brad that she felt she was only back in The Waterhole for her blonde looks and decided to flirt with the customers because she felt that was what she was there for. However, Mark was disgusted by her actions when he had to watch her flirt with a sleazy salesman in the bar one evening. Another night she deliberately stayed behind after closing to have a drink with a punter, much to the annoyance of Mark. Events came to a head when Mark and Brad stepped in to defend Annalise against two sleazy blokes she and Lauren Carpenter had met for a few drinks. Annalise was well able to protect herself and she was angry with Mark for thinking she couldn’t look after herself. He left the pub deflated and Annalise finally realised just how badly she had been treating him of late. She called around to No.30 to apologise to but he refused to let her in. It was only when Annalise blurted out on the doorstep that she was in love with him that Mark came out and admitted he loved her too, their profession of love waking up the whole street in the process too. Very quickly, Annalise moved into No.30 with Mark, and the couple were joined by Rick Alessi, who walked straight into an argument between the two over Annalise’s decision to enter a beauty contest. Rick became good friends with Annalise and Mark and often had to act as mediator in the hot tempered couple’s all-too frequent bust-ups.

Anxious to find out what the future held in store for her and Mark, Annalise arranged a session with the famed Erinsborough astrologer Madame Zolgar after hearing about her from Helen. But Annalise was shocked when Madame Zolgar revealed that a red-haired girl from Mark’s past would try to take him away from her. And Annalise was convinced the astrologer’s predictions had come true when she saw Mark that same night kissing a red-haired woman goodbye outside No.30. When Annalise confronted Mark, she felt foolish when he revealed that the girl had simply been his cousin, Bernadette, who had come to offer him a job in Sydney.

Annalise had mixed feelings when she had a call from a country hospital telling her that her mother had been seriously injured in a car crash. Mark immediately prepared to take her to the hospital but Annalise told him she didn’t want to go. Ironically, it was Helen who convinced Annalise to visit Fiona and use the accident as an opportunity to heal the rift with her. But just as Annalise had decided to go and see Fiona, word reached her that she had died. Annalise deeply regretted not going to visit Fiona in time to make her peace with her. Helen brought her to pick up Fiona’s things at the hospital and Annalise was upset when she found a letter written to her by Fiona apologising for all her past actions. However, there was light at the end of the tunnel for Annalise when Luke Foster, the mysterious man Fiona was with when the accident happened, turned up in Erinsborough and revealed himself to be Annalise’s half-brother, the product of a relationship Fiona had had before marrying. Vulnerable after her mother’s death, Annalise welcomed Luke into her life and affections without question. But Mark was suspicious of him from the start, especially when Luke voiced his shock at Annalise’s decision to give all of the money left behind by Fiona to the Robinsons. After investigating Luke’s past, Mark discovered that he was a con artist who had been trying to scam Fiona out of her money before her death by posing as a potential beau. Annalise took some convincing, but Mark proved it all to her by bringing Lorraine Foster, a woman whose surname Luke had adopted in order to con her out of her divorce settlement, to Ramsay Street to tell all. Luke was arrested, leaving a devastated Annalise behind.

That Christmas, Annalise found a shoulder to cry on in the unlikely form of Gaby. Gaby had been equally down in the dumps over the holidays due to her cheating boyfriend Jack Flynn, who she had met while taking flying lessons. Annalise suggested Gaby take her for a flight to cheer them both up but disaster struck when Gaby was forced to make a crash landing. Although they survived the crash, they were stranded in the country bush for hours until they were eventually saved by a helicopter on patrol. While a traumatic ordeal, the whole experience brought Annalise and Gaby closer and their years of feuding and fighting were finally put to rest.

Annalise was slightly uncomfortable when Tim, a regular punter at The Waterhole, began sending her letters and gifts. However, things took a more sinister turn when he declared his love for her and held her hostage in the cellar at The Waterhole. Mark realised something was wrong when she was late coming home from work and he headed down to Lassiter’s to see where she was. After noticing the pub hadn’t been locked up, he realised Annalise was missing and eventually found her in the cellar with Tim. Tim tried to get away when Mark appeared but he managed to stop him just before the police arrived.

