Chris Tordoff

Chris Tordoff is an English-born Irish comedian, actor, writer, YouTuber, and live streamer. He is best known for co-creating the RTÉ mockumentary sitcom Hardy Bucks, in which he plays 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
Born	Chris Tordoff 07/10/1985 Leeds, England
Occupation(s)	Comedian, actor, writer, YouTuber, live streamer
Years active	2009–present

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 Maloney 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), Conor Williams (a D4 sales executive for Mercedes 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]

References

1. Halloran, Tracey (1 June 2014). "Shnakes and ladders - Hardy Bucks interview with COMPETITION". The Irish World. 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. "From Hollywood to London and online hit with Hardy Bucks spin off Viper's View".
11. "The Viper does Corrie in 60 Seconds | Republic of Telly | Mondays 10pm RTÉ 2". YouTube.
12. "Revealed: IFTA Television Awards nominees 2016 – Independent.ie". Independent.ie. Retrieved 16 January 2017.