Punchinello has never lacked for friends. A short time after Pepys first noticed him he had performed in front of the King himself. The first of a number of appearances that he has made before royalty down the centuries. Sixteen monarchs have reigned in Britain since Mr. Punch first cut a caper and the rascally old entertainer has pleased princes and paupers throughout all that time. His original wooden co-stars have long since gone to he replaced by fresh painted faces but after three and a half centuries on the street Mr. Punch is still a flourishing impressario.

His heyday as a manic marionette was from the time of Charles II and Nell Gwyn (another character plucked from the streets of Covent Garden to amuse the King) to the long reign of George III a century later. During that hundred years he travelled the length and breadth of the country, dancing to the tune of the numerous showmen exhibiting this star turn who's irrepressible nature and comic intrusions into their repertoire of puppet plays brought him nationwide glory as a mirth maker.

By the turn of a new century, though, the fairs were losing their popularity and marionette shows were old hat. What had once pleased Great Grand Papa and Mama was no longer a novelty. Like today's long running TV series that outstay their welcome the ideas were no longer fresh. Something new was needed - and Mr Punch rose to the challenge. Whoever was the first performer to take this bold step we don't know, but it was an idea both breathtakingly simple and born out of strict economic necessity. By cutting Mr Punch's strings and making him a glove puppet, with a supporting cast of other glove puppets, a cumbersome travelling marionette theatre needing some half a dozen of assistants became, at a stroke, a one-puppeteer show in a theatre so simple it could he pushed on a hand cart. The street Punch and Judy Show was born. And Mr Punch was an overnight success once again.

His new form gave him speed instead of grace, the superb comic timing that only comes when one performer controls the entire cast and, above all, the glove puppet's ability to pick things up and hold them. Looking around for something to grab, Mr Punch seized on a traditional theatrical prop - the slapstick. This is a device made from two pieces of wood which literally slap together to produce an extra loud noise when striking an object (or person!) quite gently. In the hands of clowns and their like it has a long and honourable tradition lending it's name in modern times to an entire style of broad comedy. Scaled down to puppet size it became Mr Punch's trademark as he laid about one and all with anarchic vitality. The show was, indeed, a hit.

The plot of this new performance varied, just as Punch the marionette had performed in different plays, but within a few years one version of the show prevailed to become the model for all Punch and Judy Shows from that day to this. To some this may seem a shame for with just the one plot Punch is restricted to forever repeating the same pattern. What it lost in diversity, however, it gained in concentrated power and Mr Punch's tale of marital strife, of kicking over the traces and of defeating the authorities sent to bring him to justice (including defeating Old Nick himself) tapped a deep vein of popular approval. Psychologists, historians and academics have speculated a great deal on just what subconscious longings this squawking, hurnp backed, hook nosed, stick wielding anarchist represents, as he cuts a comic swathe through his universe, but from a performer's point of view the question of what Mr. Punch stands for is a simpler one to answer. Mr Punch won't stand for anything!

Like the plot of a pantomime or well-known fairy tale, the bare story of the show tells you nothing about the performance. The appeal of the Punch and Judy Show lies in the skill of the performer: part story teller, part puppeteer, part comedian, wholly an entertainer; and during the 1800's a succession of rugged individuals made Mr Punch a familiar sight at street corners throughout the land. In their hands they weaved a riotous knockabout spectacle, taking in topical jokes, street satire, guest heroes and villains, musical interludes, and novelty speciality acts - all paid for by collecting pennies from their public.

When the railways brought travel to the masses and took town crowds to the seaside Mr. Punch went too, making himself part of traditional beach fun along with sand castles, paddling and donkey rides. He went indoors as well, for Victorian nurseries thronged with the large families popular at that time, and Mr Punch - suitably pruned of some of his grosser excesses - was deemed a colourfully suitable entertainment for the young. This suited the performer's purse, for Papa's pocket was more generous than that of street corner crowds and working indoors was an improvement on braving Britains' uncertain. As a result Mr. Punch, ever adept at surviving, improved his skills as a children's entertainer and, as society moved into the complexities of the 20th Century he found in their untutored behaviour the unsophisticated emotions of a simpler age.

And so his kingdom today is mainly the young. Not that adults scorn Mr. Punch, though, for a skilfully presented performance still mesmerises any who see it. But part of its charm for those who have lost their childhood is the memories it stirs of their more innocent days. You'll find Punch and Judy at children's birthday parties, at Christmas jollifications and near the swings, roundabouts and bouncy castles of village fetes and other local festivities. A few hardy souls still busk the streets and shopping precincts and a few more keep golden memories of seaside Punch and Judy shows alive on the Summer beaches. Occasionally, too, Punch pokes his nose in at the door of hallowed cultural institutions, bringing a whiff of the streets into the foyer of the National Theatre for instance. A few performers have consciously bawdy shows geared for the non-family audience, and a few puppeteers will try their hand at giving the tale of Punch a deliberately modern slant. He has undergone many changes since his puppet-on-a-string days as Pulcinella, and no-one can foretell in what guise he will emerge from the 21st Century. What is certain, though, is the indestructable popular appeal of the wooden headed anarchist who's antics are regarded as suitable entertainment for children. He's heading into a new Millennium with all the energy intact that has carried him from the 17th Century to today in a triumphal progress worth boasting about. And boast about it he certainly does! Who wouldn't?

Taken from a brief history of Punch and Judy

Further reading: George Speaight Punch & Judy: a history Studio Vista Ltd. 1970; Michael Byrom Punch & Judy: its origin and evolution Shiva Publications 1972 (Revised edition: DaSilva Puppet Books 1988); Robert Leach The Punch & Judy Show: history, tradition and meaning Batsford 1985