'Neighbours' executives wanted Harold Bishop killed

Monday, 22 June 2009

'Neighbours' producers considered killing off Harold Bishop.

Executive producer of the Australian soap, Susan Bower, was sad to see the show's second-longest serving character leave in February, but wishes she'd gone through with her plans to kill him off.

She said: "I was upset when he left. Harold was an icon. To be honest I just wish that with the amount of discussion that happened - and I have to say that it is ultimately my decision - I think we should've killed the character off.

"I would have killed him through the cancer storyline. But I'm delighted that he is alive and well and enjoying himself and the fact that we've got a lovely photograph of him in the store and we named the store after Harold, at least means that his spirit will always live on."

It's not the first time Harold has left the soap. He was washed away in the surf in 1991 and presumed dead, only to return in 1996, after Helen Daniels found him in another town, renamed Ted and suffering from amnesia.

Bowers refused to rule out another return to the soap for the elderly character.

She told entertainment website Digital Spy: "You never say never. I just think that if you do it too many times, though, the audience just gets p****d off."

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