The ordeal prompted Mark to plead with Annalise to quit and find something else to do. But he was shocked when Annalise suggested she and Mark take over the lease at the Coffee Shop and work together as partners. Mark was uneasy about the idea because he didn’t want to go from being head chef at a major hotel restaurant to cooking for a small coffee shop. But after he gave the idea some more thought, Mark agreed to help Annalise prepare the menus for the Coffee Shop as well as work at Lassiter’s. Annalise and Mark went on to increase profits at the Coffee Shop by introducing a ‘Recession Menu’. The cheap menu was such a success the Erinsborough News even did a story on it, although Annalise was disgusted when Mark’s picture was used instead of hers and the story described him as being the man behind the new menu. However, as business improved, Annalise began to believe her own hype and started treating the staff badly. Her firm approach failed to pay off and Lauren and Kristy both walked out on her due to her heavy-handed ways. Annalise was forced to eat humble pie and increase the girls wages before they agreed to return to work.

Shortly after Mark came up with the idea of making the world’s longest sausage roll to raise money for the Paralympics, he began receiving phone calls from a mystery admirer called ‘KT’, causing intense jealousy for Annalise. But Mark soon discovered that ‘KT’ was actually Katerina Torelli, a paraplegic who had been impressed with his fundraising for the Paralympics and had hunted him down to see if he would work with her on some more fundraising ideas. However, Katerina developed something of a fatal attraction for Mark and did everything she could to come between him and Annalise. Katerina finally had her chance when Annalise went to visit Mark’s parents on their farm in the countryside and she called over to No.30 and kissed Mark. When Annalise returned from the farm, Katerina claimed she and Mark were in love with each other and were destined to be together. Annalise then insisted the only way for them to break free from Katerina’s obsessive behaviour would be to stay on Mark's parents’ farm for a while. Although that rid them of Katerina, the trip home to the commune was a poignant one for Mark as his mother was dying of cancer and he had to nurse her through her final days. Mark was grateful for Annalise’s presence at his darkest hour, and by the time his mum passed away, he and Annalise had become closer than ever.

Mark’s hippy father Dave came to stay in the weeks after his wife’s death, and it was around this time that Annalise started to develop an interest in poetry. When Dave read some of Annalise’s poems, he was so impressed with them; he introduced Annalise to an editor friend of his, Elliot Patterson. Annalise was thrilled when Elliot told her that her poetry had good potential and asked her if she’d be interested in having her poems published in a small anthology. As Annalise spent a lot of time with Elliot working on her book, Mark started to become jealous. Annalise, in turn, became jealous when Mark began spending time with the heavily pregnant Gaby. Her jealousy climaxed at her first poetry reading when she read out a bitter, twisted poem about the dark side of pregnancy directed towards Gaby. After realising the upset she had caused Gaby, Annalise ran out of the pub in tears, her relationship with Mark in serious strife.

The pair agreed to a trial separation but the physical attraction between the two got the better of them and they had sex. Annalise moved back into No.30, but was appalled when Mark suggested they have a baby to strengthen their relationship. Annalise told Mark that she couldn’t have his baby because she was too young and wanted to concentrate on her career before having kids. But Mark took the news badly and started to consider an offer from Dave to join him touring Australia. Travel was beckoning for Annalise too, as her book of poetry was about to be published in England and Elliot wanted her to go there for a book tour lasting several weeks. With their relationship apparently irrevocably damaged, Annalise and Mark decided to call it a day.

They tried to continue living together, but it quickly became clear that it wouldn’t work out. Since the lease to No.30 was in Mark’s name, it fell to Annalise to move out. She initially planned to move in with Susie Quilty, who she had worked with at The Waterhole, but Susie’s boyfriend moved in instead. Helen’s house was full up again with various Robinsons and Martins, and Lou had moved in with Cheryl Stark and her family at No.22. Eventually, kindly Marlene Kratz, who had recently bought No.24, offered to let Annalise stay in the spare room and her hunky biker grandson Sam was thrilled with the latest addition to the house. An attraction was instantly present between Annalise and Sam, and they became closer when Lou and Cheryl asked them to be godparents to their newborn daughter Louise. They finally succumbed to their passion when Annalise got word that her book tour in England was due to start and as Sam congratulated her with a hug and kiss on the cheek, they ended up kissing.

