Neil Buchanan is not dead.

The much loved children’s TV presenter is the subject of a false rumour which has gained momentum on Facebook, with a group entitled ‘RIP Neil Buchanan (the art attack guy)’ which at the time of writing this has 21,236 members. It seems it might all have started with a false Wikipedia entry claiming Neil had died last month. An obvious April Fool, what with the equally obvious cause of death being joked of as an Art Attack (sigh), but even so it, just goes to show how viral information is on the internet and how little rigour we often apply to what we read.

Wikipedia has long been dogged by cases of false information (sometimes intentionally, sometimes lazily) and there’s a long established history of false obituaries, but I imagine that the news was most shocking to Neil himself.

Of course, you can also be resurrected digitally, as Bob Monkhouse proved to great effect in aid of prostate cancer awareness:

Oh, and don’t forget to join the Neil Buchanan is ALIVE AND WELL Facebook group…