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Punch without Judy

1939 play

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ130390663
Source-derived summary

Punch without Judy is a 1939 comedy play by the British author Max Catto. After its première at the Q Theatre in Kew Bridge, London, it transferred to New Theatre in the West End where it ran for 33 performances between 5 December and 30 December 1939. The West End cast included Peter Murray Hill, Henry Kendall, Ernest Jay, Basil Langton, Marjorie Rhodes, Elizabeth Allan and Olga Edwardes. The plot was revolved around romance between students living Bloomsbury. The same year the author's successful thriller They Walk Alone had also appeared in the West End.

Phyllis Calvert appeared at Q Theatre in the role subsequently played by Elizabeth Allan in the West End. Calvert met her future husband, co-star Peter Murray Hill, during the production and was spotted by Gainsborough Pictures who signed her to a contract.

References

Bibliography

James, Godfrey. London, the Western Reaches. Hale, 1950.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Punch without Judy” as 1939 play. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Punch, without and Judy.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1939, 1950—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Punch, without and Judy providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Punch without Judy”, the useful work is to connect “1939 play” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q130390663. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1939 and 1950.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Punch without Judy”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Punch without Judy primary sources, Punch without Judy archive and Punch research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Punch without Judy”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Punch without Judy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.