However, Annalise put any thoughts of romantic entanglements behind her as she left Erinsborough for her book tour. Upon her return a few months later, Annalise found herself drawn to Mark once again and they stunned the neighbourhood, not to mention Sam, by getting back together.

When the couple took part in a Charity Bash drive in the Northern Territory, they took a swim in a deserted lake where Annalise was thrilled by a marriage proposal from Mark. She quickly accepted and the couple returned to Erinsborough to begin planning their wedding. Always one for thinking of her appearance, Annalise was determined to have a wedding worthy of a photo spread in a glossy fashion magazine. Mark, on the other hand, was more interested in his deepening devotion to the Catholic Church and as the day of the wedding approached, he found himself wondering if he had chosen the right path in life. But such massive preparations had gone into the wedding that there was no way he could back out. It was only when the big day arrived and Annalise was making her way up the aisle flanked by her bridesmaids, Kristy, Mark's sister Serendipity and Susie, that Mark realised he couldn't go through with it. A stunned and humiliated Annalise listened in horror as Mark told her in front of the entire congregation that he had decided to become a priest.

Sam was on hand to offer Annalise a shoulder to cry on in the wake of the ordeal, and as the weeks passed, he confessed his love for her. Annalise struggled to come to terms with the revelation but just as she was coming to accept that she had feelings for him too, bumbling Marlene let slip to Annalise that teen tearaway Squirrel was claiming to be carrying Sam’s child. This led to Annalise reconsidering her feelings for Sam, but she realised it was all a lie when Sam's cousin Danni Stark told Annalise that Squirrel had admitted to her Sam wasn’t the father. Annalise then persuaded Squirrel to own up to Sam, pointing out that Sam was never going to want to be with her except for the fact that he believed she was carrying his baby.

But still the path to true love with Sam wasn’t about to run smoothly for Annalise. Mark had come to realise that he was still attracted to her, despite his devotion to the church and he worked out a way to merge the two great loves of his life. But Annalise was stunned when Mark announced to her that he had decided to become a lay preacher instead of a priest so that he could still marry her and devote his life to the church. Baffled by Mark’s idea, Annalise told him she needed time to digest what he was proposing but Mark immediately set about telling the neighbourhood that the wedding was back on. Annalise was furious with Mark for just presuming that she was going to marry him again, and she was forced to admit to him that as well as having no intention of marrying him, she also no longer had any feelings for him.

Further drama followed for Annalise when Susan Kennedy noticed a mole on Annalise’s shoulder and urged her to get it checked out. She was stunned to be told that it was suspected melanoma, and had to wait for biopsy results to return. During the agonising wait, Helen was on hand to offer words of encouragement but the shocking news awaited Annalise a few days later that the mole had been malignant and she would have to go into hospital for further tests. Luckily, there was no need for any further treatment but the brush with death had made Annalise realise life was too short and she made plans to travel overseas. Sam was shocked by her decision because it had finally started to look like they had a future together, but he was comforted somewhat by her assurance that she’d be back - for him.

Sam was thrilled when Annalise returned earlier than expected, and was delighted when she booked a hotel room for them to be alone in. Although things got off to an awkward start, the couple finally had sex and Annalise announced that she was postponing the rest of her travels to give their relationship a go. She moved back in with Sam and Marlene at No.24, although this time to share a room with Sam. The couple’s bliss was interrupted slightly by a pregnancy scare but it proved to be a false alarm.

Annalise’s formerly devious side resurfaced when Erinsborough Community Radio announced a literary competition in which entrants could win a car by writing a poem about what Erinsborough meant to them. After struggling to come up with a decent entry, temptation was placed in Annalise’s lap when she gave a poetry lecture at Erinsborough High School and several students gave her their entries to the competition to look over. When she read a sure winner by one of the students, Annalise considered not entering it so that her chances of success in the competition wouldn’t be ruined. But when Sam realised what she was thinking of doing, Annalise was made to feel guilty by him for even thinking of being so cruel. A tension erupted between the pair, leading right up to Sam’s birthday but Annalise made a peace offering by reciting a poem she had written specially for Sam about her love for him.

