Great T&T Citizens in London: Floella Benjamin.

Floella Benjamin was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, in a a small town called Pointe-a-Pierre in 1949. "My first memory of that wonderful sun drenched Caribbean island was when I was three years old and I treasure those memories. I came to Britain in 1960 and experienced a huge culture shock because I expected everyone to treat me kindly and with respect, but Britain was cold, unwelcoming, violent and bleak. I had to learn to live in two cultures fast if I was going to survive".

" My beautiful mother told all six of her children each day before we went to school that education was our passport to life and to go to school and learn everything the teachers told us. I did just that and loved my time at school because my mum set us that goal!"

"I always wanted to be a teacher but my parents couldn’t afford to keep me on to do my A Levels so I had to leave school at sixteen. I worked in a bank for three years whilst doing my A Levels at night school, I thought I could be Britain’s first black woman bank manager but I soon realised it was an impossible dream in those days. So I auditioned to go on a national tour of a hit musical. I hadn’t been to drama school so I got the bank to keep my job for me just in case I didn’t like being on stage. But I never went back..."

Floella is best known to a generation as the presenter of the BBC's pre-school children's programme Play School, alongside mute co-stars Humpty, Jemima, and Little Ted.
But now she runs her own production company, and is also chairman of the film and television organisation BAFTA.

She has promoted the Commonwealth around the world, and sits on the government's Millennium Commission alongside former Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam, and former Conservative deputy leader Michael Heseltine.

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