High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Alan Jonathan Turner is a long running fictional character in the British soap opera Emmerdale played by Richard Thorp. He first appeared on 18 March 1982, and is the longest running character in the soap. He was first reasonably humble but then was portrayed as a boozing, womanising and bullying manager of Home Farm but has mellowed in recent years. He became the Woolpack landlord in 1991 and has been retired since 1999 and lives at Victoria Cottage.