Anne "Annie" Brearly (née Pearson; previously Sugden and Kempinski) is a long running fictional character in the popular soap opera Emmerdale. She is played by Sheila Mercier as a regular character between 1972 and 1994, while making occasional guest appearances in the show since her original departure. Mercier cut back on location filming during the late 1980s and eventually left the serial in 1994 due to the gruelling schedule. Annie was one of Emmerdale's original characters, appearing in its first episode on 16 October 1972 and became the longest serving female character in the series' history. She was the soap's "first matriarch", the maternal force behind the Sugden family, who were collectively one of Emmerdale's main focal points.