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Fictional character from EastEnders

George "Lofty" Holloway is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Tom Watt. Lofty is one of the serial's near original characters, making his first appearance in the third episode, which was first broadcast on 26 February 1985. Lofty is generally depicted as a meek, luckless, hapless victim. A long running storyline concerns his relationship with the character Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully). Lofty departed in episode 334, first broadcast on 19 April 1988. Watt reprised his role in 2018 for the funeral of Harold Legg (Leonard Fenton). Lofty appears in episode 5871, originally broadcast on 19 February 2019. He reprised the role again in 2022 for the funeral of Dot Cotton (June Brown); Lofty appears in episode 6608, first broadcast on 12 December 2022.

George Holloway, nicknamed "Lofty" for his above average height, serves in the Army but must leave because he suffers from chronic asthma; he settles in Walford and gets a job as a barman at The Queen Victoria public house. Lofty is devoted to his aunt Irene (Katherine Parr), who lives in a hospice, stricken with inoperable cancer. He takes on the task of looking after and visiting her and is devastated when she eventually dies in 1987. He grows close to Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) after she becomes pregnant in 1985 and refuses to name the father: Lofty's employer, Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), is the actual father although Lofty never discovers this. Michelle finds the prospect of bringing up a child daunting. Lofty struggles to see Michelle unhappy and chivalrously offers to marry her and help bring up her baby, Vicki, as his own. Although Michelle does not love Lofty, she accepts his proposal, realising that she can never be with her baby's real father. However, on their wedding day, Michelle is visited by Den in secret, which makes her reconsider her options; she jilts Lofty at the altar, devastating him. When Michelle changes her mind months later, Lofty is overjoyed and sneaks Michelle away for a secret wedding. Money is sparse for the couple and Michelle is never truly happy; she quickly tires of Lofty. When Lofty begins pressuring Michelle to have a baby with him and to allow him to adopt Vicki, she is unwilling. She discovers that she is pregnant with Lofty's child and has an abortion. Lofty is devastated by Michelle's betrayal and their marriage breaks down. He grows depressed about losing the child he wanted so badly and amidst continued hostility with Michelle, he leaves Walford and take a job working as a handyman in a children's home in Bedfordshire, leaving in April 1988 with only Den witnessing his departure. It is subsequently revealed that Lofty has become a social worker.

Over thirty years later in 2019, Lofty returns for the funeral of Dr. Harold Legg (Leonard Fenton), where he reunites with old friends, Dot Branning (June Brown), Mary Smith (Linda Davidson), Sharon Mitchell (Letitia Dean), and Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), and explains that he now owns 15 pubs across London. They reminisce and before leaving, Lofty hands Michelle's brother, Martin Fowler (James Bye), a cheque for £20,000 to be given to Vicki. Lofty returns again three years later, in 2022, for Dot's funeral. He arrives late after initially going to the wrong church.

Lofty is one of the original 23 characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith, who felt that to help complete the community there was a need for a character in his early twenties. He had to be someone a bit different; not brash and confident like a lot of the older men, and not boisterous like the younger ones. A loner, maybe someone forced to be a loner. A person who "stuck out like a sore thumb". Someone who was happiest in a group but still couldn't find one that he fitted in with. Tony Holland had previously been in the army and found that ex soldiers had these problems when they tried to reintegrate as civilians. So they decided that Lofty would be an ex soldier, forced to quit because of his asthma. He was happiest in the army and felt incomplete without the group setting, the all male camaraderie and even the security of the uniformity that the army provides. Lofty's original character outline as written by Smith and Holland appeared in an abridged form in their book, EastEnders: The Inside Story. "Born of a working class London family, which was very respectable: Church of England and ex army Lofty grew up in a house where his father was only really happy when reminiscing about his army days and his mother was ultra possessive and narrow minded His friends were always vetted He grew up to despise his mother and have a tolerant pity for his father His best moments came in the Boy Scouts, the summer camp, and the feeling of belonging On his eighteenth birthday, he walked into an army careers office and from then until the age of twenty one had the happiest years of his life in the RASC He adored the army – It gave him a uniform, and set the limits Then the shock – he was discovered to be physically unfit Dormant asthma He was invalided out of the service And, he had no taste for civilian life His Auntie Irene (now in a hospice) secured the flat above Ethel Skinner's for Lofty He misses the security of the Army He works in the pub – cash in hand." (page 60) In 1987, Bob Shields of the Evening Times described Lofty as a "portable funeral". He added, "Beneath the facade of his National Health glasses smoulders the fire and passion of a cold toilet seat." One of the most notable storylines Lofty was involved with was his marriage to teenage mother Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully). Michelle and Lofty's church wedding was a massive target of press speculation before the episodes aired. They wanted to know two things, firstly the design of Michelle's dress, and secondly whether or not she would jilt Lofty at the altar. Michelle and Lofty's eventual marriage helped to consolidate a fast growing audience. The young couple had come together under enormously difficult circumstances. The subsequent storylines were purposefully built to keep the audience guessing about the future of their relationship. Were they married for the wrong reasons? Would the relationship survive? and what would happen if Lofty wanted a child that was their own? In 2009, when asked if there was a chance he would return as Lofty, Watt told Patrick McLennan of What's on TV: "I get the feeling that people think I'm ashamed of EastEnders; like it's some dirty thing in my past. But I had a fantastic time on that show and Lofty was loved by nobody more than the person who played him. I cannot think of anybody who had a better character to play. But I haven't been beating a path to their door, they haven't been beating a path to mine." The BBC confirmed that Watt would reprise his role as Lofty, alongside Linda Davidson as Mary Smith, over 30 years after they departed, on 18 December. The characters returned for the funeral of original character Doctor Legg (Leonard Fenton), who returned to the soap in 2018.

In 1988, actor Kevin Kennedy who played Curly Watts in soap opera Coronation Street, which was EastEnders''' biggest television rival, criticised the character of Lofty. Kennedy claimed that Lofty was a direct copy of his character Curly: "As far as I'm concerned, Lofty was a straight lift. It really annoyed me when I saw it. Lofty even had the same hairstyle and glasses as Curly, he had the same caring but dithering nature. It was a perfect copy." Curly first appeared in Coronation Street in 1983, just under two years before Lofty first appeared in EastEnders in 1985. Steve Tooze of the Daily Mirror branded the character a "daft, clueless geek who married 'Chelle Fowler, even though she was pregnant with Dirty Den's baby, and was duly dumped for his kind heartedness." In 2022, Luke Weir from Surrey Live'' called Lofty a "loveable" and "luckless" whose storyline with Michelle got "viewers to root for him".