List of Coronation Street Characters (1999) - Duggie Ferguson

Douglas William "Duggie" Ferguson was played by John Bowe.

An ex-rugby league player who went into the printing business, he first came to Coronation Street after tracking down his son Tom, who worked as a hairdresser for 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 Sally Webster and Danny Hargreaves, butcher Fred Elliott, and Vikram Desai and Steve McDonald, who started up their own mini-cab firm.

Early in 2000 Duggie started a relationship with Debs Brownlow, sister of Rovers landlady Natalie Barnes. Debs had moved to Weatherfield to be near to 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 seemed happy until Duggie started to develop another property and tried to forcibly evict tenants including Toyah Battersby and Phil Simmons. Both felt that they had been treated badly, especially when Duggie employed Vinny Sorrell to throw Simmons out of his own home. Simmons went to the press, and the adverse report caused Duggie's financial downfall, forcing him to sell the home which 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 into No 6 with girlfriend Debs Brownlow, hoping to use it as an office for his business contacts. Debs had a fling with Vinny - her sister'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 up, 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 overcome this fate, but could not buy the place, so it was Fred Elliott and Mike Baldwin who invested in the Rovers alongside 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 Battersby, 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 the Rovers and Weatherfield. Mike's new wife Linda took the helm of the Rovers, but her heart was not in it, and Duggie talked his partners into selling their shares of the Rovers cheaply 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 for a quick way to raise money, Duggie auctioned off the Rovers - to Fred Elliott ! - for £76,000, only to find he had been gazumped for the Rugby Club at the last minute by fellow ex-professional Marty Flynn. With time and money on his hands, he went into partnership with Richard Hillman, converting an old house - 'Oakhill' into luxury flats. Duggie was determined to cut corners, preferably without Richard's knowledge. But Richard suspected this, and one night confronted Duggie at the development. Hoist by his own petard, Duggie leant over a banister which collapsed, and he plunged two floors. The fall didn't kill him outright, but Richard chose to rifle through Duggie's pockets, take his keys and raid his safe, taking the cash from the sale of the Rovers, rather than summon help. Duggie was later found to have crawled to another room and died. His son Tom was ostensibly too busy cutting hair on a cruise ship to attend his father's funeral.