"Aye, Aye, What's Going on Here Then?"

28 feb 1985



So what will it be Lofty, Sharon or Angie? From the 4th episode of the East-end London's soap first year in 1985, first off, we see a very frisky (and permed) 17 year old Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), adopted daughter of Dennis "Dirty Den" and Angie Watts, whose epic arguments were very much the bread and butter of Eastenders in the 80s. Here we a fleeting, not-well-profiled clinch between Lofty or rather George Holloway -nicknamed for his tall stature- and Sharon in the Queen Vic pub. Mother Angie catches this playful behaviour between employee and daughter. However, at the scene of this late-night party taking place behind the scenes and not in the actual pub, once Dirty Den has his "eye off the ball" as they say, Angie is making a play for Lofty! Lofty had only just appeared for the first time in the previous episode, and being really the only young male in the serial, and well, the pond wasn't very big!

"Lofty" was an affectionate but isolated character, whose physical-looking awkwardness matched his social attributes. Depicted as weak and vulnerable, he was bullied by his boss Dirty Den. he would soon fall in love with teenage mum Michelle Fowler, although, that wasn't always returned. A reluctant marriage ensued, while Dirty Den continued to make Lofty's life a misery, by discovering he was the father of Michelle's child, and he paid to abort Michelle's next baby, via Lofty's handiwork. Lofty became a distant and bitter but still participating in the local community, however, he couldn't stand the sight of Michelle any longer in his life, so left for Bedfordshire in 1988, to work as a handyman for a children's home. He never came back.