BBC Children’s TV star dies after heart attack on bridge

'He was everything to me and everything I want to be'

The award-winning children's TV star and political satirist, who also worked with Private Eye, was on his way to the magazine's bash in London on Thames barge when he collapsed on Westminster Bridge.

Emergency services rushed to the scene, but Tony couldn't be save.d

Announcing the news, Tony's son Paul Husband remarked that it was "somewhat ironic" that his late father had "managed to survive 30 years of Private parties but the one he didn't make..."

In a post on Facebook, Paul wrote that he hated having to break the news as "I know how many of you are going to be affected by this."

"I don't know what more I can say other than he was everything to me and everything I want to be."

Paul shared his dad's last cartoon which he sent to his colleagues while on the train, "cause he thought he would be late."

He later posted on X: "It is with a torn-apart heart that I must announce the passing of my dad."

Tony appeared on Hangar 17, wrote Round The Bend, and also appeared in The Times, Punch, Playboy and The Sunday Express.

Private Eye wrote on X: "RIP cartoonist Tony Husband - prolific, funny and inventive contributor to Private Eye since 1985."

James O'Brien said Tony "made me smile and laugh for forty years" and that he got to know him personally in recent times: "An absolutely lovely man."

TV personality Richard Osman wrote: "So sad to hear of the death of the wonderful cartoonist Tony Husband, a man whose work has made me laugh so many times. Humour with such tremendous wit and warmth."

Tony's fellow cartoonist Nick Newman said the death is a huge loss for the industry.

"Unbearably sad news that the great Tony Husband has died. Creator of Yobs and thousands of brilliant cartoons for Private Eye and others, he will be hugely missed by friends and readers."

Tony told ITV News in February that he had had a cartoon in every issue of Private Eye for almost 40 years: “The way it is today, life is like a cartoon. You get cartoon characters like Boris Johnson, who’s like something Spitting Image created. But definitely, [cartoons] are needed these days.”