Morph (TV series)

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Morph is a British series of clay stop-motion comedy animations, named after the main character, who is a small plasticine man, who speaks an unintelligible language and lives on a tabletop, his bedroom being a small wooden box. This fictional character was initially seen interacting with Tony Hart, beginning in 1977, on several of his UKTV programmes, notably Take Hart and Hartbeat.

History[]

Morph was produced for the BBC by Aardman Animations, later famous for the "Sledgehammer" music video, Wallace and Gromit, and Shaun the Sheep. Morph appeared mainly in one-minute "shorts" interspersed throughout the Take Hart 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 troublesome and mischievous.

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 artist's desk. He and Chas both loved to eat cake, as seen in many of the shorts. Most appearances of Morph revolve around his friendship and rivalry with Chas, with each often playing tricks on the other and laughing at each other's misfortune. Whilst Morph's nature is that of an innocent, curious character, Chas is much more mischievous, and prone to bad behaviour.

After Hart's shows ended, Morph and Chas appeared in shorts on the Children's BBC's successor programme SMart from 1994 onwards.

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.^[1]

Morph's 30th birthday was celebrated in 2007 by creator Peter Lord and celebrity fan and comedian Phill Jupitus at events for the 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.^[2]

In 2009, the BBC drama Ashes to Ashes featured Morph in a guest appearance as a representation of a present-day medic.^[3] Morph was used to give a comic feeling while in a very serious situation in Series 2, Episode 3 of Ashes to Ashes. The character was pictured in an episode of Take Hart, however, Morph appeared on the television after it was turned off, separating it from the context of the Take Hart episode.

On 29 October 2013, Peter Lord (co-founder of Aardman Animations) created a fund raising project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The campaign set a target of £75,000 to be used to fund 12 new one minute episodes. The target was reached on 6 November 2013 after only 9 days, attracting contributions from over 1,700 backers who received a variety of rewards, including early access to the new animations and a small box of clay used in the production, depending on the individual's level of funding.^[4][5] In January 2014, Peter Lord and Aardman began production on 15 new episodes featuring Morph. The new series premiered on Morph's official YouTube channel with 15 episodes from 4 July 2014 to 30 January 2015.

In 2015, a Morph experience opened at Land's End. The Land's End signpost was rebranded 'Lamb's End' with original sets, models and characters from a range of Aardman productions. Visitors were also able to star in a real Shaun the Sheep scene, using green screen technology, and meet other characters from the Aardman family, including Shaun the Sheep and Wallace & Gromit.^[6]

Released between 20 March and 2 October 2015, HD restored versions of The Amazing Adventures of Morph appeared on YouTube and in the summer of 2015, Morph returned to TV on CBBC with the 15 new episodes.^[7] From 6 November 2015 to 7 January 2016, The Lost Tapes from 2001 were revealed having been redubbed and remastered on YouTube. In March 2016, it was announced that Sky plc had made a deal with Aardman Animations to produce new Morph material to be directed at its child audience.^[8] From 6 May 2016 to 15 September 2017, all clips captured from Take Hart were revealed on the Morph YouTube channel. In August 2017, new Morph merchandise was shown at Wallace & Gromit's Charity Shop.^[9] Between 2 March and 14 September 2018, 15 more episodes of the new Morph series, that were previously shown on Sky Kids, were shown on YouTube. From 15 February to 17 May 2019, all 13 episodes of The Morph Files, that were remastered into HD, were released on YouTube.

In May 2019, Morph and Chas appeared in an advert for Tesco as part of the company's centenary celebrations, which also featured celebrities Anneka Rice and Derrick Evans (the latter more commonly known as Mr. Motivator).^[10]

On 9 November 2020, the new Morph series entitled "The Epic Adventures of Morph" appeared and began to stream on Sky Kids. The series features Morph, Chas, and two old characters—Delilah and GrandMorph—who were brought back to add more life to the show. There is also a very small cameo from Gillespie, who is another character from The Morph Files and The Amazing Adventures of Morph, along with Delilah and GrandMorph, that was revived for the series. To the great sadness of many Morph fans, however, Folly and Gobbledeegook were not brought into the new series, possibly an effort to make animation easier, be more minimalistic, or save production costs which involve more materials.

