Dee Bliss
Dione "'Dee" Bliss' is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Madeleine West. The actress received the role three days after securing an agent. West deferred her law degree studies to take the part. She made her first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 3 February 2000. The character proved popular with viewers and producers soon promoted her to the main cast. West decided to leave Neighbours at the end of her contract in 2003. She filmed her final scenes in April and Dee made her last appearance on 29 July 2003.
West returned to the show in September 2016. Although initially introduced as Dee, it transpired that West was playing a new character Andrea Somers, a woman who impersonates Dee in an attempt to receive money from the Bliss family estate. Dee made a brief return on 9 January 2017, in a series of dream sequences experienced by her former husband Toadfish Rebecchi. On 14 August 2017, West briefly appeared as Dee, though the identity of her character was left ambiguous at this point. In 2019, Dee's survival was confirmed and West reprised the role of Dee for a one-month period, as she comes face to face with Andrea for the first time, bonds with Toadie and learns the truth about her parentage. Dee returned once again from 23 April 2020 until 25 June 2020.
Casting
West was enrolled in university studying law, when she decided to try acting and found an agent. She secured the role of Dee three days later. West said "It happened pretty quickly. I got the agent, then I went to the audition for Neighbours and luckily I got the part. I know it doesn't always happen that quickly for people, so I consider myself fortunate." West then deferred her law degree studies after she was offered the role. Dee became an audience favourite, so the Neighbours producers decided to make her a regular cast member and offered West a new contract.In July 2002, West was struck by a bus. She needed re-constructive plastic surgery and was written out of Neighbours. West returned to the show a month later and said she was pleased to be back, but found it to be tiring. She said, "It was actually really good because it felt so nice to be back at work and to be not just lying in bed and doing nothing. It was so good to see everyone, so that really kept me occupied. But, I found that weekend that I just crashed and burned."
Development
Relationships
Joel Samuels
Shortly after her arrival, Dee begins dating Joel Samuels and their relationship progresses slowly. MacPherson said their relationship was "a little more lust than love" and when Dee introduces him to her best friend, Carrie Clark, Joel is instantly attracted to her. Joel tries to keep his feelings for Carrie a secret, as he does not want to hurt Dee, but MacPherson commented that it was not an easy thing to do and the truth would come out in the end. West empathised with Dee, saying that her character was "besotted" with Joel, so to find out he is attracted to Carrie would be an awful moment for her. Joel dates Carrie in secret and tries to choose between the two women, but Dee later catches him and Carrie in the pool at Number 30 and breaks up with him. Joel and Dee eventually reconcile, but their relationship is tested again by the arrival of Joel's father Bernie Samuels. Bernie flirts with Dee, leaving her "just the slightest bit uncomfortable".Darcy Tyler
In 2001, Dee was paired with local doctor Darcy Tyler. Dee and Darcy's relationship becomes strained and Rafferty explained that Darcy was looking for some sympathy, as he had problems at the surgery, but Dee was "taking a harder line" instead of being supportive. Rafferty also said, "Darcy feels that his enthusiasm and hers don't quite match." Darcy seeks advice from Dee's friend Teresa Bell, who suggests that he does something romantic for Dee, so he buys them ballet tickets. However, Dee "brushes him off" and suggests that he takes Tess to the ballet instead. Darcy soon began an affair with Tess. While attending a fishing competition, Dee finds Darcy and Tess kissing inside his truck. Of the scene, West commented, "They are so caught up in each other that they don't even notice that she's there." Unsure how to react, Dee decided to leave the competition early. Dee confides in Joel and Toadie, who are surprised that she did not confront Darcy and Tess.West explained that Dee wanted revenge and that would serve as her therapy. When Darcy came to see her, Dee pretended everything was okay, as she knew that it would be worth it when she exposed him and Tess as adulterers. West enjoyed the challenge that the plot brought her, saying "I was shocked when I first read the storyline, but I thought it was so dramatic that two best friends would be divided by a man." The actress also hoped that the storyline would have a positive impact on her character, as it was the second time she had been betrayed by her partner, following Joel's affair with her Carrie. West called Dee "too trusting" and thought she would be a changed person at the conclusion of the storyline.
Following the end of her relationship with Darcy, Dee learned she was pregnant with his child. An Inside Soap writer observed that her reaction was "one of shock and horror". With support from her friends, Dee accepts the pregnancy, but does not tell Darcy. Shortly after, Dee slips on some water and falls, landing hard on her stomach. She is rushed to the hospital, where Karl Kennedy informs her that she has suffered a miscarriage. West stated that Dee is "understandably devastated" by the news. She continued, "As a paediatric nurse, she loves children, and obviously it's deeply upsetting for any woman to lose her own child." While she is recovering, Darcy arrives at the hospital to begin his shift and West added that the last thing Dee needed was "a run-in" with Darcy. To remember the child, Dee plants a roe bush in Ramsay Street.
