Ian Smith is now 76 and has told an Australian paper he still has hopes of following in many of his co-stars footsteps and breaking onto the big screen. Let’s help make that happen

First off, let’s just get one thing straight. Ian Smith is more, much, much more, than Harold Bishop. As he said to the Daily Telegraph in Australia, promoting his and undead Madge’s appearance on the 30th-anniversary show: “In my mind I am still a jobbing actor and I can’t get used to the fuss that is made about Harold.”

And he has made some movies. He took the title role in 2013’s Granddad, in which he helped out a little girl with her first date. He was Buck Senior in 2009’s The Jesus Spoon, billed as “a grossout comedy about two boys, a dog turd and a decorative spoon that may, or may not, have magical culinary powers”. But both were shorts, not even topping the 10-minute mark.

There have been features, also. In 1993, at the height of Harold-mania, he was Dr Carrera in Body Melt, in which unwitting residents of a very Ramsey Street-ish cul-de-sac are used to test a new drug which causes rapid body decomposition, throat pain and terrible death (tagline: “The first phase is hallucinogenic… the second phase is glandular… and the third phase is… BODY MELT”). Smith acquits himself well in the trailer, giving real force to his two lines: “Up until their birth, babies are the ultimate parasite” and “What is this?”

But Smith isn’t satisfied with this back catalogue. “I’ve not really broken into the movie world,” he said, “I really would love to do a movie before I hang up my voice.”

Then we got some specifics about his requirements. “A good movie” and “something with a bit of depth in it that stretches and challenges me. Something with a budget.”

Guy Pearce is everywhere. Margot Robbie, increasingly so. Chris and Liam Hemsworth are doing pretty well. Ben Mendelsohn has managed the transition and kept his cred. Even Alan Dale was in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And, of course, only the foolish would put Russell Crowe’s career down to anything but those four 1987 episodes as ex-con Kenny Larkin.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Smith flexes his acting chops in this clip from Neighbours

Ian Smith has paid his dues. He’s been in more episodes of Neighbours than anyone else ever (reports suggest 1,659). He’s survived multiple heart attacks, accidents (car, plane, fire), various cancers, personality changes following a stroke, amnesia triggered by a fall, and he donated a kidney to Lou Carpenter. The least we can do is help secure him some decent movie roles. So get cracking!