Bob Hope is a fictional character from the ITV soap opera Emmerdale, played by Tony Audenshaw.

Prior to playing Bob, the actor had previously made a guest appearance in the show as a security guard.

Bob is portrayed as having a happy-go-lucky, cheeky persona, and is Emmerdale's most married character with seven marriages to five women.

His storylines have included marriage, divorce, fatherhood, adultery and homelessness plus the deaths of his children Dawn Woods (Julia Mallam) in 2006 and Heath Hope (Sebastian Dowling) in 2024.

She is the mother of Dawn (Julia Mallam) and Jamie Hope (Alex Carter), but the marriage ended when he walked out.

His fourth marriage was to American Vonda Lockhart (Lorelei King) in Las Vegas while drunk, which he regretted the following day.

Bob's daughter Dawn moves to the village and gets engaged to his friend, Terry Woods (Billy Hartman), who is 27 years older than her.

This leads her to ask her daughter, Donna, to be their surrogate mother but on the day of Dawn's funeral, Viv is feeling unwell.

Viv gives birth to the twins, Cathy and Heathcliff in a shack on the moors, hence the babies' names as a reference to Wuthering Heights.

On Emily Kirk's (Kate McGregor) return, Bob worries that she will snatch the twins and he temporarily quits his job as barman at the Woolpack to be a stay at home father.

Viv becomes involved with Freddie Yorke's (Keith Goodason) children's charity known as the Happy Smile Fund.

Distressed at the prospect of a prison sentence, losing their money and their reputation being destroyed, Bob is further devastated to learn that Freddie and Viv had kissed once.

Even more distress is caused when John McNally (Steven Farebrother), a local reporter for the Hotten Courier, writes a story implicating Bob for fraud.

Finally, posing as his friend Terry, he gets a job as a drama teacher and pretends he is reading from a script about a man who misses his wife.

Unlike the rest of the villagers, Bob and Brenda knew about April from being in contact with Donna, and Viv's funeral.

Bob is just as shocked as everyone else when Donna reveals Marlon is April's father, and she was nine weeks pregnant when she left the village.

In 2000, Emmerdale began airing five nights a week, and producer Kieran Roberts planned to introduce six new characters, the first of which was Bob, who made his first appearance in September.

[2] Payne told Tony Purnell from the Daily Mirror that she dreaded her first scene with Audenshaw and was nervous about "getting up close and personal" with him.

[2] While travelling around the country selling hosiery, Bob meets Viv, who had not had a major love interest since the death of her husband two years prior.

[4] It notes that as an ex-salesman, not all of his business ideas were successful, but that his awareness changed when he decided to open the café in Emmerdale village.

The profile details that Bob has been married to five different women, but that his "fear of commitment" was "quashed" when he got with Brenda Walker (Lesley Dunlop).

[4] Bob is billed as a "loveable, optimistic, compassionate, funny, popular" character that likes flirting and attending parties, and dislikes being alone.

[4] At the 2001 Inside Soap Awards, Audenshaw earned nominations for Best Newcomer, Funniest Character and Best Couple, the latter alongside Payne.

How can we help put picture the Dale's finest hosiery salesman except as wise-cracking down the Road to Zanzibar with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour?