Back in 1990, when Home And Away’s Carly and Ben were getting married, there were two Pippas at the wedding.
”Old Pippa” Vanessa Downing was inside the church, while ”new Pippa” Debra Lawrance was standing outside.
”I had to be photographed for the wedding photographs on the mantelpiece for future episodes,” Debra, 66, explains to TV WEEK.
”I was outside with the photographer, waiting to line up with beautiful Sharyn Hodgson and Julian McMahon.”
One of the most famous recastings in Australian TV history was taking place. Debra, an actress respected for her work in theatre and shows such as Prisoner, was taking over the role of Pippa from the rather different-looking Vanessa.
”At one point, there was a suggestion, ‘Might I dye my hair blonde?’ and I said, ‘No,’ because I didn’t want to live as a blonde for however many years. But also, when you take on a role like that, you just have to make it your own.”
“Dennis is the kindest, most generous person I know,” says Debra of her husband.
(IMAGE: Instagram)Debra signed on as the Summer Bay foster mum for the ”financial security”, but got so much more. Soon after she started, the show’s producers were looking for someone to play Pippa’s new love interest, Michael.
Dennis Coard walked into the room.
”I was just really drawn to him,” Debra remembers.
”They booked him. Apparently, the chemistry read was so strong.”
It didn’t take long for the pair to realise they were ”quite strongly attracted” to each other.
”Eighteen months later we were getting married and having a baby,” Debra says.
The actress offered to leave the show when she fell pregnant, but the producers said they would write in the pregnancy, despite Pippa supposedly being unable to have any more children.
”Then they came to me and said, ‘Look, we can’t keep the baby in, so we’re going to explore a cot-death storyline.’ I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s fine.’ They agreed to name the baby Dale, and whatever gender we [she and Dennis] had, then they would make it the opposite one so it wasn’t too close to home.”
Debra and Dennis have now been married for more than 30 years.
(IMAGE: Supplied)But with Debra and Dennis’ own baby, Grace, being so young, when it came to shooting the SIDS storyline, it affected them more than they expected.
”When you’re a new mum and you’re breastfeeding and sleep deprived, your emotions are pretty much on the edge anyway,” Debra adds.
”I hadn’t been drinking at all, but I did go home that night and have a glass of red wine, because we just had to settle the day. It was the only thing really that had invaded our lives.”
On set, Debra spent a lot of time with Kate Ritchie, who played her adopted daughter Sally. Debra remembers the 11-year-old Kate being ”a bit wary” of her at first, because she’d had a really close relationship with Vanessa.
”But it didn’t take long before we became great mates, and she adores Dennis. We remain, to this day, very, very, very dear friends.”
Debra as Pippa in Home and Away with co-star Kate Ritchie.
(IMAGE: Supplied)Over the years, Debra became a mentor to many of the show’s younger actors. She remembers Melissa George having “a lot of ambition and drive” and Isla Fisher being ”a clever little monkey.”
”She wanted to train somewhere, and I said, ‘Go to Jacques Lecoq clowning school in Paris.’ And bless her heart, she did.”
Debra also remembers 18-year-old Heath Ledger sitting next to her at lunchtimes on the set.
”It was desperately sad when he died,” she says.
”He was always intuitively just a beautiful actor.”
Debra left the show in 1998. She wanted to have another child with Dennis – they did, William – and to be near her mother in Melbourne in her final years.
She went on to win a TV WEEK Logie Award in 2017 for Please Like Me and will soon be seen with Emily Browning and Caitlin Stasey in Prime Video’s Class Of ’07.
But Home And Away will always occupy a special place in her heart.
”Home And Away gave me my life,” the star says.
”And I sing that from the rooftops to anybody who wants to listen.”
