Morph (character)

Morph
A model of Morph on display at the National Media Museum, Bradford
First appearance	Take Hart, 15 February 1977
Created by	Peter Lord

Morph is a clay stop-motion comedy animation, featuring the eponymous character that appeared with Tony Hart, beginning in 1977, on several of his UK TV programmes, notably Take Hart and Hartbeat.

Morph was produced for the BBC by Aardman Animations, later famous for the "Sledgehammer" music video and Wallace and Gromit. Morph appeared mainly in one-minute "shorts" interspersed throughout the show. These were connected to the main show by having Hart deliver a line or two to Morph who would reply in gobbledygook but with meaningful gestures. Later on, Morph was joined by cream-coloured Chas, who was much more badly behaved.

Morph can change shape, he would become spheres in order to move around, or extrude into cylinders to pass to different levels. He can also mimic other objects, or creatures. Morph lived in a wooden microscope box on an artists desk, and he and Chas both loved to eat cake, as seen in many of the shorts.

Some of the early plasticine models of Morph were destroyed in a fire at the warehouse where they were being stored, on 10 October 2005.

Morph and Chas appeared in shorts on the British children's TV programme SMart from 1994 onwards.

Morph's 30th birthday was celebrated in 2007 by creator Peter Lord and celebrity fan and comedian Phill Jupitus at events for the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol.

In March 2009, shortly after Hart's death, a flashmob of Morph characters was organised in London outside the Tate Modern art gallery.

In 2009, the BBC drama Ashes to Ashes featured Morph in a guest appearance as a representation of a present-day medic.