Departure
In March 2003, West announced that she was to leave Neighbours after her contract expired. She filmed her final scenes in early April. In her final storyline, Dee married her housemate and friend Toadfish Rebecchi in a "romantic ceremony", which ended in tragedy when Toadie accidentally drove their car off a cliff and into the sea. Dee's body was not found and Toadie was forced to accept that she had died. He initially blamed himself for causing her death. In 2014, series producer Jason Herbison admitted that he was asked every year if the show was going to bring back Dee. He told Bridget McManus and Scott Ellis of The Age that he was unsure if West would return to the role, and added that the writing team would have to come up with a different plot to the one that brought Harold Bishop back in 1996, following his disappearance in 1991.Return
On 15 September 2016, Tiffany Dunk of News.com.au reported that West had reprised her role thirteen years after Dee's supposed death. West returned to filming that same week, with the role continuing through to January 2017. Of her decision to return, West stated, "It is a very rare and wonderful thing when an actor has the opportunity to step back into the shoes of a character they created, even more so when that character had not been seen for some 13 years, and was one as beloved as Dee Bliss. For me, this return to Neighbours is something of a homecoming, to the place where I took my first tentative steps into the entertainment industry, and where I truly learnt my craft."In an interview with Daniel Kilkelly of Digital Spy, West said she had been asked to return to the show several times, but she had always been busy with her family and other acting work. When Dee and Toadie's wedding was voted viewers' second favourite Neighbours storyline for the 30th anniversary, West felt "honoured" and thought her return would be a chance to give something back to the fans, as well as allow her the chance to finish Dee's story. It was important to West that Dee's return storyline was plausible and while she was not initially aware of all the details, she thought that it was "really topical" and "juicy". She also speculated that Toadie would go through a range of emotions upon seeing Dee, including remorse and happiness. She continued, "There's going to be some really interesting and hard-hitting scenes for us both to play, along with everyone else in Ramsay Street who will feel the repercussions of Dee's return." West added that she would be filming for "a reasonable chunk of time" and that "the door is always left open."
West later told Holly Byrnes of The Daily Telegraph that she would be back for fourteen weeks. She also confirmed that Dee would definitely be back, and is not "a ghost, nor is she a figment of Toadie's imagination and she wasn't abducted by aliens." West added that she had plans to write and direct for Neighbours later in 2017. In the 2016 season finale episode, Toadie was shown a photograph of a woman that looked like Dee, leaving him with the possibility that Dee is alive. A trailer showcasing upcoming storylines showed Toadie appearing to meet Dee face to face. During the first episode of 2017, Toadie was shown to be "haunted" by dreams featuring Dee. It was later revealed that the returned Dee was in fact Andrea Somers, an imposter hoping to scam Toadie. After Andrea's exposure and departure, West made an unannounced return appearance on 14 August 2017. The closing credits concealed the character's name by crediting West as a "Special appearance", leading viewers to speculate that West was playing the real Dee. West wore "a flowing white dress", similar to Dee's wedding dress, and viewers also noted her long wavy hair, a style Dee sported shortly before her disappearance. The resolution of the storyline in 2019 confirmed that this appearance was of the real Dee. West continued to play Andrea intermittently from December 2017, again credited as special appearances; in 2018, a hospitalised and mentally unstable Andrea briefly claimed to be Dee once more.
On 5 July 2019, the show resolved the mystery of Dee's fate when she meets her lookalike Andrea Somers in "a dramatic showdown" on a cliff top in Byron Bay. Dee, who has spent the last 16–17 years using the name Karen, wants to know who Andrea is, but Andrea does not give much away. The women fight and Dee goes over the cliff, and Andrea returns to Erinsborough pretending to be her. Dee soon makes her way to Erinsborough and Toadie is faced with both women. Moloney said that Toadie is "totally stumped by it". Dee's time away from Erinsborough and what happened to her after the car crash was also explored. West stated, "the intervening 17 years have been very difficult and have changed the fibre of who she is, but at the end of the day, she's still that cheery, funny, well-meaning humanitarian minded Dee that we all came to love." West revealed that Dee and Andrea are twins, who were separated at birth. It was later confirmed that Dee was adopted and Heather is her biological mother. The character made her exit on 8 August 2019, as West's guest stint came to an end.
On 15 December 2019, Fiona Byrne of the Herald Sun confirmed that West would begin filming another guest stint in January 2020. West's return scenes aired on 21 April 2020, and she played both Dee and Andrea. Their return coincides with Elly Conway's trial for murder. Dee comes back to Erinsborough following a phone call from Toadie.