Films, shorts, and TV series[]

Series overview[]

Original episodes (2006, 2013–2015)[]

The original 44 episodes of Morph was originally produced on Aardman website back in 2006, and was re-used on Aardman's YouTube channel by around September 2008 until 2010, and Morph's YouTube channel from 4 November 2013 until 23 October 2015. The original episodes uses the same clips originally used from Take Hart, Hartbeat, SMart and The Morph Files.

Season 1: 2014��2015[]

The first series of All-New Morph was released on YouTube from 4 July 2014 until 30 January 2015 with a Red Nose Day special being released on 6 March 2015, the first series was also aired on CBBC back in 2015.

Season 2: 2018[]

The 2nd series of All-New Morph was released on 2 March 2018 until 14 September 2018, it is the first series being produced for Sky Kids, which streamed the first 2 series of Morph on Sky TV.

Season 3: 2021[]

The third series of All-New Morph premieres on 12 February 2021, instead the episodes only took place during some special events that occurred during the year. All of the episodes were produced during production for the 2nd series in 2018, 3 years before it was officially shown in 2021.

Season 4: 2022[]

After one year, Morph making the season 3 of the series.

Characters[]

Main[]

Morph
A model of the main character, Morph, on display at the National Media Museum, Bradford
First appearance	Take Hart, 15 February 1977
Created by	Peter Lord David Sproxton
Motto	"Ba ba ba ba, ba ba da!"
In-universe information
Nationality	British

• Morph – The curious and creative main character with terracotta skin. He is a clay figure who can transform into many things.
• Chas – Morph's amoral white-skinned best friend. He was originally named Stu.^[13]
• Nailbrush – Morph's 'canine' companion, a barking, male nailbrush.

Supporting[]

• Grandmorph – Morph's elderly, bearded grandfather, who travels by skateboard and frequently invents things.
• Delilah – A bossy, bespectacled female character in a yellow dress with dark brownish-purple skin.
• Folly – A scatter-brained girl made of tin-foil.
• Gillespie – A large, blue, dimwitted but peaceable friend of Morph's.
• The Very Small Creatures – An array of small plasticine balls with eyes who travel in a swarm; the smallest of the group, Little Green, features prominently on his own in a number of episodes.
• Gobbledygook – A green, omnivorous alien child (who arrived on the table by sleeping near Morph's box in The Amazing Adventures of Morph, but in The Morph Files, he arrived by mistakenly being printed from a 'Space Invaders' style game).
• The Paint Pots – A group of sentient paint pots who can morph their paint into facsimiles of people; unlike Morph and Chas, they are able to speak coherently (one of them even chides Morph for his non-existent linguistic skills on multiple occasions); they only appear in Take Hart.
• Luxo the Lamp – A Luxo lamp who warns the others when Tony is entering the room; like the Paint Pots, it only appears in Take Hart, but later reappeared in a 2018 short in a silent role more akin to Luxo Jr.

See also[]

• Gumby
• Davey and Goliath
• Pingu
• Wallace and Gromit
• Shaun the Sheep
• Creature Comforts
• Cartoon Network (Japan)
• Pogo (TV channel)

References[]

External links[]

• Official Morph website
• Official Morph YouTube channel
• Information about Morph, with photograph
• B3ta interview with Tony Hart which discusses Morph
• A fond farewell to Morph: Tony Hart article about Morph
• Animation archive up in smoke: BBC News article about Aardman's warehouse fire
• Morph's page on Tony Hart's official site
• Limited edition Morph prints created for Morph's 30th anniversary
• Guardian article about Aardman's warehouse fire
• Kickstarter project to fund new production