Chris Tordoff is an English-born Irish comedian, actor, writer, YouTuber, and streamer. He is best known for co-creating the RTÉ mockumentary series Hardy Bucks, in which he plays bungling drug dealer Francis "The Viper" Higgins. He has reprised the role in other media, such as The Hardy Bucks Movie, the comedy series Republic of Telly and Viper's View, and on his own YouTube and Twitch channels.
Chris Tordoff | |
|---|---|
 Tordoff at JDIFF 2013 | |
| Born | Leeds, England |
| Occupation(s) | Comedian, actor, writer, YouTuber, streamer |
| Years active | 2009–present |
Early life
editTordoff was born in Leeds and moved to the Irish town of Swinford as a teenager.[1]
Career
editTordoff co-created Hardy Bucks with his friend Martin Maloney as a web series on YouTube in 2009. He co-wrote, directed, and starred in it as 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] He 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] In October 2016, Tordoff was nominated for an IFTA in the Best Male Performance category for his role as Francis Higgins.[8]
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 and Francis Higgins' uncle), Conor Williams (a D4-based sales executive for Mercedes Ireland), or Fontaine (a gritty New York detective) among others.[9][10]
Filmography
editFilm
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | The Hardy Bucks Movie | Francis "The Viper" Higgins | |
| 2016 | Digs for Pennies | Matty Gandon | Short film |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010–present | Hardy Bucks | Francis "The Viper" Higgins | 20 episodes Also director and writer[11] |
| 2011–2016 | The Republic of Telly | Donnie's Irish Cousin Francis "The Viper" Higgins |
50 episodes[12] |
References
edit- ^ 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.
- ^ O'Byrne, Ellie (17 July 2018). "Boys are back in town". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Review: The Hardy Bucks Movie". Joe. 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Baker, Hassan (6 January 2017). "Interview: Francis 'The Viper' Higgins". Motley. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ "From Hollywood to London and online hit with Hardy Bucks spin off Viper's View". Irish Times. 10 August 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Heneghan, Conor (10 June 2016). "The Viper's World News has been snapped up by a major Russian broadcaster". Joe. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ "Revealed: IFTA Television Awards nominees 2016 – Independent.ie". Independent.ie. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ "The Viper is streaming games and you should be watching". Geek Ireland. 7 May 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ O'Gorman, Joe (2019). "Viper Higgins - A Tribute To Ireland's Greatest YouTuber". College Times. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ "From Hollywood to London and online hit with Hardy Bucks spin off Viper's View".
- ^ "The Viper does Corrie in 60 Seconds | Republic of Telly | Mondays 10pm RTÉ 2". YouTube.
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