Francis Higgins (actor)

Chris Tordoff is an Irish comedian, actor, and writer best known for his role as Francis "The Viper" Higgins in RTÉ Television series Hardy Bucks. The Higgins character has been reprised in the 2013 The Hardy Bucks Movie, on RTÉ's Republic of Telly, on RT UK's Viper's View, and on Tordoff's YouTube channel.

Francis Higgins
Born
Chris Tordoff

Leeds, England
Other namesThe Viper
OccupationYouTuber, comedian, actor, writer
Years active2009–present
Known forHardy Bucks

Early life

Tordoff was born in Leeds, England, and moved to Swinford, County Mayo, Ireland, as a teenager.[1]

Career

Tordoff co-created Hardy Bucks with his friend Martin Moloney as a web series on YouTube in 2009. He wrote for it, directed it, and acted in it, portraying the antagonist Francis "The Viper" Higgins, a small-time drug dealer. In 2009, it won RTÉ Television's Storyland competition, and was commissioned as a series for television.[2] For the second series, Liz Gill took over directorial duties from Tordoff.[3] He reprised the role in the 2013 film based on the series, The Hardy Bucks Movie.[4] Tordoff was also a guest on Republic of Telly on RTÉ.

Tordoff also creates online comedy on his own YouTube channel, under the name Francis Higgins. One series, World News, was a parodical news show inspired by a segment on Euronews called No Comment. Tordoff used clips from No Comment to produce his own videos, but was threatened with legal action by Euronews in 2016. This led to Tordoff being commissioned by RT UK to produce 50 episodes of Viper's View, as an insert for Sam Delaney's News Thing.[5][6][7]

Since 2019, Tordoff has regularly streamed video games on his YouTube channel, playing them in character either as Francis Higgins, Tommy Shlug (a bus driver from the west of Ireland), or Fontaine (a gritty New York detective), as well as others.[8][9]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
2013 The Hardy Bucks Movie Francis 'The Viper' Higgins
2016 Digs for Pennies Matty Gandon Short film

Television
Title Year Role Network Notes Ref(s)
Hardy Bucks 2010–present Francis 'The Viper' Higgins RTÉ Two 20 episodes
Also director and writer		 [10]
The Republic of Telly 2011–2016 Donnie's Irish cousin
Francis 'The Viper' Higgins		 50 episodes [11]

Awards

In October 2016, Chris Tordoff was nominated for an IFTA in the Best Male Performance category for his role as Francis Higgins, losing out to Red Rock's Sean Mahon.[12]

gollark: What of `return`s in the loop?
gollark: So it can solve arbitrary halting problems, execute infinite tasks, sort of thing.
gollark: Macron has new "Turing Completeness+" technology, for purposes.
gollark: It just solves the halting problem because yes.
gollark: Actually, it completes in finite time; Macron is just that good.

References
  1. Halloran, Tracey (1 June 2014). "Shnakes and ladders - Hardy Bucks interview with COMPETITION". The Irish World. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  2. O'Byrne, Ellie (17 July 2018). "Boys are back in town". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  3. "Interview: The boys are back in town as Chris Tordoff discuss the second season of 'Hardy Bucks'". IFTN. 10 November 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  4. "Review: The Hardy Bucks Movie". Joe. 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  5. Baker, Hassan (6 January 2017). "Interview: Francis 'The Viper' Higgins". Motley. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  6. "From Hollywood to London and online hit with Hardy Bucks spin off Viper's View". Irish Times. 10 August 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  7. Heneghan, Conor (10 June 2016). "The Viper's World News has been snapped up by a major Russian broadcaster". Joe. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  8. "The Viper is streaming games and you should be watching". Geek Ireland. 7 May 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  9. O'Gorman, Joe (2019). "Viper Higgins - A Tribute To Ireland's Greatest YouTuber". College Times. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  10. https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/from-hollywood-to-london-and-online-hit-with-hardy-bucks-spin-off-viper-s-view-1.3176009
  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_7vx-rKGBM
  12. "Revealed: IFTA Television Awards nominees 2016 – Independent.ie". Independent.ie. Retrieved 16 January 2017.


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