Ex-Hibs chief David Duff has new career as an actor

Former chairman appeared in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire drama Quiz

Ex-Hibs chairman David Duff playing a barman in the ITV miniseries Quiz, based on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

David Duff once played a leading role in one of Scottish football’s biggest stories of modern times. Now he is content to simply pick up parts in his unlikely new career as an actor.

The former Hibs chairman was at the helm when Hearts owner Wallace Mercer made his much-publicised attempt to take over the Easter Road club 30 years ago this week.

It is perhaps appropriate that Duff – who could have pocketed close to £1 million if he had agreed to sell his shares to Mercer – made his most recent television appearance in an ITV drama about the long running quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

David Duff, the former Hibs chairman, pictured in 1991.

Quiz was shown in April in three parts and hinged on a cheating scandal involving a contestant, Major Charles Ingram, and his wife, Diana. Blink and you might well miss Duff’s role as a barman early in the first episode.

He is on screen for only a few seconds and says four words: “Diana, Diana! Telephone! Diana!”

Now 66, Duff is unrecognisable from the moustachioed chairman of Hibs who endured brickbats from his own club’s supporters during Mercer’s merger bid. His eventual refusal to sell his shares meant the Hearts owner could not reach the minimum number required.

Duff has since reinvented himself. “It was an interesting day,” he says of his role in Quiz, which starred Matthew Macfadyen as Ingram, Sian Clifford as his wife and Michael Sheen as host Chris Tarrant. It was directed by Stephen Frears.

Matthew Macfadyen as Charles Ingram and Michael Sheen as Chris Tarrant in the ITV drama Quiz. Former Hibs chairman David Duff had a small role in the miniseries. Picture: Leftbank Pictures

“He is a very famous director and a joy to work for. Although it is a very short scene it still took about seven hours.

“You could say acting is my passion,” he continues. “It is a hobby – and you get paid! I have always loved acting. Even before I became a solicitor I was the wolf in a pantomime at the De La Warr Pavilion (in Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex).”

Now retired, Duff supplements his pension with regular cameos. He was playing a small role in a forthcoming blockbuster before filming was suspended due to the lockdown in March.

“I am in the Ladbrokes FA Cup advert, singing ‘here we go, here we go, here we go’,” he says.

“And I won a French award for a little short film I did where you had to do everything in one take.”