Harold Bishop's Heart of Darkness

I think I've mentioned my soft spot for Australian soap operas here before - I rarely miss an episode of Neighbours or Home and Away. I think its the fact that it always seems to be sunny there, everyone is beautiful and crises rarely last more than five episodes that makes me prefer them to their British equivalents. They're just so much more positive about human nature - the majority of their characters are basically nice, decent human beings. OK, they might occasionally go off the rails, but rarely for more than five episodes, and they rarely do anything really bad during these episodes. Perhaps the most virtuous of all Australian soap character must be Neighbours' Harold Bishop (although, to be fair, Sally in Home and Away could give him a good run for his money). Not only is Harold a stalwart of the Salvation Army, moral conscience to Ramsey Street, and all round good Samaritan, but he is also such a good Christian that he has even been able to forgive local sinners for the most heinous transgressions -including the murder of his son, daughter-in-law and grand daughter.

But just what is it that originally propelled Harold into the arms of Jesus? Usually in soap operas such character traits are explained by some dark episode in the character's past. However, we've never been made party to the reasons behind Harold's conversion, so we can only speculate. Bearing in mind his age, it is entirely possible that Harold, along with many other Australians of his generation, saw active service in Vietnam. (Indeed, it was established in one episode that he'd done National Service and knew how to handle a firearm). Could it be that the dedication to the Christian faith stems from his experiences in the jungles of 'Nam? Is he seeking absolution for his role in the burning down of that village? Was he in the same platoon as Home and Away's Alf Stewart - the one that was involved in that massacre? The one they had to commit to eliminate the witnesses to their terrible mistreatment of that livestock? Was he somehow involved in the trafficking of young Vietnamese girls back to Australia to work as child prostitutes? Sadly, I suspect that we'll never know.