Punch and Judy show cancelled for 'glorifying domestic violence'

A Punch and Judy performer has hit out at "political correctness" after a school cancelled his act over fears that the show glorified domestic violence.

Brian Llewellyn, who took over the show from his father in 1977, claimed in an irate Facebook post that he had a booking cancelled by a Middlesbrough school after he refused their request to make sure Punch did not hit Judy.

The school also said that his performance should include several police officers rather than one policeman, the 64-year-old said.

In the post, Mr Llewellyn blamed "do-gooders" for "killing fun and laughter in the name of being 'PC'."

He added that another school had asked him to drop a minstrel character - one he insisted was actually a black puppet, rather than a white one dressed up as a black person, and which has featured in Punch and Judy shows for hundreds of years.

He wrote: "It is just a silly little puppet show with lumps of wood. It does not glorify violence, there are no hidden agendas, no hurtful intentions, and no racism.

"It is, simply, slapstick humour. Do-gooders are killing fun and laughter in the name of being 'PC'."

Mr Llewellyn, from Darlington, said: "Mr Punch goes round hitting everyone.

"He hits Judy, the baby, he hits the clown, the crocodile, the policeman and he bats the judge.

"Nobody is exempt.

"It's a silly little morality play."

Mr Llewellyn said if anyone should be damaged by such shows, it should be his family as their father had the act before him, starting in 1952.

But his brothers and sisters are a retired police officer, a pub landlord, a child minder and a radiologist.

"We have all grown up with Punch and Judy, we have seen the violence, the wife-beating, the child-beating - I followed my father for six weeks every summer - and it hasn't affected us."

The children's entertainer had to remove the Punch and Judy element from his act to perform at the recent Armed Forces Day in Redcar.

Carl Quartermain, Cabinet member for culture, tourism and communications at Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, said it would have been "inappropriate".

He said: "The business was still booked for its face-painting and balloon-making entertainment, and the Punch and Judy show will be considered on an event-by-event basis in future."

Becky Rogerson, from Middlesbrough domestic abuse charity My Sisters' Place, told the Northern Echo: "Some may get the positive message behind Punch getting punished but that may not be the message every child takes away."

Additional reporting by Press Association.