Holby City fans were left stunned this week when Lofty revealed he is gay.
The former Casualty nurse, played by Lee Mead, shared a kiss with patient Lenny (Micah Balfour).
When Lenny was admitted to the ward with stomach pains, it was clear there wasn’t a good history between him and Lofty, and that was confirmed when Lenny said:
“You’re no friend of mine.”
Lofty later revealed he used to date Lenny’s sister and that’s how they knew each other, but it soon became clear Lenny wasn’t just being a protective brother.
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Lenny revealed Lofty had been engaged to his sister, Sarah, but jilted her at the altar. Lenny wasn’t impressed with Lofty’s reasoning for leaving Sarah standing, not even when Lofty insisted Lenny knew exactly why he’d done it.
Lofty then showed him a Radiohead ticket – and said he could never throw it away because of what it meant to him. Lenny scoffed:
“Our hands touched at a gig, once, accidentally.”
“It wasn’t an accident though, was it?” replied Lofty.
Then Lofty said he’d learnt from the Australians not to let the opportunity pass, not muck around and go after what he wants. Then he lent in for a kiss.
After a couple of seconds, Lenny pulled him back again and the pair passionately snogged.
Viewers were shocked – when Lofty had been in Casualty, there was no hint that he was gay.
Heading over to social media they expressed their surprise at the character development.
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Opening up to What’s On TV about this new direction for his character, Lee Mead said:
“Lofty’s sexuality was never brought up really, but I was saying to Ollie Kent, the exec on the show, that I was more than happy to play Lofty gay.
“I didn’t want to do this thing that’s been done before in a lot of shows about the struggle of coming out.
“For me, it’s very much matter of fact and the audience just discovering this side to Lofty, which was really nice to play actually.”