Harold Bishop returns to Erinsborough on Neighbours in the UK the next week, just in time for Toadie and Melanie’s wedding.
Beginning on July 4 in the UK and July 14 in Australia, these sequences will be broadcast.
Seven years have passed since Erinsborough said goodbye to Harold Bishop, well known as “Jelly Belly” (Ian Smith). The first of a long list of returning characters to Ramsay Street for Neighbours’ last month, he returns to town the following week.
It’s usually a big deal when Harold comes back to town, and this time is no exception.
On Wednesday, July 6, when Karl (Alan Fletcher) and Susan (Jackie Woodburne) are confronted by his unexpected arrival, everything begins. Naturally, there is joy all around, especially among residents of Ramsay Street who have lived there for a while.
But it’s obvious right away that Harold’s stay will be filled with turmoil.
Amy Greenwood’s (Jacinta Stapleton) search for love is where it all starts.
She’s had a difficult time finding true love, which is unfortunate. The love of her life, Lance Wilkinson (Andrew Bibby), has gone on, and her most recent romance was a failure. She has been married to and divorced from two gay men.
She feels like she has tried everything, and as time passes, she begins to wonder why she hasn’t yet found Mr. Right. Perhaps he is hiding right in front of her.
Zara (Freya van Dyke), Amy’s intelligent daughter, questioned whether Amy really had feelings for Toadie a few weeks ago (Ryan Moloney). Amy quickly denied the claim and made an effort to distance herself from him, but it didn’t take long for her to return for his solace.
This week, Zara starts to think critically once more. This time, however, she starts to question whether Toadie harbours feelings for Amy.
However, the timing is terrible. Only a few weeks after Melanie rejected Toadie’s first proposal, Toadie and Melanie (Lucinda Cowden) have recently announced their engagement. It appears that their choice to live together was just what they needed to advance their relationship.
Amy avoids the happy couple since she is obviously devastated by their news. When Zara notices this, her heart bleeds, and she then involves Harold in her concerns.
Zara laments the circumstance to Harold and says she thinks Toadie and Amy ought to be together. Harold doesn’t seem too thrilled about Toadie’s most recent engagement, so Zara starts to wonder if he shares that belief.
Zara tries to draw Harold in to assist her break up Toadie and Melanie’s relationship after noticing his concern about it. Fuddy-duddy Harold naturally doesn’t want to get involved in Zara’s antics, but he promises to check to see if her worries are valid.
Harold pulls Amy aside and asks if she thinks Melanie and Toadie would make a suitable match. He seemed to be questioning Melanie’s dependability.
Harold is somewhat encouraged when Amy praises Melanie to him, but it’s obvious that he isn’t yet persuaded despite Amy’s ability to set aside her own affections for Toadie.
Zara listens in and hears everything Amy says about Melanie, and even though it appears like Amy is content to admit defeat, Zara isn’t going to quit interfering just yet.
Harold Bishop, who is he?
Harold Bishop doesn’t need an introduction to long-time viewers of the programme.
Harold came to Erinsborough for the first time in Episode 415 (30th January 1987) and was just after Madge (Anne Charleston). Many Ramsay Street neighbours, especially the Clarkes, Des (Paul Keane) and Daphne (Elaine Smith), with whom they shared management of the Coffee Shop duties, benefited from the couple’s influence.
Harold had two kids, Kerry (Linda Hartley-Clark) and David, before relocating to Erinsborough (Kevin Harrington). Both have their own unique eccentricities. Kerry, a fervent environmentalist, was shot and killed by a duck hunter while she was eight months pregnant. This grieved her husband Joe (Mark Little), but it also led to the two men’s close relationship.
When it comes to his beliefs and the way he conducts himself, David is a cardboard cutout of Harold. Harold’s abduction added to the pair’s already strained relationship, which led to their eventual reconciliation. A plane disaster claimed the lives of David, his wife Liljana (Marcella Russo), and their daughter Serena (Lara Sacher) two years after they came to Ramsay Street.
Harold and Madge took a brief vacation in 1991, but it was tainted by tragedy when Harold washed off some rocks and only his glasses were left. Five years later, it was discovered that he had lived, albeit having amnesia, and was now employed by the Salvation Army.
He and Madge quickly made amends, and over the course of the following few years, they ran the Coffee Shop once more, as well as Grease Monkeys and fostered Paul (Jansen Spencer) and Tad (Jonathon Dutton). Sadly, tragedy struck once more when Madge was found to have pancreatic cancer in 2001, ten years after Harold vanished, and passed away not long after.
Harold was heartbroken, but he enjoyed the relationship between Rosie (Maggie Millar), Valda (Joan Sydney), and Ruby (Maureen Edwards).
Harold, however, experienced happiness once more when his son and family, then his granddaughter Sky (Stephanie McIntosh), came in with him.
After the Lassiters Complex burned down, Harold was forced to run the General Store with Lou (Tom Oliver), care for Sky when she learned she was pregnant, and fight prostate cancer over the ensuing years. In 2009, he departed Erinsborough in preparation for a nomadic existence.
While attending the non-wedding of Daniel Robinson (Tim Phillipps) and Amber Turner (Jenna Rosenow), in which he had a vision of Madge, who persuaded him to let her go and actually go forward, he temporarily returned in 2011 to marry his new wife Carolyn Johnstone. He then returned again in 2015.
