nominated for "Best Actor" and "Villain of the Year". He went on to win the "Best Actor" award. At the All About Soap Bubble Awards Brendan, Ste and Rae won the award for "Best Love Triangle". Scanlan won "Best Newcomer" at the 2011 Inside Soap Awards. He was nominated in the category of "Serial Drama Performance" at the 2012 National Television Awards. He later received a "Best Actor" nomination at the 2012 TV Choice Awards. Scanlan was then nominated for "Best Actor", "Funniest Male" and "Best Bad Boy" at the 2012 Inside Soap Awards. On Digital Spy's 2012 end of year reader poll, Scanlan won "Best Male Soap Actor" and received 22.0% of the vote. At the 2013 National Television Awards Scanlan was nominated in the category of "Serial Drama Performance". A writer for the gay blog and news website AfterElton.com'' expressed his shock at the scene featuring Brendan hitting Ste and also called the story "compelling". He said, "I must say that even though I've been following this storyline since it began, and I knew what was coming, seeing Brendan hit Ste was quite shocking… and the storyline is just beginning. The show has said it's going to be a dark, long-running story arc so I can only imagine what's ahead. I admit that I find the storyline quite compelling, and I've been drawn into it. While some people have seen this as a romance, it's never played that way to me. Ste and Brendan's scenes do have an element of sexual allure since the actors have chemistry, but there's too much darkness and manipulation on the edges of every scene to make real romance even possible. He also gave credit to the show for its slow build up over a few months. Inside Soap writer Laura-Jayne Tyler also praised Scanlan's character: "Ever since the moustache-twitching rogue rocked up in Chester, he's been pure dynamite. His criminal antics are so dodgy that I'm sure he's going to put the likes of Dirty Den to shame, and the gay domestic abuse plot involving him and Ste has got to be the biggest love shock of the year." Ruth Deller of lowculture.co.uk listed Brendan as her favourite character of soap opera during the second half of 2010. She also commented on him, stating: "Twirling his comedy evil moustache, turning Ste into his sex slave, randomly bullying the weakest residents of the