Transcripts

Punch

This is my current Mr. Punch. He's been in my possession now for about 50 years. He was stolen a few years ago, but we got him back. I use different ones for different reasons. I've just done Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist and I used a much older looking Punch for that, and a different one in 102 Dalmatians, and a different one in the Polo Express, and other films. Depending on the period you choose a different looking Punch. He's dressed in the traditional colours, the red & the yellow of the Elizabethan jester. He has a large nose and a large chin, and he has a hump on his back which is supposed to depict why he is always so grouchy, cos he's got the hump. That is were the expression comes from. This is his stick. It's called a slapstick because it's not just a piece of wood, you can probably see there is a join in the middle and it's open at either end. The idea is that when you hit with that stick the sound is magnified and it makes that slapping sound. It's an old show-business prop. It's been around for 100 years the slapstick and it is the origins of slapstick comedy.

Judy

Now, this is Judy. Isn't she beautiful? Everyone has a right to be ugly, but she abuses the privilege. Judy has had that name for about the last couple of hundred years. Judy actually meaning at one point 'the tramp's woman'. She's wearing the traditional Georgian mop cap and she has a pinafore here, which she just gives her nose a little wipe on before she gives Mr. Punch a kiss. This is their lovely baby, and of course it's this baby that causes a lot of the problems when Mr. Punch is asked to look after him and he won't stop crying Punch gets rather frustrated and throws him around, at which Judy comes back and that's how the row starts. So there's Judy and the lovely little baby.

The Beadle

When Mr. Punch falls foul of the law, as he does all the time, in the early shows he had to be dealt with and that was the job of the Beadle. He announces to Mr. Punch that he is the Beadle of the parish. Punch ridicules him and calls him 'the beetle in the porridge' and things like that. In the later shows the Beadle was replaced with the London Bobby, and of course, he comes up to arrest Mr. Punch and of course Punch hides from him and the policeman is looking in all the wrong places with the children shouting out "he's behind you".

Joey the Clown

Now this chap is Joey the Clown who actually is Punch's friend. He is the only character in the show that doesn't get hit, and he doesn't hit anyone. He brings Mr. Punch the squasages. He calls them squasages because he says he can not say sausages. His name Joey is derived from the famous Victorian clown Joey Grimaldi, and he's very popular with the children because he's a lot of fun.

The Hangman

Ha ha! Enter the Hangman Jack Ketch, named after an actual hangman. In the early shows the performance finished with Mr. Punch being hung for all the misdeeds he did. Later on a showman took it into his mind to get Mr. Punch to entice the Hangman to put his own head into the noose, and then Punch pulled the rope and that was the end of the Hangman much to the delight of the audience.

The Doctor

Now Mr. Punch has a ride on a horse. Its his hobbyhorse, and he actually gets thrown, and the next to appear is the Doctor who finds Mr. Punch laying prostrate on the stage and he says to him "What's the matter?", and Punch says "I'm dead". The Doctor says "How long have you been dead?", and he says "Six weeks", and then he says "I am Doctor Quack" - no he doesn't, he says I am Doctor Duck. He was a bit of a quack.

The Ghost and the Devil

Now at one point in the show the ghost appears. This could be the ghost of Judy or just a ghost, but whatever it is he keeps appearing behind Mr. Punch who doesn't see him and the children are, of course, screaming and shouting, and eventually he does see Punch who's very, very frightened of him, but he just disappears again after a while. It's just an interlude. There was another end of the show years ago when Mr. Punch was carried off by the Devil. Now when he comes up he says to Punch "Do you know who I am?", and Punch says "Yes, Robbie Williams". There's some odd jokes you won't understand.

Toby the Dog and the Crocodile

These are the sausages that Joey brings for Mr. Punch's dinner. He tells him to look after them because there is a dog around, and this is dog Toby, another very old character in the show and, of course, he keeps coming up trying to get the sausages. Eventually, he is replaced by the crocodile who does in fact get the sausages, and Mr. Punch has a struggle with the crocodile. The crocodile bites Mr. Punch's nose and frightens the life out of him generally. That is usually now the end of the performance. Punch and Judy.