Bob said there was no going back (Pictures: ITV)

After his dramatic heart attack on Monday (August 14)’s episode of Emmerdale, Bob Hope (Tony Audenshaw) woke up in a hospital bed the next day following surgery to sort his heart out.

Just before the heart attack he’d been having a fight with his love rival, Dr Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson), and punched the GP in the face. The stress and excitement was all too much for Bob, who began to clutch his chest and crashed to the floor. Only swift work with a defibrillator by Liam and Jacob (Joe-Warren Plant) saved his life.

Liam paid a visit to the hospital soon after Bob woke up, wanting to apologise for his affair with Bob’s partner Wendy (Susan Cookson) that had caused so much upset to Bob and ultimately almost cost him his life.

Bob was in no mood to indulge Liam by making him feel less guilty about the affair and soon ordered him out, but when Wendy came back it seemed that Bob had decided to forgive her. He said he still loved her, but there was something he needed to tell her.

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He’d been talking to his doctors, who’d asked him if he’d experienced any warning signs that there might be a problem with his heart. Things like anxiety and tiredness, which he hadn’t noticed. But there was one symptom it seems he did have: erectile dysfunction. He said it had been concerning him for some time, but he hadn’t mentioned it to Wendy because he didn’t want her treating him like a patient.

Wendy was a bit gobsmacked by this revelation. Despite being a nurse and being Bob’s partner she hadn’t realised something was up (or rather, not up). She just thought Bob had been suffering from the effects of too many glasses of wine before bed. He admitted he’d also taken action to stop her noticing, like avoiding situations where he may be called upon to perform.

He told Wendy that he knew he’d driven her into Liam’s arms by not fulfilling her needs but she denied this, saying that she’d felt taken for granted. Poor Bob, feeling extremely insecure about the whole situation, didn’t quite believe that he hadn’t directly caused her affair with Liam due to his failure to perform.

Bob had a heart attack after punching Liam (Picture: ITV)

Wendy accused him of trying to build a whole story around him being a victim and said they had to leave that in the past otherwise he’d make himself ill every time he saw Liam. She started to say that now they knew what the problem was they could do something about it.