Editing Harold Bishop (section)

==Casting==
The show's creator and then executive producer [[Reg Watson]] offered Ian Smith the role of Harold, following the end of his television drama ''[[Prisoner (TV series)|Prisoner]]'', with which Smith had been a script editor and associate producer.<ref name="Life of Ian Smith">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/passedfailed-an-education-in-the-life-of-ian-smith-actor-in-neighbours-764886.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/passedfailed-an-education-in-the-life-of-ian-smith-actor-in-neighbours-764886.html |archive-date=9 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=An education in the life of Ian Smith, actor in 'Neighbours'|work=[[The Independent]]|access-date=4 January 2010|first=Jonathan|last=Sale|date=13 December 2007}}</ref> After agreeing to the role, Smith also asked if he could write for the show too.<ref name="Life of Ian Smith"/> Smith was only supposed to be in ''Neighbours'' for five weeks,<ref name="Life of Ian Smith"/> but a couple of weeks after he had finished filming, Smith was asked back.<ref name="IHated">{{cite web|url=http://holysoap.five.tv/neighbours/news/ian-i-hated-madges-death-10608|title=Ian: I hated Madge's death|date=2 November 2010|publisher=[[Holy Soap]]|access-date=23 January 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101114045426/http://holysoap.five.tv/neighbours/news/ian-i-hated-madges-death-10608|archive-date=14 November 2010}}</ref> Smith admitted that he was not prepared for how popular the show would become, saying "I naively thought I was signing on for a frothy little soap that would come and go as most of them do. I had no inkling of the international success that lay in store for ''Neighbours''."<ref name="Fletcher">{{cite magazine|last=Fletcher|first=Mary|date=October 1992|title=Goodbye Harold!|magazine=[[Inside Soap]]|issue=2|page=32}}</ref> Comedian [[Peter Moon (comedian)|Peter Moon]] revealed in 2009 that he had originally auditioned for the role of Harold.<ref name="PeterMoon">{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s14/neighbours/news/a180935/peter-moon-to-guest-star-in-neighbours.html|title=Peter Moon to guest star in Neighbours|website=[[Digital Spy]]|first=Darren|last=Rowe|date=7 October 2009|access-date=25 February 2010|archive-date=10 December 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091210223350/http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/s14/neighbours/news/a180935/peter-moon-to-guest-star-in-neighbours.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 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".<ref name="PeterMoon"/> Moon was eventually given a role with the soap twenty years later.<ref name="PeterMoon"/>