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. Creation Lofty is one of the original 23 characters invented by the creators of EastEnders, Tony Holland and Julia Smith. Both 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 that was happiest in a group but still couldn't find one that he fit 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