Meanwhile, Annalise’s itchy feet got the better of her once again and she made plans to sell her lease of the Coffee Shop on to Mark and depart Erinsborough once again for a trip overseas. Although Sam was desperate for her not to go, Annalise wasn’t for turning. But fate stepped in and Annalise’s presence in Ramsay Street was assured for a lot longer with the arrival of a mysterious girl on her doorstep just as she was leaving claiming to be Joanna - her half-sister. Joanna was the product of Annalise’s father’s second marriage and she had finally managed to track down Annalise after many years of trying. It took Annalise some time to accept this girl’s story, especially after the Luke Foster ordeal. But once Annalise was satisfied that Joanna was telling the truth, she was thrilled to suddenly have her very own sister.

Joanna soon persuaded Annalise to call their father, but when Jo got him on the phone, Annalise’s nerves got the better of her, and she backed out. However, a week later Tony was in town to perform at a club in Elliot Park and Annalise finally got to meet him. But she was shocked when she realised her father was actually a drag queen who used the stage name of Tarquin Sequin, and she found it hard to bond with him after the show as she struggled to come to terms with the situation. A further strain was put on their relationship when Tony decided to incorporate the words of one of Annalise’s poems into his act when he performed at Chez Chez. Annalise felt humiliated and embarrassed when Tony opted to perform it in a tongue in cheek manner, and as the pub erupted in laughter, Annalise stormed out in tears. The bond between father and daughter seemed severely damaged as Tony and Joanna left town for a few days to take the tour up the coast, with Annalise telling him she might have been better not knowing him and Tony telling Annalise to think very hard about her attitude while he was away.

But the time apart gave Annalise a chance to realise how lucky she was to have her father come into her life after all this time and she apologised to him for the things she had said. And she was deeply touched when Tony presented her with a savings book for an account he had set up for her when Fiona left him and in which he had continued to lodge money into in the intervening years in the hope of one day being reunited with her. Annalise was stunned when she opened the book to find that the account was now worth $10,000.

Annalise put the money towards setting up her own PR business with Joanna called ‘AnnaJo Promotions’, and they leased an office at Lassiter’s. But their excitement at securing their first client abated when they received a visit from the police informing them that he was a con artist and they wanted the sister’s help in catching him out. With proper clients few and far between, Annalise was glad at the chance of earning some extra cash by tutoring Stonefish Rebecchi in English for his third attempt at passing the HSC. But what started out as an innocent arrangement between two neighbours turned into a sequence of events which would have a devastating effect on Annalise and Sam’s relationship.

As they spent more and more time studying together, Stonie started to develop feelings for Annalise. She was unaware of this until one afternoon when they studied at No.24 and shared a passionate kiss. But Annalise made it clear to Stonie afterwards that it had been a huge mistake and nothing more could come of it. However, when Stonie was diagnosed with glandular fever, he had to alert Annalise, as the disease was contagious through kissing. Annalise was then forced to avoid intimate contact with Sam for a time for fear of passing it on to him - and this led to Sam fearing that Annalise was going cold on him. Once Stonie had been given the all clear, Annalise was able to reinitiate physical contact with Sam and things seemed back on track. That was, until Stonie’s exam results came in and he got an A in his English paper. Although Annalise had been uncomfortable by Stonie’s presentation of a tape with a song he had recorded for her on it, she couldn’t deny feeling proud of his achievement in the HSC and was on hand to congratulate him. But once inside Stonie's house, the couple were overcome with the sexual tension between them, and they had sex. However, Stonie’s mum Angie and then, Sam interrupted them - and Annalise was hit with the realisation that she had seriously jeopardised her relationship with Sam.

