Harold Bishop - Casting

Casting

Reg Watson offered Smith a role in Neighbours following the end of his television drama, Prisoner, with which Smith had been a script editor. Smith agreed to join Neighbours and asked if he could write for the show too. Smith was given the role of Harold, a part that was only supposed to last for five weeks. A couple of weeks after he had finished filming, Smith was asked back. Comedian Peter Moon revealed in 2009 that he had originally auditioned for the role of Harold. Moon said "Ian Smith beat me to it, so it is kind of weird thinking about the life I could have had. When I auditioned, I went into wardrobe and they gave me a pair of shoes to wear that had Harold written on them". Moon was eventually given a role with the soap twenty years later. Smith was written out in 1991, before making a return in 1996. Harold later became the second longest-running character in the show's history.

Smith decided to go part-time on the show in 2007. He had been ready to depart Neighbours for good, but the producers did not want him to leave. They then offered him a compromise, which would see Smith film for six weeks and then have a four-month break. Smith said that he was "awfully glad" that the producers talked him into coming back and explained, "I'm not retiring, but I am walking away from having to work 13-hour days, day after day." Smith began appearing intermittently during 2008 and this forced the writers to take Harold in a new direction. Harold's first departure saw him leave Ramsay Street for a tour around Australia.