Hart, Tony

Tony was born Norman Antony in Maidstone, Kent. He was interested in drawing from an early age.

When he left school in 1943, he wanted to join the Royal Air Force, but due to a slight eye defect, joined the British Indian Army.

He gained an officers’ commission in the 1st Gurkha Rifles but when he was told that lower-ranked British officers would be replaced by Indian officers following Indian independence, he decided to return to civilian life.

After being demobilised, Tony decided to become a professional artist and studied art at Maidstone College of Art.

He graduated in 1950 and after working as a display artist in a London store he became a freelance artist.

The outbreak of the Korean War (25th June 1950) saw him being re-commissioned in the Territorial Army, attached to the Royal Artillery, from November 1948 to July 1950.

Hart’s break into television came after his brother persuaded him to attend a party where he met a BBC Children’s TV producer.

After an interview, in which Hart drew a fish on a napkin while the producer was looking for paper, he was employed as a resident artist.

On his file at the BBC Written Archives Centre, there is a letter dated 8th April 1952 concerning an engagement to work on For the Children, edition 12 of Saturday Special on 12th April 1952.

This began Tony’s unique contribution, over five decades, to BBC Children’s TV.

His legacy lives on in his wonderful ship logo design on the Blue Peter badges, which was introduced on 17th July 1963.

He originally asked for his fee to be paid as a royalty of 1d (one pre-decimalisation penny) for each badge made, but was offered a flat fee of £100.

He was a regular contributor in the early years of Blue Peter (1959 – 1963) and replaced presenter Chris Trace for one edition on 13th November 1959.

Hart became known for creating large-scale artworks, using the TV studio floor, beaches and other open spaces as ‘canvases’ – in series such as:

• Vision On (BBC One, January 1966 – May 1976);
• Take Hart (BBC One, 1977 – 1983);
• Hartbeat (BBC One, 1984 – 1993);
• The Artbox Bunch (BBC One, 1995 – 1996).

His other BBC TV credits were:

• Contributor/drawings on Saturday Special (1952 – 1953);
• Drawings on Whirligig (1953 – 1954);
• Drawings for Runaway Band (1953);
• Stuff and Nonsense (1953);
• Jigsaw (1955);
• Quick on the Draw (1956);
• Title drawings for Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School (1956);
• Lenny the Lion (1957);
• Drew and told Packi – Adventures of the Little Elephant (1957 – 1961);
• Drawings on Cornelius (8th August 1957);
• Drawings on Studio E (1957);
• Drawings on Playbox (1957 – 1963);
• One of The Dads on Ask Your Dad (1958 – 1959);
• Contributor to For Deaf Children (20th January 1960, 19th March 1962 and 6th November 1962);
• Pin-Point (1960);
• Design for a Career (1961);
• Summerhouse (26th July 1961 and 13th September 1961);
• Drawings on Pops and Lenny (1962);
• Drawings on The George Mitchell Choir: Around the World in Song (1962 and BBC Two, 1965);
• Time For Tich (8th November 1963 – 1964);
• Tich (1964);
• Signpost (BBC One, 1964);
• Science Session (BBC One, 1964);
• Drawings for Singalong Saturday, hosted by Val Doonican (BBC One, 1964);
• Tichpuzzle (BBC One, 1964 – 1965);
• Tich Space Trips (BBC One, 1965);
• Drawings for Merry-Go-Round (BBC One, 1966);
• The Amazing Adventures of Morph (BBC One, 1980 – 1981);
• All Star Record Breakers (BBC One, 1981);
• Take Hart on Holiday (BBC One, 1982);
• Co-presented Jubilee! (BBC One), which was a diamond jubilee party celebrating the 60th anniversary of BBC Children’s programmes (18th February 1983);
• Morph TV with Tony Hart (BBC One, 1997);
• Smart Hart, with Kirsten O’Brien (BBC One, 1999 – 2000).

He occasionally worked for ITV: Associated Rediffusion‘s Cool for Cats in the late-1950s, when he drew cartoons to the latest pop and rock ‘n’ roll songs, alongside the Dougie Squires Dancers; and on ABC’s Disney Wonderland.

He was the title designer on the Children’s Film Foundation’s Professor Popper’s Problems, starring Charlie Drake (1974).

He received two BAFTA awards. His first, for Best Children’s Educational Programme, came in 1984 for Take Hart, and in 1998 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award.

He retired from regular TV work in 2001.

On 28th December 2006, it was announced during the reunion programme It Started with Swap Shop that Hart (who had been a regular guest) was in poor health, though this was not elaborated upon.

In an interview with The Times, published on 30th September 2008, it was revealed that two strokes 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.”

Hart died peacefully aged 83.

He married programme secretary Jean Skingle in 1953. They were together until her death in 2003. She wrote a two-part episode of Z Cars – Funny Creatures, Women (1971).

On 1st March 2009, a flashmob 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.

In May 2009, his daughter unveiled a memorial plaque at the Hazlitt Arts Centre in Hart’s birthplace, Maidstone, where he studied art at the town’s art college.

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.

In January 2021, an auction of 55 items from the collection of Hart’s close friend and agent Roc Renals (1922 – 2014), were sold at Ewbank’s in Surrey.

It included the 1952 Humpty Dumpty story that paved the way for the famous Blue Peter logo together with copies of original 1950s designs for the emblem (sold for £4,600) and five Gallery signs that sold from £550 – £1,500.

 

Personal information

Clips of Tony on The TV Room

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Acknowledgements