Tom Watt | |
---|---|
Born | Thomas Erickson Watt 14 February 1956 |
Occupation(s) | Actor, writer, broadcaster |
Years active | 1981–present |
Known for | EastEnders (1985–1988, 2019,2022) |
Children | 1 |
Thomas Erickson Watt (born 14 February 1956) is an English actor, writer and broadcaster, known for portraying the role of Lofty Holloway in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders . He is also known for his appearances on the BBC radio show Fighting Talk and his documentary films for BT Sport.
Born in Wanstead, Watt studied drama at Manchester University where he directed several stage productions. One of his first television roles was in the comedy series Never the Twain in 1981, but his big break came in 1985 when he was cast as one of the original characters in the BBC One soap opera, EastEnders . Watt portrayed the role of Lofty Holloway, the barman of the Queen Vic pub from the show's inception until 1988.
Other acting credits have included roles in the BBC drama South of the Border, a South London detective show; the role of Norman in the 1990 film for ITV called And the Nightingale Sang, a love story set during the war; Boon 1992, with Michael Elphick; as well as a minor role in the 1992 film Patriot Games , among others.
As well as television and film he has had many theatre and stage roles. Most notably, he starred in the one-man show Fever Pitch , based on the Nick Hornby novel of the same name. Watt appeared in an episode of the BBC TV series New Tricks , had a minor role in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes and appeared in a production of Madness In Valencia.
In 2019 and 2022, Watt reprised his role as Lofty Holloway in EastEnders for two episodes, for the funerals of Dr. Harold Legg [1] and Dot Cotton. [2]
After leaving EastEnders, Watt began presenting sports segments for Channel 4, Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 5 Live, talkSPORT, and Cable TV. He has also written, presented and produced several documentaries about football for BT Sport Films, including the Football Outposts series. Watt featured regularly on BBC Radio 5 Live's Fighting Talk , [3] where we he won the Champion of Champions trophy on 28 May 2011. He hosted Arsenal TV's Monday night Fans' Forum until the show was discontinued. He also produced, directed and presented the Channel 4 children's sports show, Rookies in the early 1990s. [4]
Watt recorded a version of Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues in 1985, with members of the British band New Order among other artists appearing in the music video. [5] The single peaked at number 67 in the UK singles chart.
Watt wrote match reports and features for The Observer for several years. He has written nine books about football, including The End, A Passion for the Game, A Beautiful Game and the legacy book for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He was the ghost-writer for the David Beckham autobiography, My Side, which won a special prize at the British Book Awards. [6] In 2017, Watt wrote 13 Years In Heaven with Thomas Salme. [7]
Watt was once romantically involved with his EastEnders castmate Anita Dobson, who played Angie Watts. [8] He married his wife in 1993 and they have since had a son, Roland. [9]
Watt is currently an advisory board member for BounceBack, a charity that trains ex offenders. [10]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1992 | Patriot Games | The Electrician | |
2000 | Saint Jude | Pat | |
2005 | Lost Dogs | Dennis Balch | |
2006 | Flirting with Flamenco | Martin | |
2009 | Sherlock Holmes | Carriage Driver | |
2016 | The Cucaracha Club | Cameron Carrington |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1981 | My Father's House | Eddie | 2 episodes |
1982 | A Kind of Loving | Wally Chisholm | 2 episodes |
1983 | Chessgame | Technician | 1 episode |
1984 | Love and Marriage | Paul | 1 episode |
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia | 1st Loafer | 1 episode | |
Dramarama | Steve Berwick | 1 episode | |
Never the Twain | Duane | 1 episode | |
1985–1988, 2019, 2022 | EastEnders | Lofty Holloway | Series regular, 256 episodes |
1986 | Cold War Killers | Technician | Television film |
1989 | And a Nightingale Sang | Norman | |
1992 | Boon | Steve | 1 episode |
1993 | Comedy Playhouse | Gordon | 1 episode |
1994–1995 | Space Precinct | Officer Beezle | 4 episodes |
2000 | Happy Birthday Shakespeare | Mickey | Television film |
2002 | TLC | Sid | 1 episode |
2009 | Doctors | Ray MacGyver | 1 episode |
2010 | New Tricks | Stuart Russell | 1 episode |
EastEnders is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the programme follows the stories of local residents and their families as they go about their daily lives. Within eight months of the show's original launch, it had reached the number one spot in BARB's television ratings, and has consistently remained among the top-rated series in Britain. Four EastEnders episodes are listed in the all-time top 10 most-watched programmes in the UK, including the number one spot, when over 30 million watched the 1986 Christmas Day episode. EastEnders has been important in the history of British television drama, tackling many subjects that are considered to be controversial or taboo in British culture, and portraying a social life previously unseen on UK mainstream television.
Adam Brinley Woodyatt is an English actor. He is known for his role as Ian Beale in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a role he has portrayed since the show's inception in 1985.
Nina Wadia is an English actress and comedian. She is known for portraying Zainab Masood in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, Aunty Noor in Citizen Khan, Mrs Hussein in the BBC comedy Still Open All Hours and for starring in the BBC Two sketch show Goodness Gracious Me.
