The Punch and Judy Man
It’s the end of the summer season in Piltdown on the Sussex coast, the crowds thinning and the weather changing, the mayor and the council planning the move to their winter setting with the illumination ceremony in a week, Lady Caterham having accepted the invitation to the gala launch, while on the beach the Punch and Judy Man and the Sandman, Wally Pinner and sculptor Charles Arthur Ford, continue to perform for pennies tossed in a plate.
His marriage to Delia who runs the gift shop downstairs from their small apartment one of frosty indifference, every scrape of the butter knife on her toast at the breakfast table grating on him, Wally senses a storm coming up the channel, but not so big as the one which will break when he is asked to perform at the gala, initially resistant but persuaded when Delia makes it clear she desperately wishes to meet Lady Caterham.
The second of two feature films to star radio and television comedy star Tony Hancock after The Rebel two years earlier, largely an extension of his successful format written by his long-time collaborators Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, The Punch and Judy Man of 1963 is a departure from that flexible premise written by Philip Oakes from an idea by Hancock, the character of Wally Pinner a downtrodden man at the end of his tether caught in the petty rivalries of a small seaside town which has eroded any confidence or ambition he once had.
The council hostile to the seaside entertainers who they believe sully the reputation of the town, their aspiration rejects their own residents leaving Wally and Charles, Hancock’s friend John Le Mesurier, adrift, The Punch and Judy Man less the colourful continental shenanigans of The Rebel and more a British post-war monochrome melancholy of rainy days with long takes of minimal dialogue where the lead is often obscured or obstructed, the more complex comedy of frustrated ennui demonstrating Hancock’s depth beyond his customary routines.
The supporting ensemble a “who’s who” of talent, it is also a bonanza for fans of classic Doctor Who, with Ghost Light’s Sylvia Syms as Delia, kindly but sad, bound to a husband she once loved and wishing better for them both, The Happiness Patrol’s Ronald Fraser as the snooty mayor who finds a companion in the equally disingenuous Lady Caterham played by Black Orchid’s Barbara Murray, Delta and the Bannermen’s Hugh Lloyd as puppet handler Edward and even Susan Foreman herself, Carole Ann Ford, glimpsed in a kiosk.
Restored and released simultaneously with The Rebel as part of StudioCanal’s Vintage Classics range, the new edition of The Punch and Judy Man is supported by comedian and Hancock devotee Paul Merton talking about the film, an audio interview with director Jeremy Summers from the material held by the British Entertainment History Project, a gallery, the original trailer and archive material of Hancock performances.
The Punch and Judy Man will be available on Blu-ray and DVD from StudioCanal from Monday 3rd March
