Alex Ferguson in stitches as wife Cathy fell for prank that he would be TV detective Taggart

Alex Ferguson in stitches as wife Cathy fell for prank that he would be TV detective Taggart EXCLUSIVE: Lady Cathy, who hated the detective series, stormed off saying she would not let him take the job Sir Alex Ferguson pranked his wife Cathy by getting an ITV executive to tell her he’d been asked to star as the new Taggart. The series, which starred Mark McManus as hard-nosed Glaswegian detective Jim Taggart, first aired in 1985. Despite McManus dying in 1994, the series continued under the same name until 2010. Fergie let slip the prank to The Script pop singer Danny O’Donoghue when the pair were at a golf do. Speaking about meeting Sir Alex at the bash just before the manchester-united-fc>Manchester United legend retired in 2013, the 45-year-old singer said Sir Alex quizzed him about the TV show. Danny said: “Me and Sir Alex were stood in the foyer. “He said ‘Do you know Taggart?’…I’m about to retire and my wife was asking what I was going to do’.” He said that Sir Alex continued, saying: “We were having dinner with a friend who worked for ITV and I got him to say that ITV wanted me as the new Taggart.” Danny said that Sir Alex told him that Lady Cathy - who died aged 84 in 2023 - ‘absolutely hated Taggart’ and stormed off saying there was no way she’d let him take the job Danny said that Sir Alex and his ITV pal were ‘rolling around laughing’ after Cathy fell for the prank. TV and radio presenter Edith Bowman, 52, previously revealed how her nickname for Sir Alex was ‘Taggart’, as he looks similar to Mark McManus - and has the same broad Scottish accent. Edith, whose family have known Sir Alex for more than 30 years, said: “He (Sir Alex) is in my phone as Taggart because of the detective show. “We kind of take the p**s out of him that that’s who he is in real life.” Sir Alex never entered the acting world - but his former star man Eric Cantona has appeared in a string of movies.