Brian Beacom

THE RIVER City wedding of the year is set to be staged, featuring Stephen Purdon’s Bob Adams as the groom.

But there are a couple of shocks in store, as is always the case in soapland.

The first is that Bob (formerly Shellsuit, before he acquired a little sartorial style) isn’t about to marry Angus.

Despite the pair being closer than a piston rod and a crankshaft (their nameblending label is Bogus) Bob’s big love is for Kim (Frances Thorburn.)

However, the second shock to come along is that the wedding may go with a bang. Not Lulu-Boom Bang A Bang Bang fun-type bang, we’re talking ugly bang. The bang of an engine backfiring – or the bang of a door slamming shut in someone’s face.

A bang that kills an event stone dead.

Or are we?

“Bob and Kim have been arranging the wedding but meanwhile, Nicole (Holly Jack) has come back on the scene,” explains Stephen, smiling.

“We learn that Nicole brings with her a set of problems, and she discovers that Bob has inherited money recently. So she turns on the charm. And it becomes a bit of a honeytrap.”

Wait a minute! Bob is as upright as the Tall Ship. He can’t be swayed by this stripper vixen coming back into his life after three years? (While Holly Jack took a crack at Hollywood)

“That’s true,” says Stephen, grinning. “But all hasn’t been well at home for Bob and Kim, given her car accident and history of domestic abuse so his own head has been turned.

“He and Nicole have a kiss. But then Nicole blackmail’s Bob.”

It doesn’t end there. The First Commandment of soap deems that no crime goes unpunished. The Second Commandment demands that everyone who sins – even if it’s a tiny, venial sin – finds themselves stricken with guilt and having to confess.

“Yes, that’s the case” says Stephen, grinning. “So we’re at the altar and he feels he has to tell Kim what he’s been up to.

“And then we’re in the situation whereby we’re left wondering what will Kim do.”

Now, Bob may be nicer than a car air freshener but he has had his tricky times with the opposite sex during his . . . year stint at Shieldinch.

But the big question has to be answered. Will Kim sacrifice a lifetime of possible happiness with the nicest bloke in Shieldinch, and a lifetime of free servicing? Or will she cast Bob away like a used, baldy flat tyre?

Stephen, in real life, is used to wedding trauma. Marriage to childhood sweetheart Nicola almost had to be postponed, given he was suffering from serious illness at the time.

“Yes, when you film a wedding story like this it does take you back to your own wedding. It seems like yesterday, but it was seven years ago.”

He recovered in time to be married. But then announced to his family he and Nicola were expecting a baby.

“It all turned out to be a great day in the end,” he says of the ceremony at Glenbervie House, in Larbert, Stirlingshire.

“Then we had Layla, and now we have Leo as well.”

Recent years have revealed continual success for the actor. He’s the longest serving member of the cast. So what is he doing right? Who does he know at exec level?

“I think if I stopped to wonder what I was doing right I would stop doing it,” says the actor, laughing.

“I just keep on doing what I’m doing.”

Meantime, Stephen is set to wear women’s clothes for the first time in his life.

“Yes, I’m set to go into rehearsals at the Pavilion,” he explains, grinning of the stint as an Ugly Sister in Cinderella.

“It will be my first time dragging up. But I’ll be working with Grado, so it will certainly be a unique version of the Ugly Sisters.”

He adds; “I met up with Grado on Saturday night and we talked of what we might do.”

Wear the comedy pair tempted to go all method actory and don a couple of dresses and stroll down Sauchiehall Street, by way of exploring authenticity?

“No, we weren’t tempted,” he says laughing. “The Pavilion audience will be the first to see what we look like in a frock.”

It will be a nice change from wearing a pair of greasy overalls though, you suggest.

“I love the overalls,” he says, smiling. “And I’m thankful for the storylines. It’s been great.”

But if the marriage doesn’t happen, will he and Angus get it together.

“You never can say,” he says, grinning.

River City, Tuesday at 8pm on BBC1 Scotland.

The Magical Advertures of Cinderella runs from November 29 – January 13.

Bob’s Love Line.

2003 – Bob proposes to Zara Malik in an iconic River City scene (on a cherry picker). The couple are badly matched and their relationship doesn’t last.

2004 – Bob gets engaged to Michelle Rafferty but the relationship is ill-fated when her ex appears back on the scene.

2008 – Bob is jilted at the altar by Charlie Drummond in their double wedding day (shared with Scarlett and Jimmy). Charlie jilts him when she realises Bob doesn’t love her and is going through with the wedding, unable to break it off

2011 – Stella Walker proposes to Bob. They get married the following year (2012) but their marriage ends after she has an affair with Stevie the barman.

2018 – Bob and Kim Monroe jointly propose. But Kim doesn’t know about Nicole the temptress.