In response to parents' complaints, a Derbyshire council has introduced regulations banning Mr Punch's traditional vices from shows.

In the children's show which dates back at least 300 years, the Mr Punch puppet regularly beats his wife with his 'slapstick' and murders his baby by battering it against a wall and throwing it downstairs.

Councillors say that these sights may further traumatise youngsters with violent backgrounds and they add that the use of a cap gun in the act is no longer funny in the wake of the Dunblane massacre.

Vivienne McDonald, a council spokeswoman, said: "We are not against Punch and Judy or clowns - only certain features of their act."

'Professor' Glyn Edwards, who heads The World Wide Friends of Punch and Judy and has himself been a Punchman for 40 years ridicules the suggestion that Punch and Judy are harmful:

"Attacking Punch and Judy is rather like animal liberationists complaining about Tom and Jerry. You are treating a fantasy as if it was real life.

"If one clown kicks another in a circus ring, it's funny. If the same thing happens in Marseille it is football hooliganism."

North Derbyshire Women's Aid, however, which deals with domestic violence, said it was pleased at the council's move:

"A lot of children who come to us have witnessed violence in the home - if they are going out to a show and seeing that again, we would think that would have an effect on them."

This is not the first time that Punch and Judy has come under attack. When protesters tried to enlist the aid of Charles Dickens, he responded:

"I regard it as quite harmless in its influence and no more than an outrageous joke."