Duggie Ferguson

Duggie Ferguson is a fictional character of the ITV British soap opera drama Coronation Street; first appearing in 15 October 1999 and serving as one of the show's central characters until his departure on 4 February 2002.

History
An ex-rugby league player who went into the printing business, Duggie Ferguson first came to Coronation Street after tracking down his son Tom - who worked as a hairdresser for elderly stylist Audrey Roberts. Tom blamed his father for his mother's death and did not want him around. Duggie was hurt by this and bought into a local development on Victoria Street to be close to Tom but there was no reconciliation and Tom left Weatherfield and moved to Leeds.

In late 1999 to early 2000, Duggie turned property developer and employed Steve McDonald as foreman for the building of his Victoria Street complex - those who rented the commercial units included Steve and his fellow residents; Sally Webster and Danny Hargreaves; butcher Fred Elliott; and Vikram Desai, who started up their own mini-cab firm.

Early in 2000 Duggie started a relationship with Debs Brownlow, sister of The Rovers landlady Natalie Barnes. Debs came to Weatherfield to be near her sister after many years working on a cruise ship as a hairdresser. Debs helped Duggie overcome his emotional block concerning women and the couple were happy until Duggie started to develop another property and tried to forcibly evict tenants including Toyah Battersby and Phil Simmonds. Both felt that they had been treated badly, especially when Duggie employed Vinny Sorrell to evict Phil from his home. Phil went to the press and the adverse report caused Duggie's financial downfall, forcing him to sell the home that he had shared with wife Laura. Dev Alahan bought Duggie's home for a quick sale before putting it back on the market and making a tidy profit. Duggie was forced to move in with Debs, hoping to use it as an office for his business contacts but Debs had a fling with Vinny - Natalie's lover and Duggie's employee. Duggie was furious when Vinny and Debs left town with £400 of rent money.

In December 2000, Natalie decided to sell and The Rovers came under threat by a chain who planned to turn it into a "fun pub" named the Boozy Newt. Duggie stepped in to help the Rovers avoid this but could not buy the place alone so Fred and Mike Baldwin invested in The Rovers with Duggie. Neither of the trio wanted to run the place so they employed Liz McDonald to run it. Liz moved into The Rovers with resident barmaid Toyah but her reign as manager was short as, after numerous disagreements with the trio, and husband Jim being transferred to a prison in Leicester, she quit and left Weatherfield. Mike's new wife, Linda Sykes, took the helm of The Rovers, but her heart was not in it and Duggie persuaded his partners to sell their shares to a 'mysterious owner' - Duggie snapped up their shares and became sole owner of the Rovers.

At the end of 2001, the social club at Duggie's beloved Weatherfield Rugby League club came up for sale. Looking to raise money quickly, Duggie auctioned The Rovers - to Fred Elliott - for £76,000, only to find he had been gazumped for the Rugby Club by fellow ex-professional Marty Flynn. With time and money on his hands, he formed a business partnership with local financial advisor Richard Hillman. Together, the pair worked in converting an old house - "Oakhill" into luxury flats. Duggie was determined to cut corners, preferably without Richard's knowledge. However, Richard deduced Duggie's ulterior motives and confronted him at the building - where the two argued over the project's development. Duggie is unable to assuage Richard of his suspicions, and in response Richard declares their partnership to be over. As Richard begins to leave amid ignoring Duggie's desperate attempts to make him reconsider, telling his business partner "Get lost Duggie. You have the chance, and you blew it!!", Duggie unwittingly leans over a bannister - which collapsed and he plunged two floors. Duggie was critically injured and unconscious from the fall. Richard started to phone an ambulance, but then stopped upon dialing "99" on his phone. It was then that Richard, reflecting on Duggie's dodgy intentions and the fact that he made a fool of him by forging their business partnership in the first place, decided to instead get rid of his unwanted business partner for good - by leaving Duggie to die rather than help him. Putting his phone away, Richard professionally rifled through Duggie's pockets, and took his keys to infiltrate his house - where he managed to decode his safe and stash his cafe from the sale of The Rovers. Richard then left the house discreetly, and returned to the house to put the keys back in Duggie's pocket. There, Duggie is confirmed dead; Richard noticed that he had crawled to another room and died of his injuries. After leaving his body at the house for the night, Richard returned the following morning with his fiance Gail Platt - who has requested Richard to give her a tour around the house to see how his development is coming on. With reluctance, Richard complies and leads Gail to discover Duggie's body - where she discovers that he has already passed away. The couple subsequently phone the police, and Duggie's body is taken away in a private ambulance. It is then that Duggie's death becomes public knowledge around Weatherfield, and they arrange for his funeral a couple of weeks later; however, his son Tom never attended - as he was ostensibly too busy cutting hair on a cruise ship to attend his father's funeral.

Following the events of Duggie's death and funeral, Richard managed to cover-up his involvement behind the incident for over a year. During that time, he sought to correct Duggie's mistakes on his development and went as far as to solely incriminate the deceased publican at being responsible for the situation he was in. This impact led to Richard killing his ex-wife Patricia in May 2002 and Duggie's barmaid Maxine Peacock in January 2003, both in order to uphold his financial issues due to the effect his partnership with Duggie has caused. In 24 February 2003, over a year after Richard left Duggie for dead, his fiance-turned-wife Gail would ultimately discover the truth behind her husband's homicidal nature. When Richard admits to killing Patricia and Maxine that night, Gail questioned his previous claims about Duggie's fate. In response, Richard confesses to leaving Duggie for dead and robbing all the money from his safe in order to put his business development forward - though he also states that Duggie is to blame for the predicament he was in, and that he deserved his fate. After Gail declared their marriage to be over, Richard left the house and became the most wanted man in the UK - once the truth about his crimes, including Duggie's demise, were exposed. Eventually in March 2003, Richard got his comeuppance when he planned to kill Gail and her children - abducting them and then driving them into the canal, only for his stepfamily to escape to safety whilst he himself drowned.

Trivia

 * Duggie Ferguson is one of the two British soap characters to be portrayed by John Bowe; as the actor himself would later play Lawrence White in Emmerdale from 2014-2018.
 * Ironically, both characters have a mutual commonality.
 * Both Duggie Ferguson and Lawrence White are depicted to be entrepreneurs; though Duggie appears as a property developer whereas Lawrence is a business tycoon.
 * Both characters were killed-off after serving four years on their respective shows.
 * Ironically enough, both characters became victims of the show's would-be main antagonists at the year of their deaths; with Duggie dying after being critically injured from falling through a bannister and subsequently being left to die by his villainous business partner Richard Hillman; while Lawrence ends up getting killed in a vehicular crash caused by his antagonistic grandson Lachlan White.