A Night of Music, Politics and Memory with Alan Johnson in Cranleigh
Audiences in Surrey are set for a memorable evening when Alan Johnson brings The Beatles, Harold Wilson & Me to Cranleigh Arts Centre on 26 February. Part memoir, part social history and part conversation, the show offers a warm, witty and revealing look at a life shaped by both popular music and high politics.
Alan Johnson is widely regarded as one of the most respected politicians of recent times, having served at the heart of government during the Blair and Brown years as Health Secretary, Education Secretary and Home Secretary. Yet this evening is as much about the roads not taken as it is about corridors of power. Alongside his political career ran a lifelong love of music and a youthful ambition to be a pop star, nurtured during the cultural upheaval of the 1960s.
In Cranleigh, Johnson reflects on an extraordinary personal journey that began in a West London slum where he grew up as an orphan, and led all the way to senior cabinet office. He explores how his life unexpectedly intersected with The Beatles and his political hero Harold Wilson, and how both figures helped shape his outlook, values and sense of possibility in a decade that transformed Britain.
The evening unfolds in two parts. The first takes the form of an in conversation style discussion, with carefully chosen music clips acting as prompts for stories, memories and reflections. After the interval, the format becomes more informal as the conversation opens out to the audience, with a roving microphone encouraging a lively and often humorous question and answer session.
Johnson describes the 1960s as an historic decade, promising that those who lived through it will find nostalgia, while those who did not will enjoy discovery. Either way, audiences can expect music, humour and a thoughtful smattering of social history. The result is a nostalgic yet unsentimental journey through post-war Britain that will resonate strongly with Baby Boomers and anyone interested in modern British history.
Although Alan Johnson may never have made it onto Top of the Pops, his influence on public life has arguably been far greater. As John Lennon once observed, life is what happens while you are busy making other plans, and this Surrey date offers a chance to hear one of Britain’s most engaging public figures reflect on exactly that.