It’s been a week of iconic gentlemen passing away. Tony Hart has died aged 83. Patrick McGoohan and Ricardo Montalbán, The Prisoner and Khan respectively, also left us earlier this week.
I can identify Tony Hart as the single biggest influence on my becoming an artist. Family members were simply not allowed to talk when Hart Beat was on, and I would studiously take in every carefully explained technique. I never met him, but a former colleague did and she said he would paint a canvas without a spot appearing on his immaculate clothes. Morph was also instrumental in my fascination with stop motion animation.
Rest in peace Tony and thank you.
He was an influence for an entire generation of artists and designers Darragh. The show was an institution.
It seems to be a real pity that Tony Hart wasn’t shown on RTE – I never watched Morph or anything as a child, so I’m only seeing it on the ‘best 100 children’s TV shows’ shows that are on occasionally. It’s quite a thing to be able to say “this person influenced my art”. RIP indeed.