Despite pleas for Sam to forgive her and her desperate assurances that it had been a once-off with Stonie, there was no going back for the pair, and even Marlene made it clear to Annalise that she was no longer welcome in the Kratz household. Annalise and Jo were forced to book themselves into a hotel while they worked out what to do next, but Annalise couldn’t think about the future and was consumed with regret at losing Sam. Matters were complicated further when Stonie turned up at the hotel to tell Annalise he loved her. But she stressed to Stonie that she didn’t love him and referred to what had happened between them as cheap and meaningless. A devastated Stonie persisted with Annalise but she demanded he leave. However, before he could go, there was another knock at the door, and Annalise was shocked to find Sam on her doorstep, evidently ready to give her a second chance. Stonie immediately scrambled to hide behind the breakfast bar in the room, but when Sam came inside, he quickly realised that Annalise wasn’t alone, and when he saw Stonie, he was convinced they were at it again. Despite Annalise and Stonie both assuring him they weren’t doing anything, Sam flew into a rage and after lashing out at Stonie stormed off.

Annalise eventually managed to assure Sam that Stonie had just called over to the hotel to speak to her and nothing had been going on. Sam accepted Annalise’s explanation, but still couldn’t fathom why she had cheated on him in the first place. Annalise explained to Sam that it had been nothing more than a one night stand, but when she also admitted that she and Stonefish had been experiencing feelings for each other for a while, Sam hit the roof at the realisation that all this had been going on throughout the tutoring sessions. With no way back, Sam told Annalise that their relationship was over and Annalise responded by making plans to leave Erinsborough and move to London.

Jo desperately tried to persuade Annalise to stay, but Annalise insisted it was the best possible thing for her at that stage. Even making her peace with Marlene didn’t help change Annalise’s mind, and it was Helen’s support that made Annalise see that she had made the right decision, as Helen was delighted that she was heading off to see more of the world. Helen also set Annalise’s mind at rest by agreeing to keep an eye out for Jo and Annalise thanked Helen for always being there for her over the years.

When Sam learnt of Annalise’s plans on the same day she was due to fly to London, he chased after her on his motorbike to the airport. He managed to catch up with Annalise at a gas station, where he proclaimed his love for her and begged her to stay. But although Annalise insisted she still loved Sam too and was hugely relieved by this last minute assurance that all was not lost between them, she knew it would be best for them to spend some time apart after everything that had happened, and pressed ahead with her decision to leave. The couple were finally reunited a few months later when Annalise had settled in London and invited Sam to join her there for a fresh start.

They were married five years later and Annalise took another career move when she ventured into the world of television. She landed a job with the BBC and in 2005, was approached to make a pilot for a new documentary series about small communities. Annalise immediately chose to focus on Ramsay Street, given the fact that she once lived there herself and knew only too well how close knit the community was. Having done a lot of work on the documentary, Annalise put the finishing touches to it by returning to Erinsborough to meet up with old friends and some of the newer inhabitants of Ramsay Street. Her first port of call was the Coffee Shop, which was now The General Store, and owned by her old flame, Lou and his best mate Harold Bishop. Lou was stunned to see Annalise back in town and got the bizarre idea that she had come back to rekindle their romance. As a result, he hid from her for the first two days she was in town until Annalise finally cornered him in the pub and put paid to his fears by revealing she was now married to Sam.

Meanwhile, the residents grew increasingly suspicious of Annalise's motives when she took to asking a lot of hard questions in the one-on-one interviews she was conducting for the documentary. And they were further intrigued when more blasts from the past, such as Doug Willis, Philip Martin and Lucy Robinson, started arriving for the screening of the film. But all was revealed when Annalise gathered everybody together in the pub to watch the rough cut of the documentary and realised that Annalise had put together a wonderfully affectionate film about Ramsay Street, featuring tributes and recollections from many of the people who had lived in it through the years. Afterwards, everyone thanked Annalise for the memories she had provided them with, and raised their glasses in a toast to all the neighbours.

Trivia Notes
• Annalise loved Madonna and the Pet Shop Boys

Tenure
1830-2538, 4769-4773

Magic Moments
Episode 2290: Mark and Annalise's Wedding
Episode 2538: Annalise's Departure
Episode 4769: Annalise's Return

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