Owner of Britain's oldest Punch and Judy has no plans to quit

Jason Codman, 55, says he has a "responsibility" to keep his booth in Llandudno running after 160 years of performances.

He made the comments after it emerged that a Punch and Judy show in Eastbourne, Sussex, has been axed after 120 years due to budget cuts.

The show - which consists of husband and wife puppets taking part in slapstick scenes that often involving fighting - has been criticised before for domestic violence concerns.

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But supporters say it is a staple of the British seaside.

The Llandudno Punch&Judy circa 1870-1880. Image: SWNS

Jason, whose great-great-grandfather Richard Codman started the Llandudno show in 1860, said he has “no plans to shut up shop”.

He said he's removed any killings from the show - but kept in the stick violence - and re-introduced the role of the hangman despite "keyboard warriors".

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He said: “We’ve never received funding from the council. The show covers its own costs: operating, maintaining, paying my rent and my licence.

“Crowds gather when I start the show. It’s popular, we still get a good crowd.”

Richard Codman started the Llandudno show in 1860. Image: SWNS

Jason said he feels a lot of responsibility to keep the show going because it’s been in the family for five generations.

He said: “We don’t make a living out of Punch and Judy. That’s not the purpose. Our motivation is the history.”

“It’s part of people’s memories. It’s an expectation Punch is going to be there [at the seaside].

“People would say Llandudno would not be the same without Punch and Judy on the promenade.”

The show runs on weekends and in school holidays from Easter to the beginning of September.

Jason works a day job the rest of the year to support himself during the off-season.

He said that in previous generations the money made from the show was enough to make it a full-time job.

He said: “Until the internet, people went out to be entertained.

"Now the culture is everyone wants to get something for nothing. It’s a challenge to get people to donate.”

Punch and Judy has come under fire in recent years.

In May 2016, a council in South Wales removed a Punch and Judy show from a festival line-up because of domestic violence concerns around “inappropriate hitting”.

And in April 2023, another show to mark the coronation of King Charles in the Lincolnshire village of Saltfleetby was cancelled after parish councillors decided it too was deemed “inappropriate”.

Despite these concerns, Jason said he tries to keep the show “as traditional” as he can but admitted that he’s had to “tame” it because of changing attitudes.

He said: “I don’t kill anymore [in the show]. I hit them with a stick.”

Audiences however tend to prefer the traditional show, he says.

He said: “We receive the occasional negative comment but these are far outweighed by the positive.

“I once got a keyboard warrior write in about a hangman scene – so I took him out. But people then asked: ‘where is the hangman?’.

“So I brought him back. Sometimes he’s in, sometimes he’s out. I feel the crowd, see where it’s going. If they’re subdued, I leave it out.”

Organisers of the traditional show on Eastbourne seafront say their show, which has been running for over a century, will not go ahead this year, calling it the “end of an era”.

A petition is looking to save the show and stop it becoming the victim of council spending cuts, reports the Argus.

Punch and Judy began to emerge during the Restoration Period in Britain - beginning in 1660.