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Harold Bishop

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Harold Bishop
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Harold Bishop

Harold Wayne Bishop is an immensely popular character from the Australian television soap opera Neighbours, played by Ian Smith. The amount of time spent on Neighbours makes him one of the longest serving characters on the show. 



Harold arrived in Erinsborough in 1987, eventually marrying Madge Mitchell in 1988. 


Harold and Madge had been lovers in High School in Queensland, but Madge had opted to marry Fred Mitchell and move to Coff's Harbour with him where they had two children. Harold later married a woman named Mavis, who bore him two children, David and Kerry. Unfortunately, Mavis died, leaving Harold to raise David and Kerry alone.


In 1989, Harold was reunited with  Kerry, who had been estranged form him in the intervening years, and her daughter Sky. After the uneasy reunion, Kerry and Harold became closer. Kerry married neighbour Joe Mangel, who Harold initially did not approve of, and she moved in with him across the street from Harold. Kerry was killed by a stray bullet during a protest against duck hunting in 1990.


In what has been remarked as a hugely moving and thought provoking plot arc, Harold was washed away in the surf in 1991 and was thought drowned, although his heroic corpse was never recovered. Harold was eventually spotted alive and well by Helen Daniels in 1996. Harold had lost his memory and been living as a Salvation Army volunteer by the name of Ted. Reunited with a returning Madge they resumed their marriage which lasted until her death from pancreatic cancer in 2001. 


Since then son David from his first marriage returned, bringing his wife Liljana and daughter Serena. Harold's other granddaughter, Sky Mangel also returned.


Harold had a minor stroke, which dramatically changed his personality and many other aspects of his life. He stopped attending the Salvation Army, as well as renouncing his vegetarianism and consuming alcohol. In addition to this he also displayed a marked increase in overt sexual behaviour, for example his horrific misunderstanding of a reference to Isabel Hoyland's buns. These lewd actions could be said to have reached a climax in an episode featuring Harold peering through a window at "lingerie party" hosted by Sky Mangel, a mask of animalistic lust upon his once genial face. Thankfully, he has since recovered and resumed his service to the Salvation Army.


Ever the entrepreneur, Harold became the owner of the coffee shop at Lassiters Complex, until it exploded in the final episode of 2004. He subsequently owned and ran the General Store at Lassiters with Lou Carpenter. The store was innovative in its return to traditional values offering staff dressed in aprons and straw hats, hot food, groceries and a dry cleaning service. Originally this was ran solely by Lou as a cost cutting measure. This entailed him taking home the items of clothing, spraying them with water then hanging them on his washing line. However he was soon rumbled by Lyn Scully who apprehended him whilst hand drying her undergarments. The service has since resumed with a real dry cleaners. In 2006 The General Store ran into trouble when Paul Robinson opened a new cafe, Lucinda's. Both Harold and his co-owner Lou Carpenter seriously considered selling up and retiring.


In October 2005, Harold was hit hard by tragedy once again when his son David, daughter-in-law Liljana, and granddaughter Serena, were killed when a plane hosting a party to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Lassiters crashed. Sky was also in the plane but she survived. David's body was found but Liljana's and Serena's have not been found.


On the season finale of Neighbours for 2005, an enraged Harold Bishop stormed into Paul Robinson's house uninvited.  Paul was talking to his son on the phone at the time, and Harold sensing the time was right to carry out the last stage in his plan, came creeping up from behind, arms outstretched. Letting out a bone chilling howl, Harold wrapped his massive monstrous hands round Paul's neck, throttling him till he was rendered unconscious and fell to the ground. The reason for Harold's uncharacteristically gruesome assault was his fervent desire for revenge, as he felt that Paul was unwittingly responsible for the bombing of the party plane and the subsequent death of new found Harold's family. It was also revealed that Harold had put Paul through a period of physiological torture, involving quoting aggressive religious verse at Robinson down the phone, deliberately opening his windows and doors and generally terrorising Paul to such an extent that by the end of Harold's campaign of vengeance he was completely housebound, unable to go outside fearing attempts on his life and felt the need to fit an extensive CCTV system to monitor his house at all times. This is dark murderous side to Harold that no one has ever seen before and pray we never see again. Eventually, in an attempt to find 'his old self', and left Erinsborough in 2006, but he has since returned.



The BBC which shows Neighbours on BBC ONE in the United Kingdom has site for Neighbours with a game called Harold Bishop The Lost Years where the player can speculate about what happened to Harold Bishop within the five years he was missing. The site is http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/neighbours/games/lostyears.shtml.



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