In pictures: Punch and Judy Festival celebrates Bognor's seaside heritage

Taking place until 5pm, the festival celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of the Punch and Judy Man; a 1960s traigcomedy filmed in Bognor Regis and starring Tony Hancock.

The free-to-attend festival features music, magic shows, marionettes and the unveiling of a blue plaque designed to commemorate the town’s cinematic legacy. The film is set to be screened in full at The Picturedrome Cinema tonight, at 7.30pm, with a post-screening discussion to follow, as well as a chance to see some of the wooden heads used in the film.

First released in 1963, The Punch and Judy Man was poorly received at first, warranting unfavourable comparisons to Hancock’s Half Hour. Since then, however, critical perspectives have changed, and the film has been reappraised for its tragicomic look at life by the sea.

That change is thanks in part to the hard work of the Tony Hancock Society, who, alongside the Bognor Regis Heritage Partnership and the Punch and Judy Club, helped organise this year’s event.