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.

Early life

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

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. For the second series, Liz Gill took over directorial duties from Tordoff. He reprised the role in the 2013 film based on the series, The Hardy Bucks Movie. 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.
Since 2019, Tordoff has regularly streamed video games on his YouTube channel, playing them in character either as Francis Higgins, Tommy Shlug, or Fontaine, as well as others.

Filmography

Film

Television

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.