the pairing of Lofty and Dom and thought that they are perfect together. He commented, "Dom pushes Lofty to think differently and Lofty pushes Dom to feel differently – to not be so reactive, and not be so fiery." He added that although he loves the pairing, he would be willing for Lofty and Dom to separate for the sake of exciting stories. Ames also expressed his delight at working with Mead, who said managed to make Lofty a "beautiful, but flawed, character". Reception Mead was nominated for Favourite Newcomer at the 2014 TV Times Awards, but lost out to Emmerdale Amelia Flanagan for her role as April Windsor. He was also nominated for Best Newcomer at the 20th National Television Awards in January 2015, but lost out to EastEnders Maddy Hill for her role as Nancy Carter. Lofty's pairing with Dom was nominated for Best Soap Couple at the 2018 Digital Spy Reader Awards; they came in eleventh place with 2.8% of the total votes. David Brown, writing for the Radio Times, liked Lofty in his first episode but believed that he "gets off to a bad start". He also described Mead as "a charismatic addition to the ED". However, Radio Times Alison Graham disagreed and branded Lofty an "idiot" on multiple occasions. She also dubbed Lofty "the Care Bears version of Dr Tanya Byron". Wade (Radio Times) labelled Lofty the "Band 5 Nurse who stumbled his way into a job in the ED." Wade named Lofty's memorable moments as his introduction, his suspension after taking a patient from the hospital, and being "hailed a hero" after risking his life to save a patient. Sophie Dainty of Digital Spy found the character "loveable". James Brinsford (Metro) was surprised when Mead joined the cast as a nurse rather than "the 'famous person who’s befallen a nasty accident' that brings to TV those people who you wondered what happened to." He observed that the character became "a viewer favourite" during his tenure on Casualty. Henderson praised Mead's casting and said, "adding Lee Mead to the cast is gonna be fab [because] he's such a nice energy to have around." Daniel Kilkelly of Digital Spy said that Lofty's introduction was "a very unusual way to bring in a new character". Brown also described Lofty's arrival as "unusual". Graham praised a series 29 episode which focused around Lofty, Robyn Miller and Max Walker.