Punch and Judy show gets a PC brigade bashing

A VETERAN children’s entertainer says his Punch and Judy show is being driven out of business by “snowflakes” who say watching his puppets bashing each other is “not the way to do it”.

Brian Llewellyn says “the PC brigade” are insisting Punch does not strike Judy during the comedy act because it has the potential to “glorify domestic violence”.

A booking in a primary school in Middlesbrough was dropped after he refused their request to ensure he had “modernised” his 42-year-old show. Brian, from Darlington, says he was told that his act had the potential to “upset vulnerable children”.

His wife Marilyn, 64, replied they were not prepared to change the script and the school promptly cancelled this week’s planned performance.

Another local primary school objected to a black Minstrel character and a show there only went ahead when he was dropped.

The couple also took their Punch and Judy act to an Armed Forces Day in Redcar but the puppets could not perform as the setting was opposite a women’s refuge office and a volunteer had objected to the “demonstration of domestic violence”. Father of four Puppet Mr Punch, Brian Llewellyn and his Judy and grandfather of nine Brian, 64, who started working as a Punch and Judy Man alongside his father in 1953, said: “We grew up with Punch and Judy and it did not do us any harm.

“People read far, far too much into it. How on earth can it affect children’s lives. It is just politically correct silliness by snowflakes.

“Punch and Judy is a traditional show that goes back to the 1600s and you don’t just change the script. The kids that watch my show are still screaming with laughter.”

But Becky Rogerson, from Middlesbrough domestic abuse charity My Sisters’ Place, said: “I hated Punch and Judy as a kid as it was just violence. It’s quite brutal. We’re trying to teach respect.”

fergus Kelly is aWay