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Character Profiles > Anne Wilkinson Brooke Satchwell

Anne Wilkinson (née Hails) 1996-2000
Lived: 26, 32 Ramsay Street
Born: 1981
Parents: Bill Hails and Ruth Wilkinson
Siblings: Ben and Lance
Children: Jackson, "Twin 1" and "Twin 2"
Family Tree: Wilkinson
Occupation: Student, Artist, Waitress

Anne was never the coolest of teenagers, preferring to get involved in school politics rather than go out clubbing. She always spoke her mind and had a courageous, but often irritating, tendency to always take the high moral ground. After her parents, Ruth and Bill, split up, Anne went to stay with her father. However, she had difficulty with her father’s new girlfriend and so went to stay with her mum and brother, Lance, who had recently moved to a new home at no. 32 Ramsay Street.

Anne had little trouble settling at her new home and soon made friends with the younger members of the street. However, one neighbour with whom she wanted more than friendship was Billy Kennedy. After getting close to Billy at various stages, neither of them would admit that they liked each other. Billy’s attempts to impress Anne ended in disaster when new neighbour Vince lent him a video to watch with Anne. When it turned out to be soft porn, Anne was disgusted and wouldn’t accept Billy’s pleas of innocence. However, after being set up by Lance and Toadie at the Ramsay Street Christmas party, they began seeing each other in a whole new light. However, the arrival of Anne’s ex, Justin Black, put a big spanner in the works. Justin and Billy began competing for Anne’s attention, something which did little to impress her. Although Anne and Justin did share a kiss, after the holidays, Justin gave up and went back home, leaving Billy to make his move.

After finally getting together, the young couple found themselves banned from seeing each other when Anne was caught forging notes at school. Things got complicated once again when the mysterious Ben Atkins arrived in town. Anne was mesmerised by this older man who seemed strangely interested in her family. Her crush caused serious problems with Billy and the couple decided to take a break from each other. When Anne finally decided to admit her true feelings to Ben, she was in for a huge shock – he admitted that he was her half-brother! This sent Anne’s head spinning – she was angry at her mum, at Ben and at herself. Seeing the pain she was going through, Billy offered her a shoulder to cry on and the couple managed to work things out.

Having eventually accepted Ben as her brother, Anne wasn’t exactly thrilled when Ruth suggested a camping trip with the Martin family, as she had started seeing Phil. Upon their return, the family didn’t realise that they had brought back a venomous snake. After a few sightings, Anne was confronted by the snake one day in the house, Lance made a valiant attempt to save her, but ended up bitten and in need of hospital treatment.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to spend time together, Billy and Anne went away on a horse-riding weekend behind their parents’ backs. However, they were found out when Billy’s horse galloped out of control and he suffered an asthma attack. However, their problems increased when Ruth, after splitting from Phil, decided to take the family away from Erinsborough. Luckily, the kids managed to get their parents to talk to each other, and Ruth’s plans came to an end.

In an attempt to spend some time alone, Billy set up a romantic evening for the couple at the pool where he worked, however the entire incident was caught on camera. Fortunately, Billy’s boss saw the funny side of it and let him off. Meanwhile, French exchange student Claire Girard arrived to stay with the Bishops and quickly developed a crush on Billy. However, Claire was easy to put off in comparison to Ben’s younger sister Caitlin, who arrived in town shortly after. She soon made it clear that she would stop at nothing to win Billy away from Anne.

After entering a ‘perfect couple’ contest, in Teen Girl magazine, Anne was thrilled when she and Billy got through to the finals. However, a photo shoot was called for and Billy told his girlfriend that he wanted nothing to do with it, so Anne was forced to get Lance in as a substitute. However, they were appalled when they realised that they’d have to kiss and quickly pulled out. Luckily, the incident led Teen Girl to hire Anne as a part-time model for their features.

Meanwhile, Billy was gradually slipping away from Anne, as he spent more and more time with Caitlin. When Billy joined the swimming team, Anne’s worries only got worse and he asked her if he could join the team at the swim finals in Sydney. She hesitantly agreed, but before he went, relations deteriorated and both were left unsure of how things stood between them. Realising that Billy had feelings for Caitlin, Anne decided that she had to go to Sydney and see him. However, as she arrived at his hotel door, she found him kissing Caitlin on the other side. Heartbroken, she ran off and Billy struggled to find her. By the end of the day, he tracked her down as she was preparing to board her coach. He failed to convince her to stay and she returned to Erinsborough.

Upon Caitlin’s return to town, she headed to number 32 and warned Anne that she was going to get Billy. The tiff was quickly forgotten when news arrived that Ben had been involved in a terrible crash at the racetrack. The girls put their differences aside and when Billy returned, he and Anne tried to work things out. However, as time went on, Anne found it extremely difficult to get over her jealousy when Caitlin was concerned. They split up once again, and Anne foolishly decided to go after Drew Kirk, the new mechanic at Lou’s garage. However, she was embarrassed as he told her she was too young and he only wanted her as a friend.

Meanwhile, Anne had developed a close friendship with a local lady, Lily Madigan, whose house was under threat from developers. However, when Lily choked one day, Anne felt terrible as she struggled to help and decided that she should get some first aid training. Anne also put up posters, trying to warn people off the man who was trying to take Lily’s house, but ended up with him suing her for defamation of character. However, when the man was found out to be a crook, Anne was congratulated and Lily’s home was saved.

The Kennedys had a new lodger, Joel Samuels, an old friend of Mal’s, who quickly developed a romantic interest in Anne. Despite initial fears, Billy seemed quite happy for them to see each other. However, it quickly fizzled out. Anne faced further problems when she was interviewing a homeless man for a project and he suddenly died on her sofa. Anne began to wonder if she was cursed when Lily also died.