Danny Dyer is an English actor and presenter. Dyer's breakthrough role was as Moff in Human Traffic, with other notable roles Billy the Limpet in Mean Machine and as Tommy Johnson in The Football Factory. Following the success of The Football Factory, Dyer was often typecast in "hard-man" roles, although it was this image that allowed him to present The Real Football Factories, its spin-off, The Real Football Factories International and Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men. Dyer has also worked in theatre, having appeared in three plays written by Harold Pinter, with whom he had a close friendship.
Vicki Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Emma Herry from the character's birth in 1986 to 1988, Samantha Leigh Martin from 1988 to 1995, and Scarlett Alice Johnson from 2003 to 2004. She is the daughter of Michelle Fowler and Den Watts. The character is born in the serial, conceived in a controversial storyline about teenage pregnancy. Exploiting a whodunnit angle, at the time of the first showing, viewers were not initially told who was the father, and press interest in the fledgling show escalated as journalists attempted to guess. The audience finally discovered his identity in October 1985 in episode 66. Written by series co-creator/script-editor Tony Holland and directed by co-creator/producer Julia Smith, it was considered a landmark episode in the show's history. Early suspects were Ian Beale and Kelvin Carpenter, but then four possible suspects are seen leaving the Square early in the episode: Tony Carpenter, Ali Osman, Andy O'Brien, and Den Watts. As Michelle waits by their rendezvous point, a car pulls up and the fluffy white legs of the soap landlord's poodle Roly leap out of a car to give it all away: Den Watts is the father of Michelle's baby. After this storyline the programme started to appear in newspaper cartoons as it moved more and more into the public mainstream. Vicki's character was written out in October 1995, after Susan Tully, who played Vicki's mother Michelle, decided to leave the soap.
Nicholas Richard Bailey is a British actor, best known for his role as Anthony Trueman in the British soap opera EastEnders. He also participated in the 2006 series of ITV's Soapstar Superstar. He attended Old Swinford Hospital School, Stourbridge, The Blue Coat School, Edgbaston, Birmingham and Cherry Orchard, also in Birmingham.
Cliff Parisi is an English actor, known for his roles as Minty Peterson in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and Fred Buckle in the BBC period drama Call the Midwife. In 2019, he participated in the nineteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.
George "Lofty" Holloway is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Tom Watt. Lofty is one of the serial's near-original characters, making his first appearance in the third episode, which was first broadcast on 26 February 1985. Lofty is generally depicted as a meek, luckless, hapless victim. A long-running storyline concerns his relationship with the character Michelle Fowler. Lofty departed in episode 334, first broadcast on 19 April 1988. Watt reprised his role in 2018 for the funeral of Harold Legg. Lofty appears in episode 5871, originally broadcast on 19 February 2019. He reprised the role again in 2022 for the funeral of Dot Cotton ; Lofty appears in episode 6608, first broadcast on 12 December 2022.
Joe Absolom is an English actor known for his roles as Matthew Rose in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and Al Large in the ITV comedy drama Doc Martin.
Shobu Kapoor is an Indian British actress. She is most notable for playing the role of Gita Kapoor, the long-suffering wife of market trader Sanjay, in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 1993 to 1998.
Since its premiere in 1985, the BBC soap opera EastEnders has had a large impact on popular culture.
Preeya Kalidas is an English singer and actress. She played Amira Masood in the soap opera EastEnders, from 2009 to 2012. She released the single "Shimmy" in July 2010, taken from her proposed debut album (I'm Over It) Constant Craving; however, the album was never released.
Shona Bernadette McGarty is an English actress and singer, known for her portrayal of Whitney Dean in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2008 to 2024.
Ricky James Norwood is an English actor, known for portraying the role of Fatboy in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and its online spin-off EastEnders: E20 (2010–2011). Following his initial exit from the soap, Norwood appeared as a housemate on the eighteenth series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2016 and finished as the runner-up. He has also competed in the sixteenth series of Dancing on Ice in 2024.
Lily Elizabeth Caldwell, known professionally as Katherine Parr, was a British actress, who played the recurring role of Irene Holloway, commonly known as Auntie Irene, in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, between 1986 and 1987, when her character died from lung cancer.
Ben "Lofty" Chiltern is a fictional character from the BBC medical dramas Casualty and Holby City, played by actor Lee Mead. He first appeared in Casualty's twenty-eighth series episode "The Last Chance Saloon", broadcast on 1 March 2014. The character is introduced to fill the role of a young, male nurse. Mead previously appeared in the drama in the twenty-sixth series of Casualty. Lofty originally appears as a staff nurse but is promoted to senior staff nurse in 2016. The character is specifically written for Mead and he was contracted to the show for a year. Lofty is portrayed as a nice person who is likeable and popular. His clumsiness often leaves him in awkward situations although he is a brilliant nurse and a team player. Lofty's backstory states that when his parents grew tired of his wild behaviour, they kicked him out.
Tony David Clay is an English actor. He is known for portraying the role of Callum "Halfway" Highway in the BBC soap opera EastEnders since 2018. Prior to his tenure on EastEnders, Clay appeared in various stage productions and had minor roles in British films and programmes.
Max Lewis Bowden is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Justin Fitzgerald in the BBC One school-based drama series Waterloo Road (2014–2015), and his portrayal of Ben Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (2019–2024).