Newsletter – January 2026
Join us for a Sunny Afternoon
In spite of TS Eliot, January is the cruellest month: cold, long nights and two more months of winter to go. So why not cheer yourselves up with a Sunny Afternoon. We have 10 tickets for the Kinks tribute show on Thursday 22 January, at reduced prices for Fapt members, so why not join members of the committee and other Fapt members in a social evening. A glass of wine or a soft drink, some chat and Muswell Hillbilly music to keep the gloom at bay.
Sunny Afternoon won the Olivier award for Best New Musical and spent two years in the West End. It celebrates one of the most iconic bands of the 1960s, set up by Ray and Dave Davies, local Muswell Hill boys. Songs such as Sunny Afternoon and Waterloo Sunset evoke the atmosphere of the Sixties.
Tickets for the show are in row L of the stalls, and with a group and Fapt discount cost £25 – almost half the full price of £47.95. If you would like to join us, contact Paul Murphy at murphpjj@hotmail.com.
New website launched
We finally have a new website up and running after post-covid problems took our previous site offline. It’s still in development, transferring data from our original site – there is a link to an archive version of that site – and adding new content.
But it has the essential information – including a live membership page where you can join or rejoin the Friends. We are now at: https://fapt.co.uk
Friends of the Alexandra Palace Theatre
Upcoming events
2025 was another busy season in the theatre, the year ended with a run of Charles
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Upcoming events for 2026 include:
15-31 Jan 2025 Sunny Afternoon
3-15 Feb Stewart Lee vs The Man Wulf
20 February Kyla Cobbler – Gone Rogue
21 Feb Queen of the Night: A Tribute to Whitney Houston
28 Feb Schalk Bezuidenhout
Highlights later in 2026 include Jamaica Love (14-15 March), the award-winning musical tracing the evolution of Jamaican music; Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason: To be Young Gifted and Black (23 April), discussion of Kanneh-Mason’s new book, with music, to launch Ally Pally’s North London Book Fest; Michael Rosen (25 April), the local legend celebrates his 80th birthday with a show for children of all ages; Malory Towers (22 Jul-2 Aug), an Alexandra Palace co-production with Emma Rice of Enid Blyton’s classic. Lashings of ginger beer all round.
Dan Earley, head of Haringey Music Service, and Emma Dagnes, CEO of Alexandra Palace: Photo: Alexandra Palace
Music hub
Music has a long history at Alexandra Palace, from the orchestral concerts, opera and musical theatre of the Victorian age to today’s leading venue for all types of popular music, from rock to rap.
It now adds another string, as it becomes, from December, the home of Haringey Music Service, which will be based in the former BBC Transmitter Hall.
Together with the growing association of the Palace with the BBC Concert Orchestra and the regular performances in the Theatre by the orchestra and by Crouch End Festival Chorus, Alexandra Palace is becoming an important music hub for the development and performance of music in north London.
Talks
We have continued to give talks about various aspects of the Theatre to interested groups. In March this year (2025) the chair and secretary (co-authors of the history of the Theatre: Drama at the Palace 1 and 2) gave a talk to the Edmonton Hundred Society.
In September 2024 we gave a talk and presentation to the architecture group of Crouch End University of the Third Age, looking at how the building has changed in response to changing uses.
We have been asked to give a talk to the Finchley Society in March 2026.
Photo: BBC
Later … With Jools Holland
We are now used to seeing the Alexandra Palace Theatre on TV in many guises from Earthshot to the finale of the Great British Menu, but it now gets regular exposure as the home of BBC2’s Later … With Jools Holland. The Theatre auditorium provides an atmospheric background to the music and has become a firm favourite with the artists.
Charlie Sharp
Charlie Sharp, who died suddenly this summer, was a long-time supporter and member of Fapt, and a former treasurer of the Friends. As a councillor for Crouch End from 1994 to 2002 he was instrumental in repairing and restoring the iconic Clocktower and early efforts to restore and reuse Hornsey Town Hall.
Sadly, he didn’t live long enough to see that finally achieved, but he did see the reopening of the Alexandra Palace Theatre. He continued to support the Theatre and Friends and organised our talk to the U3A.
Fapt Committee
The current committee was re-elected at the AGM in October. Before the next AGM we hope to engage more members in Friends’ activities, so that we can refresh the committee – and allow some members to retire.
The committee is: Chair: Nigel Willmott; Secretary (and acting membership secretary): Patricia Brearey; Treasurer: Imogen Pennell; Press and publicity: Richard Smith; Ordinary members: Paul Murphy, Bob Hare and Jacob O’Callaghan. Co-opted member: Helen Padley.