Born in Prestwick[1] and raised in Selkirk,[2] Duncanson started his career in the theatre, initially in stage management before he became an actor.
The following year, he moved to Ulster Television, before going onto work at ABC Weekend TV in Manchester and Birmingham - where his colleagues included David Hamilton and John Benson.
[4] The following year, the programme was relaunched as North Tonight - with Duncanson anchoring initially alongside Selina Scott, followed by the likes of Anna Soubry, Anne MacKenzie and his eventual successor, Norman Macleod.
Also during that time, he worked on a number of regional programmes - including North Tonight's summer spin-off Summer at Six - and contributed to Grampian's local and networked coverage of the ITV Telethons, Duncanson also covered irregular shifts as a relief continuity announcer at Grampian TV (often in-vision) on occasions of holidays, illness or other staff absences - where he would often read the lunchtime and evening Grampian news bulletins, announce the daytime and evening programmes as billed and close the station at around midnight with, of course, the friendly and reassuring closedown sequence when “we hoped you enjoyed our programmes today and you will join us again in the morning at 9.30am”.
After retiring from broadcasting, Duncanson moved to Inverness, but he remained active in speech training and political campaigning.