Mercia Deane-Johns

Deane-Johns was in the Australian TV series Homicide in 1975 and 1976 as Brenda Lukins. She performed in the Crawford Productions TV series Bluey as 'Debbie Morley' in 1976. In 1977, she was in Cop Shop a long running Crawford Productions police drama series. She had a small role in the 1978 Australian TV movie Demolition which starred John Waters and veteran Oz actor Vincent Ball. Other 1970's roles included guest starring in an episode of Skyways with Tony Bonner in 1979.[4]

In 1981, she appeared in Heatwave and Winter of Our Dreams.[5] Heatwave, directed by Phillip Noyce was based on the Juanita Nielsen disappearance case of the 1970s. Winter of Our Dreams was an award winning drama written and directed by John Duigan. In 1982, she was in Winner Take All – Downside Risk.[6] This was an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) TV series about the fast-paced world of big business and co-starred Peter Curtin, Tina Bursill, Briony Behets and Diana McLean. In 1985, she was in Winners – the other facts of life with Dennis Miller, Anne Grigg, Sheila Florence and Candy Raymond.[7] In 1991 Deane-Johns appeared in What's Cooking? an Australian cooking television series which ran from 1991 – 1999 on the Nine Network.[8]

In 1991 Channel 9 introduced a new series called Chances, based around a family who won AUD$3 million in a lottery and the effect it had on their lives. Deane-Johns played the part of Sharon Taylor, a blonde good time girl who made a living as a hairdresser. Chances was discontinued in 1992 after a run of 127 hour-long episodes.

Deane-Johns was in the television film McLeod's Daughters in 1996 with Jack Thompson, Tammy MacIntosh and Kris McQuade. She was in the long-running Home and Away from 1997 – 2001, playing Melanie Rainbow. In 2002, she was in the Canadian-Australian Co-production of Guinevere Jones, a teenage fantasy series where she played the part of evil witch Morgana Le Fay. In 2007, she played the part of Barbara in Unfinished Sky a story about an Outback farmer who takes in an Afghani woman who has fled from a brothel.

In 2014 she had a supporting role as Fay the barmaid in the 2015 released film Last Cab to Darwin (film).[5] In 2017 she played the part of Bulldozer in Throbbin' 84[9] which is a crime comedy set in 1984 also starring Alan King and Roslyn Gentle. The film takes its name from the 1984 Australian compilation music album Throbbin' '84.

She appeared in an episode of the Australian medical drama Harrow which was broadcast in March 2018. Deane-Johns appeared in two series of The Other Guy.[10] in 2018 and 2019. She performed in series two of the comedy drama series ``Mr Inbetween``.[11] in 2019.

She was in the documentary series Location Scout which was about the making of the Australian comedy film ``Top End Wedding``[12] which was filmed around Darwin in 2018.

She has worked with some of Australia's best-known actors.[13] The late John Hargreaves, Judy Davis in John Duigan's Winter of Our Dreams, Nicole Kidman in the popular Kennedy Miller series Vietnam (miniseries) and the late Charles Bud Tingwell who was a regular of Australian films. She has appeared with John Meillon who is remembered from the Crocodile Dundee films as well as Heatwave. She has also worked with John Ewart who is known for Sunday Too Far Away and Alwyn Kurts who famously portrayed the gruff Inspector Colin Fox in the TV series Homicide.

Much of her work like Homicide, Cop Shop, Matlock Police, Division 4, and Bluey was done at Crawford Productions.[14]

As well as acting, Deane-Johns has done voiceovers including four episodes of Persons of Interest in 2014.[15]

Deane-Johns has made many stage appearances, including:

• Meanwhile Back on Planet Earth A musical about Liza Minnelli at the Bondi Pavilion, Sydney in 1995.[3]
• Bloody Poetry. Precious Theatre Company. The Stables. Mary Shelley. 1986.[16]
• The Blind Giant is Dancing ACT Theatre Company in 1984.[17]
• George and Mildred Australian Tour with the Elizabethan Theatre Company in 1980.[3]
• The Playboy of the Western World at the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) in 1978.[18]
• Electra (Play by Sophocles) at the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) in 1978.[19]
• Once a Catholic The Actors' Company Theatre, Ultimo, NSW. 1978.[20]
• The Happy Apples The Actors' Company Theatre, Ultimo, NSW. 1978[21]
• Spats – Back in Business The Speakeasy, Kensington, NSW. 1976[22]
• Two and Two Make Sex with Patrick Cargill on an Australian Tour in 1975.[23]

Deane-Johns is also a writer and has kept an anecdotal record of her thespian experiences in a series of articles called Mercia's Missives. She describes the difficulties in working with misogynistic directors, unsympathetic make-up artists, bitchy co-stars and young actors who think they are God's gift to women.[24]

Deane-Johns wrote for the (now defunct) Australian Playboy magazine for four years in the 1980s not long before a trek across India. As she relates in her cogitations 'Mercia’s Missives' “I spent a lot of time in my room, writing a column for Playboy magazine, simply entitled Women. Peter Olszewski, also known as JJ Mc Roach, the founder of the Marijuana Party was the editor at the time. He had given me the opportunity before I travelled to India. I enjoyed writing for Playboy. I had a lot of material around me at the time for inspiration. Things were fine.”

As well as singing and acting Deane-Johns has done stand-up comedy and has ambitions to appear at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe one day. She appeared with co-star and fellow Australian singer and actress Anne-Maree McDonald in Caliente[25] in 2011. This was a one-hour stand-up comedy routine which they performed at The El Rocco Room, in Sydney's Kings Cross, New South Wales.

When pregnant with her daughter Natasha,  Mercia was the first pregnant woman in the world to be photographed for Playboy.