THE BIG GRIN was a national celebration of

Mr. Punch’s 350th Birthday.

This exciting programme of community events and opportunities was presented by PuppetLink and made possible by support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It toured the UK during the spring and summer of 2012 and the programme continued til May 2013 before moving permanently online.

  The Big Grin was launched in public on Saturday May 12th with the The Greatest Punch and Judy Show on Earth: a birthday celebration in Covent Garden Piazza in central London where Punch was first seen by Samuel Pepys.

The largest ever mass gathering of UK ‘Professors’ was joined by performers and  guests from around the world - including Japan, Australia, South Africa, America, the Netherlands, Slovakia - plus very special guest Pulcinella from Naples.

It was followed on Sunday May 13th by a special edition of the traditional Punch & Judy May Fayre organised by Alternative Arts in the churchyard of St. Paul’s Covent Garden - the Actors’ Church.