The theater owed its name to Guignol, which was a traditional Lyonnaise puppet character, joining political commentary with the style of Punch and Judy.

He interviewed everyone — beggars, street-entertainers ( such as Punch and Judy men ), market traders, prostitutes, labourers, sweatshop workers, even down to the " mudlarks " who searched the stinking mud on the banks of the River Thames for wood, metal, rope and coal from passing ships, and the " pure-finders " who gathered dog faeces to sell to tanners.

Early in his career he worked as an illustrator for magazines like the Boy's Own Paper and Judy, drew comic strips, including the Sherlock Holmes parody " Chubb-Lock Homes " for Comic Cuts, and wrote articles for Punch under the pseudonym " W. Bird ".

* The Punch and Judy Murders, a book, also published under the title The Magic Lantern Murders

More recently Sir Harrison Birtwistle has emerged as one of Britain's most significant contemporary composers from his first opera Punch and Judy to his most recent critical success in The Minotaur.

A traditional Punch and Judy booth, at Swanage, Dorset

Punch and Judy is a traditional, popular puppet show featuring Mr. Punch and his wife, Judy.

The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell ' arte.

In the British Punch and Judy show, Punch wears a brightly colored jester's motley and sugarloaf hat with a tassel.

So important is Punch's signature sound that it is a matter of some controversy within Punch and Judy circles as to whether a " non-swazzled " show can be considered a true Punch and Judy Show.

A Punch and Judy show attracts a family audience

The mobile puppet booth of the late 18th-and early 19th-century Punch and Judy glove-puppet show was originally covered in checked bed ticking or whatever inexpensive cloth might come to hand.

The term " pleased as Punch " is derived from Punch and Judy ; specifically, Mr. Punch's characteristic sense of gleeful self-satisfaction.

" Modern British performances of Punch and Judy are no longer exclusively the traditional seaside children's entertainments they had become.

Punch and Judy, taken in Islington.

The characters in a Punch and Judy show are not fixed as in a Shakespeare play, for instance.

Along with Punch and Judy, the cast of characters usually includes their baby, a hungry crocodile, a clown, an officious policeman, and a prop string of sausages.

* The Old Curiosity Shop, an 1841 novel by Charles Dickens, features the Punch and Judy performing partners Mr. Codlin and Short Trotters.

He also wrote Short History of Europe, edited Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu's Letters ( Selection and Life ), and was a contributor to Punch magazine.

*, Punch Magazine History and FAQs

" This was elaborated by George Speaight in his Punch & Judy: A History ( 1970 ), who explained that the plotline " is like a story compiled in a parlour game of Consequences ... the show should, indeed, not be regarded as a story at all but a succession of encounters.

" The most recent academic work, Punch & Judy: History, Tradition and Meaning by Robert Leach ( 1985 ), makes it clear that " the story is a conceptual entity, not a set text: the means of telling it, therefore, are always variable.

* Punch & Judy: A History by George Speaight ( 1955, 1970 ) Plays, Inc.

* The Punch & Judy Show: History, Tradition and Meaning by Robert Leach ( 1985 ) Univ.

* The History of " Punch " by Marion H. Spielmann, 1895, from Project Gutenberg

Spielmann, The History of Punch

* Roy F. Foster: " The Irishness of Elizabeth Bowen " in Paddy & Mr Punch: Connections in Irish and English History ( 1993 )

He was sketched in A History of Punch by R. G. G.

According to R. G. G. Price's A History of Punch, his polished and gentlemanly essayist's persona concealed:

Images from OOM Gallery Archives have been used by BBC TV, Carlton TV, Macmillan Publishers, Outside Left Magazine, University of Warwick, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Wolverhampton University, Digital Handsworth, Birmingham Central Library, The History Channel, Connecting Histories, What's On Magazine, Fused Magazine, Teachers TV, The Otolith Group, Birmingham City Archives, Sunday Mercury, Dollee. com, IOnOne Magazine, FACT, Punch Records Liverpool University Press

* History of Hawaiian Punch

From The History of Punch ( magazine ) | " Punch "

* MH Spielmano, The History of Punch ( London, 1895 ).

His younger brothers were Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, one of the original staff of Punch magazine and the author of ' Comic History of England ', and Thomas Turner à Beckett ( 13 September 1808-1 July 1892 ).

Punch had a poem containing the words “ When Ivo comes back with the urn ” and when Ivo Bligh wiped out the defeat Lady Clarke, wife of Sir W. J. Clarke, who entertained the English so lavishly, found a little wooden urn, burnt a bail, put the ashes in the urn, and wrapping it in a red velvet bag, put it into her husband ’ s ( Ivo Bligh ’ s ) hands.

He was one of the two founders ( 1841 ) of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch, and the magazine's joint-editor, with Mark Lemon, in its early days.

At Christmas 1850 he was invited by Mark Lemon to fill the position of joint cartoonist ( with John Leech ) on Punch.

His drawing of ' An unequal match ', published in Punch on 8 October 1881, depicted a police officer fighting a criminal with only a ' baton ' for protection, trying to put a point across to the public that policing methods needed to be changed.

Bismarck was discarded (" dropping the pilot " in the words of the famous Punch cartoon ), promoted to the rank of " Colonel-General with the Dignity of Field Marshal " ( so-called because the German Army did not appoint full Field Marshals in peacetime ) and given a new title, Duke of Lauenburg, which he joked would be useful when travelling incognito.

In the early 18th century, the marionette theatre starring Punch was at its height, with showman Martin Powell attracting sizable crowds at both Covent Garden and Bath, Somerset.

The tale of Punch and Judy, as previously with Punchinello and Joan, varies from puppeteer to puppeteer and has changed over time.

It typically involves Punch behaving outrageously, struggling with his wife Judy and the Baby, and then triumphing in a series of encounters with the forces of law and order ( and often the supernatural ), interspersed with jokes and songs.

As performed currently in the UK a typical show will start with the arrival of Mr. Punch followed by the introduction of Judy.

Punch's subsequent comic struggle with the crocodile might then leave him in need of a Doctor who will arrive and attempt to treat Punch by walloping him with a stick until Punch turns the tables on him.

A ghost might then appear and give Mr. Punch a fright before it too is chased off with a slapstick.

Finally the show will often end with the Devil arriving for Mr. Punch ( and possibly to threaten his audience as well ).

Punch — in his final gleefully triumphant moment — will win his fight with the Devil and bring the show to a rousing conclusion and earn a round of applause.

While Punch and Judy, as with the tale of Robin Hood, might follow no one fixed storyline, there are nevertheless episodes common to many recorded versions.

* The band Marillion had a # 29 hit in the UK in 1984 with a song entitled " Punch and Judy ", satirising marital strife.

* The band Lightning Seeds ' album Jollification features a song called " Punch and Judy ", that deals with issues of domestic violence.