Famous faces are thin on the ground within the property industry but one leading figure has revealed his brief brush with stardom in a Halifax TV advertising campaign.

Chris Watkin, whose video interviews are renowned within estate agency circles, let slip during a chat with The Two Russell’s podcast that he had a part within a big-budget Halifax advert back in 2008.

The Neg has tracked down the advert, which readers of a certain vintage will remember as the We Are Saving TV advert.

After a few seconds of the tune, based on Rod Stewart’s We Are Sailing hit, a youthful Watkin can be seen pulling a rope in a ‘tug of war’ competition.

The 40-second-long advert was one of many adds featuring the then ubiquitous Halifax brand ambassador and employee, Howard Brown.

Watkin worked as a negotiator and valuer with the Halifax’s estate agency arm, which it sold to LSL in 2009 for a £1 in an infamous deal, during two stints during the 1990s and noughties.

It was during his second term at the firm that he was picked to be in the TV advert – not long before he was made redundant.

Dance audition

“I had to go to Pineapple Studios [dance studio in London] to audition for the ad and the session was filmed – but that never made it into the public domain,” he told the podcast.

Watkins also recounts the painful period for many of the estate agents working for the company soon afterwards, when the business’s new owner LSL looked to cut costs and headcount.

“Not long afterwards LSL bought the Halifax estate agency and at the time I was running the Nottingham city branch,” says Watkin.

“One morning I was told to make six out my 12 colleagues redundant with all the stress of that, and then my boss came in at lunchtime and made me redundant,” says Watkin, who reveals the decision to cut headcount was made by his friend and Fine & Country founder Jon Cooke.

“At the time it wasn’t good but sometimes the best presents come worst wrapped and on reflection it made me a better human being.”

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