Trivia / The Punch and Judy Man

• Blooper:
  • Wally's box of Rice Krispies has a toy aeroplane inside, however at the time of filming, Rice Krispies came with collectible cards, not toys.
  • Peter claims a Piltdown Glory has two scoops of vanilla ice cream and two scoops of chocolate ice cream, however, when it is made, there is only vanilla ice cream in it.
  • The Dudley House Bed & Breakfast phone number has a Bognor Regis area code, rather than Piltdown.
  • Charles Greville's Daily Mail report on the gala opening changes topics after the first paragraph and goes on about Michael Tippett, his new opera King Priam, and a weather forecast.
• Cast the Expert: Nevil Shanks (the photographer) was played by Mario Fabrizi, who was himself once a genuine street photographer.
• Creator Backlash: Tony Hancock claimed he "would have liked to have quit the film in the middle, but by then we'd gone too far, and I had to finish it".
• Creator Killer: The film's failure at the box office meant it would be Tony Hancock's final starring role in a film.
• Inspiration for the Work: The film was inspired by Tony Hancock's memories of growing up in Bournemouth, while Wally and Delia's strained marriage was also based on his own.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Tony Hancock plays a Punch and Judy man, but Hancock hated puppets. He also hated ice cream, so for the scene where Wally eats a Piltdown Glory, Hancock had to wash the taste out of his mouth with vodka between takes.
• On-Set Injury: Tony Hancock was injured many times during production, the worst of which was when a window was shattered into his face.
• Production Posse: Much of the film's cast worked with Tony Hancock in Hancock's Half Hour, including John Le Mesurier, Hugh Lloyd, Mario Fabrizi, and Hattie Jacques.
• Real-Life Relative: Peter was played by Nicholas Webb, the nephew of Sylvia Syms.
• Referenced by...: The Screen One episode "Hancock" dramatises the making of the film.
• Romance on the Set: Tony Hancock had a crush on Sylvia Syms during filming. Syms turned Hancock down instantly as they were both married.
• Troubled Production: The film was not easy to make. Tony Hancock's marriage was falling apart, his drinking was out of control, and he was terrified of the Punch puppet (he believed it was cursed and blamed the film's failure on it). He also suffered many injuries such as a window shattering into his face, and his mood wasn't helped by a meeting with Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett, who were filming a scene for the finale of the first series of Steptoe and Son (Steptoe was written and directed by Hancock's former writers and directors he had fired a few years prior, seeing them reminded him of what he had lost and haunted him).
• Uncredited Role: Hattie Jacques as Dolly Zarathusa.
• Wag the Director:
  • Tony Hancock refused to have Sid James cast in the film.
  • When Wally rams a bunch of flowers up a porcelain pig's backside, the flowers were intended to go up the pig's nose, however, Hancock thought that it would be funnier up the backside, causing the production team to have to make a prop with a suitable orifice.
  • Hancock also insisted on drawing out the scene where Wally eats the Piltdown Glory, as he believed it would be funnier that way.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before dropping Ray Galton and Alan Simpson as his writers, the two had written Tony Hancock three film scripts. Hancock was worried that the projects were wrong for him, so the first two (the first being about an idle young man and his three businessmen brothers - rejected for not having international appeal, the second about Hancock playing a passenger on a cruise liner - rejected for being too similar to Mr. Hulot's Holiday) were unfinished. Only the third (The Day Off, revolving around the mishaps that happen to a bus conductor on his day off from work) was completed, but it was still rejected. Hancock apparently didn't read any of the three screenplays, instead, he hired Philip Oakes to co-write this film, which he had previously discussed with them.
  • Billie Whitelaw was first cast as Delia, but later withdrew from the role and was replaced with Sylvia Syms.
  • Hancock asked Arthur Bliss to score the film. Bliss was a fan of Hancock's but refused as he considered himself too old to do so.
  • Hancock had wanted to do the location filming in Bournemouth rather than Bognor Regis.

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