On this day, he saw an Italian performer, one Signor Bologna (real name Pietro Gimonde), in action in London’s Covent Garden. There is a plaque in the area today marking the spot.

This sudden popularity of Punch shows coincided with the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, a period in which the Puritan grimness of the Cromwell years was being gleefully abandoned.

The heyday of Punch and Judy was the mid-Victorian era. Performances weren’t just put on in seaside resorts but at private occasions in family parlours, and in London streets. The audience remained a mix of rich and poor. Henry Mayhew’s London Labour And The London Poor (1851) includes an interview with an unnamed Punch performer whose trained dog, Toby, could smoke a pipe, shake hands with Punch and grab him by the nose.

By now, running a Punch and Judy show was something that was handed down through generations.

In 1828, the publisher John Payne Collier issued what is thought to be the first published transcription of a Punch and Judy script (although its accuracy has been disputed by modern experts). The book is more notable for its classic illustrations by the satirical cartoonist George Cruikshank.

Punch and Judy are frequently cited in Dickens’s works. It has been suggested that The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) has something of the structure of a traditional Punch and Judy performance, and it includes a pair of Punch puppeteers – Tom Codlin and Will Short – among its cast of characters.

Time and fashion have changed the basic formula. A live dog or other animal was often a feature and at one show in the 17th century Mr Punch is known to have danced with a trained pig. Training animals to perform has now largely fallen out of favour.

Meet the characters for yourself here.

The story

In the typical Punch and Judy plot, Mr Punch is left in charge of the baby. He becomes infuriated at its crying, and thumps its head against the stage in order to put it to sleep. When Judy arrives to see what the commotion is about, she attacks Punch for his cruelty. Punch flies into a rage, eventually beating her to death with his stick. Throwing the two bodies out of the window, he attracts the attention of a passing policeman.

The rest of the plot consists of Punch outwitting a series of opponents one after the other, usually with the aid of the big stick. The Clown gives him a string of sausages to eat, which are snaffled one by one by the crocodile. The crocodile bites Mr Punch on his enormous nose, prompting him to call for the Doctor, whom he proceeds to kick while under examination.

Even in jail, when he is about to be executed, he manages to persuade the Hangman to put his own head in the noose. Each time Punch outwits or kills one of his fellow characters, he lets out a triumphant cry of, “That’s the way to do it!” After the Hangman character was phased out, Mr Punch simply escapes from prison.

The peculiar rasping voice of Mr Punch is achieved by means of a device called a swazzle, which is held in the performer’s mouth. It produces an effect similar to a kazoo.

Did You Know?

• Of all the characters in the show, Mr Punch is the only one who has legs. This gives him an advantage over the others, as is demonstrated when he kicks the Doctor in the face while he is being examined.

• In France Mr Punch is known as Polichinelle, or Le Guignol, while the Dutch know him as Jan Klaassen. In Turkey he is Karagoz, in Austria Kaspar and in Russia Petrushka. To the Germans, he is Hans Wurst (John Sausage).