Meanwhile, at the school, Amy, Lance’s girlfriend, and Anne both decided to run for school captain in their senior year, but when the results came in, they agreed to share the role, causing more than one disagreement. Anne’s living arrangements also changed when her mother married Phil and the Wilkinsons moved across to number 26. She also found herself getting closer to Billy once more as he struggled to fit in back at the school and the couple tried again. However, things seemed difficult when Anne applied to an art course in Dawber, Queensland, far away from Erinsborough. However, as the year came to an end, Anne was in for more than one surprise. First, she learnt that she had inherited Lily’s house, then the gang decided to go away on a camping trip. While there, Billy and Anne slept together for the first time, but she later overheard Billy telling Pinhead that it was no big deal. Little realising that he was just trying to shut Pinhead up and stop him gossiping, she took off in the ute. Billy followed but couldn’t find her and she was later found by Karl and Joel down by the river. When the ute got stuck, they attempted to move it, which resulted in Joel becoming trapped underwater as the car slipped down the bank. While everyone escaped the accident with their lives intact, Billy arrived at the hospital and explained to Anne how much he loved her and the reasoning behind his earlier comments.

Back in Ramsay Street, Anne found herself confronted by Gary O’Neil, the great nephew of Lily Madigan. He tried to claim that he didn’t want a fight over the house, but when it came down to it, he tried to stake his claim in court – but Anne won and decided that she would rent the house out, rather than live there herself.

Meanwhile, when exam results came in, Anne learnt that she would be going to Dawber. After much soul-searching she decided to go, but before this, went away to Broome with Ruth and Phil. While she was gone, Billy saw the opportunity to win some money for a trip to Dawber in a uni competition, but was forced to kiss Amy. They couldn’t go through with it, and were worried about Anne’s reaction. However, she was very calm about it, realising their intentions were good. When the time came for Anne to go to Dawber, she said a said farewell to Billy and her family, but realised she couldn’t go through with it and returned to Erinsborough the very next day!

Ruth was very disappointed with her daughter’s decision, but Anne convinced her that she’d be fine at Eden Hills uni, and she also scored a job at an Italian restaurant. But Billy soon found himself consumed with jealousy over Anne’s friendship with restaurateur Vincenzo Coletti. Anne had also been receiving a lot of attention from David ‘Fanto’ Hodges, from uni, so named because of his interest in fantasy comics.
Billy’s suspicions about her feelings for Fanto grew and after a while, he decided to go behind her back and read her journal. He quickly became addicted to finding out Anne’s secret feelings, but Hannah was appalled when she walked in on Billy reading the diary. When Anne found out, a fight broke out with Anne getting injured and telling him that it was all over for them.

Fanto saw his opportunity to get closer to Anne and began spending more and more time with her. Although Billy and Anne remained friends, especially when Karl went missing in the bush and she comforted him, there was a long way to go before they could reconcile. As a relationship developed between Anne and Fanto, she desperately tried to get Billy out of her system. When Ruth and Phil decided to move away to Darwin, Anne was left with the problem of finding somewhere new to live if she wanted to stay in Erinsborough. However, Fanto was soon at her side, offering her a place at the warehouse where he and his arty friends lived. She was thrilled by this offer, but soon after moving in, Fanto’s behaviour started to change. After a dinner with Lance and Amy, he told her he didn’t think she should hang around with them anymore. Anne was perturbed and refused to do what he told her, but the final straw came when Fanto came on heavy with Amy one day. Anne finally realised what a sleaze he was and quickly moved out, opting to stay with the Greenwoods for a while.

After her relationship with Fanto ground to a halt, Anne found herself spending more time around the old gang, and her old feelings towards Billy resurfaced. When all the neighbours were out in force for the Millennium Eve street party, Anne and Billy found themselves thrown together, searching for Bob the dog, who had run away. They admitted that they couldn’t live without each other and shared a kiss. Meanwhile, Anne had also been finding it tough living at the Greenwood’s place, with Amy away so much. When she found out that Tess Bell was renting out number 32, Anne quickly offered her services as a flatmate.

Amy and Lance’s relationship had been going off the boil and Anne was trying to support both of them, but found her loyalties seriously tested when Amy admitted she was pregnant. Anne offered her help, but was shocked to find out that the baby wasn’t Lance’s and urged Amy to tell him the truth. When Lance eventually found out, it put a serious strain on his relationship with his sister, although he did forgive her. Meanwhile, Anne was happy when Amy told Damien, the real father, the truth and, after a few false starts, she accepted his marriage proposal. Unfortunately for Anne, it meant losing her best friend, as Amy set off for Fiji to get married, then settled with Damien on the other side of the city.

After only being back together for a matter of weeks, Anne was distraught when Bill announced that he’d been offered an apprentice with Greg Mast up in Queensland. At first, the couple thought they’d have a few months to prepare themselves, but then Greg dropped the bombshell that he’d be going in a couple of weeks. No matter how much of a façade she put up, as soon as Bill had gone, after a farewell at Luna Park, Anne broke down in tears. She knew that she couldn’t live without him and so decided to go and join him. After managing to get a transfer up to Dawber Uni, she secretly headed up on the train, where an unsuspecting Bill found her at the train station. She announced that she was there to stay and the couple vowed that they’d stay together forever.

Trivia Notes
• Brooke Satchwell's portrayal of Anne won a Logie award for Most Popular New Talent in May 1998
• She followed it with Most Popular Teen Idol at the 1998 People's Choice awards

Tenure
2747-3503