Editing Tony Hart (section)

==Death==
On 28 December 2006, it was announced during the reunion programme ''[[Multi-Coloured Swap Shop#It Started With Swap Shop|It Started with Swap Shop]]'' that Hart was in poor health, though this was not elaborated upon until an interview with ''[[The Times]]'' published on 30 September 2008, revealing that two [[stroke]]s had robbed him of the use of his hands and left him unable to draw. He described this as "the greatest cross I have to bear".<ref name=Times-interview/> Hart died peacefully on 18 January 2009 at the age of 83.<ref name="BBCObit">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7836112.stm|title=TV presenter Tony Hart dies at 83|date=18 January 2009|work=BBC News |accessdate=18 January 2009}}</ref>

Hart's funeral took place in the village of [[Shamley Green]], where he had lived for more than forty years and he was buried in the churchyard of [[Christ Church, Shamley Green|Christ Church]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7859235.stm|title=Funeral for TV artist Tony Hart|work=BBC News| date=29 January 2009 | accessdate=26 March 2010}}</ref>

===Tributes===
On 1 March 2009 a [[flash mob]], organised through [[Facebook]], paid tribute to Hart with around two hundred Morph figures displayed outside the [[Tate Modern]] art gallery. Hart's daughter, Carolyn Ross, attended and judged the "Best Morph in Show".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7918002.stm|title=Army of Morphs remember Tony Hart|work=BBC News| date=1 March 2009 | accessdate=26 March 2010}}</ref>

A memorial plaque is displayed in Hart's birthplace, the town of Maidstone, where he studied art at the town's art college.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7895946.stm|title=Tony Hart memorial gets approval|work=BBC News| date=17 February 2009 | accessdate=26 March 2010}}</ref> The plaque was unveiled by his daughter in May 2009 at the [[Hazlitt Theatre|Hazlitt Arts Centre]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8075792.stm|title=Memorial unveiled for TV artist|date=31 May 2009|work=BBC News|accessdate=31 May 2009}}</ref>

In September 2010 ''Tony Hart: A Portrait of My Dad'', an affectionate biography of Hart by his daughter Carolyn, was published by [[John Blake Publishing]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/268730/Tony-Hart-the-tortured-genius|title=Tony Hart, the tortured genius|first=Carolyn|last=Ross|work=Daily Express|date=2 September 2011|accessdate=20 April 2018}}</ref>

In February 2015 a wave of tributes (followed by corrections) appeared on social media sites over a period of two days, when an individual mistakenly read a 2009 report of Hart's death and, missing the dateline, published it as news on Facebook, from which it was later transferred to [[Twitter]]. Many [[social media]] posters hyperlinked to an article in ''[[The Guardian]]''. The newspaper published a graph of the number of readers referred to its article for the period. Aardman Animations used its Twitter account, in the name of Morph, to point to a tribute to Hart (a portrait of him being hung on a wall) that was included in the last episode of its forthcoming new set of episodes for the ''Morph'' television series.<ref name="Rawlinson2015">{{cite news|first=Kevin|last=Rawlinson|title=Reports of Tony Hart's second death are greatly exaggerated|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=16 February 2015|url=http://theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/16/tony-harts-second-death-are-greatly-exaggerated}}</ref><ref name="BBC2015">{{cite news|work=[[BBC News]]|title=How Tony Hart was mourned twice on Twitter|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-31491991|date=16 February 2015}}</ref><ref name="Wells2015">{{cite news|first=David|last=Wells|newspaper=[[Western Morning News]]|title=How tributes to the late TV artist #TonyHart – six years after his death – reveal the short-term memory of social media|url=http://westernmorningnews.co.uk./tributes-late-TV-artist-TonyHart-8211-years-death/story-26033182-detail/story.html|date=16 February 2015}}</ref>

In August 2021, a mural at Maidstone bus station was created, featuring Tony Hart and his sidekick Morph.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/tony-hart-and-morph-immortalised-at-bus-station-252595/ |title=New mural at Maidstone Bus Station next to The Mall shopping centre in King Street pays tribute to artist and presenter Tony Hart |last= Cruz Lima |first=Juliana |date=19 August 2021 |access-date=3 June 2022}}</ref>