Bob Hope

Robert Reginald 'Bob' Hope was the husband of Jean Hope, Barbara Hope, Vonda Lockhart and Viv Windsor. He is also the father of Dawn Hope, Jamie Hope, Josh Hope, Carly Hope, Roxy Lockhart, Cathy Hope, Heath Hope and the step-father of Donna and Scott Windsor. He is currently involved in a relationship with Brenda Walker.

Storylines
Bob first appears on 19th September 2000 and tries to sell Viv Windsor stockings for her shop, and Viv is left instantly smitten by him. She tries to woo him and they end up having a night of passion together. Bob and Viv end up going out and Bob proposes to her on 4th February 2001, and they marry the next day

In September, Bob's step-daughter Donna Windsor sneaks out of the house to go to a club Hotten with friends. On the way home, Donna's friend Andy steals a car and on their way home, they run over and kill their headmaster, Miss Strickland. They leave her at the side of the road, take the car into a field and set it alight. They cover up this incident until November, when Marc Reynolds confesses to his part, leading everyone else to do the same. Marc is charged with death by dangerous driving and the rest receive community service.

In February 2003, when friend Terry Woods returns from holiday, Bob is shocked to discover the women he has brought to the village with him is none other than his daughter, Dawn Hope. Dawn and Terry start a relationship, which Bob is unhappy with. When they get married on 18th March 2003, Bob is unsure whether or not to attend. Bob becomes a grandfather for the first time when Dawn gives birth to a son, TJ, on 19th October, but tragedy strikes Terry suffers a stroke 2 days later.

In 2004, Dawn struggles looking after TJ and Terry, and after a blazing row, Dawn leaves him. But things aren't just bad for them as Viv and Bob also announce the end of their marriage after continuous arguing.

In 2005, Bob and Viv begin to reconcile, but Viv embarks on an affair with Paddy Kirk, who is married to Viv's employee Emily. Emily later finds out and smashes up the post office before revealing Viv and Paddy's affair to The Woolpack customers, resulting in Paddy being punched by Bob and Emily's former father-in-law Zak Dingle. Paddy and Emily's marriage doesn't survive, but Bob and Viv manage to patch things up. They get engaged and announce this at the same time as Donna and her fiance Marlon.

Bob and Marlon have a joint stag-do (despite Marlon's friend Val Lambert attending) in 2006, which Bob goes missing the day after. On the morning of his wedding, ex-wife Jean picks Bob up and tells him that she's taking him to the wedding, but he drives her past Emmerdale and locks him in her car until he decides to move to Spain with her. Bob refuses and manages to escape. He arrives at the wedding and is greeted by an angry Viv. He tells her that Jean abducted him, and the reason he went missing was because he went to have a vasectomy reversal, as Viv said she wanted children. Viv and Bob marry as well as Donna and Marlon, and afterwards, when Jean asks why he wouldn't leave with her, Bob gets a surprise when their son Jamie turns up out of the blue, and gives Bob a punch, leaving Bob's step-son Scott to return the favour.

Later that year, Dawn is arrested for benefit fraud, having been reported by Scott. Despite everyone's best efforts, Dawn was imprisoned. When Dawn got out of prison, she discovered her mother and her ex-husband were now a couple and decided to move to Cornwall with TJ. Terry asked to spend one more day with TJ, but he was late returning him so he and Dawn missed their flight. Donna convinces Dawn to attend the showing of their new house, but tragedy strikes when a gas leak causes the house to explode and collapse, and Dawn dies the next day from internal injuries, despite being fine while and after being pulled out of the rubble.

The Hopes blame the Kings for what happened and become hellbent on getting revenge. Tom King tries to offer them £300,000 compensation so they could put this all behind them, but not enough money in the world could replace Dawn. On the day of Dawn's funeral, Viv faints, and discovers she's pregnant with twins. Feuding against the Kings became difficult when Jean got sick of all the controversy, accepted the £300,000 and moved to Morocco with TJ. But Bob and Jamie don't give up, and Bob tries to mow down Tom. Tom wants to press charges but Tom's son Jimmy claims he didn't see anything, thinking that they've destroyed Bob's family enough. Bob and Jamie continue their revenge campaign by torching the King's River billboard.

On 25th December 2006, Tom King is killed when he is pushed out of a second-story window by an unknown assailant. Jamie had sneaked into Home Farm with the intention of burning it to the ground, and Bob followed him to make sure he wouldn't do anything he would regret. But Jamie and Bob are separated when Tom comes upstairs while they were arguing. Thinking that Jamie might have killed Tom, Bob confessed to murdering Tom, but as the police didn't have enough evidence to prosecute Bob, he was let go.

On 9th February 2007, Bob, Marlon, Paddy and an unwell Viv are left stranded at the moors when their car breaks down. Viv goes into labour and Marlon runs off to get help, leaving Paddy and Bob to help with the delivery of their children. Bob manages to help deliver a baby girl and Paddy helps to deliver a boy. Bob and Viv decide to name their children Catherine and Heathcliffe.

Later in February 2007, the Hopes are surprised when they re-encounter Bob's brother Eddie, who offers Bob a job at Naughty Nylons, the place Bob worked at when he first met Viv. Eddie tries to take Bob from Viv, but only manages to split them up. When Bob learns of this, he decks him and Eddie leaves the village after unsuccessfully trying to get his brother to forgive him. Bob tries to get back together with Viv but she tells him they need some time apart and he moves in with son Jamie.

In 2008, Viv begins raising money for children's charities, which becomes popular when Ashley and Laurel Thomas lose their son Daniel to cot death. But Freddie Yorke, the man Viv has entrusted the money with, takes it and disappears. Viv and Bob go to the police but Viv accidentally implicates herself when she admits to moving around funds. Viv and Bob are later arrested for fraud. On 20th August 2008, Donna and Ross Kirk nearly die in a car accident whilst in pursuit of Freddie. Viv feels guilty for letting Donna get involved and getting badly injured, and pleads guilty to fraud. She is sentenced to three years imprisonment and Bob is left gutted.

Viv decided she didn't want to see anyone until she got out of prison, but that didn't stop Bob trying to remain in contact with her. First, Bob pretends to be a postman, and while she's doing prison work, and tells Viv that he loves her. He then again returns as a drama teacher under the name "Terry Woods". He and Viv perform a piece of drama together where Bob explains to Viv about a man whose wife refuses to see him while she is in prison. This upsets Viv and leads her to reveal who "Terry" really is.

Whilst Viv was in prison, Bob gave Brenda Walker a job in the post office/cafe. They initially clashed when Brenda tries to remodel the cafe, but Brenda soon realises she's developed feelings for him and tries to get more active in his personal life. Bob figures out what's going on and tries to fix her up with friend Terry Woods. Brenda tries to prove she has no feelings for Bob by kissing Terry on bonfire night, and ends up pursuing a relationship with him.

In July 2009, Viv sends Bob a letter asking him to visit. Assuming that she is going to end their marriage, he decides not to go and instead has sex with Genesis Walker, Brenda's adoptive daughter.