Floella Benjamin (her full name is Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin) was born in Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad, and she had three brothers and two sisters.  Her father, a policeman and reportedly a talented jazz musician,  decided to emigrate to Britain, the children were left in the care of family friends. In 1960 the children went to join him in Beckenham, Kent. Floella has since discussed the racist experiences she had when arriving in Britain as an immigrant.

She left school to work in a bank and she studied for A-levels at night school. After a spell as a stage actress in West End musicals, she began presenting children’s television programmes in 1976, notably “Play School” for the BBC.  She was lovely to work with.

On 28 June 2010, Lady Benjamin was introduced to the House of Lords as a life peer nominated by the Liberal Democrats with the title of Baroness Benjamin, of Beckenham in the County of Kent.

Floella Benjamin and the Dancing Cameras

 

Roger Bunce

The Two-Peds-Dancing-with-Floella-Benjamin video was discovered by Gordon Findlay, on an old VHS. He posted it in a Facebook group. It looks like a Pixar animation, but it’s not. It was performed as live. The two Cameramen were, we think, Dave Box and John Longley, both dressed in overlay green, in front of a green screen.

Bernie did some amazingly clever computery stuff to make it visible to non-Facebook folk.

I assume that the Ampex clock for ‘Crossroads’ at the end, is just something else on the same VHS.

If you haven’t watched it…, it’s well worth it, especially if you were a Cameraman. There’s something about an HP Ped competing with a Fulmar. Just sad that the Cameras aren’t EMI 2001s. That would have been completely iconic. And some of us will recall the sheer impossibility of fastening that buckle on the flight-case monitor!

Here it is:

         

 

Bernie Newnham

It turns out that Facebook doesn’t want you to rip videos from private groups. Not surprising really. But this particular video is BBC copyright, and as a special interest group, I thought we deserved to see.  

OBS Studio is not only free, it’s very good once you get it going. You can record the screen or any part of it.  Having – after four tries – got the stuff on a drive here, it needed a bit of processing through Premiere.

 

Patrick Heigham

But why the Ampex clock for ATV at the end of the clip?

 

Mike Giles

Did the invisible cameramen in their CSO green suits get payments for being in-vision under direction?

 

Patrick Heigham

Hope so!

That reminds me, that years ago, a programme about making TV programmes required a camera in the sound control of TC4, I think it was.

As I was on Grams that day, I was in vision and paid 10 guineas – but 3 guineas was deducted, as I was just doing my normal job!

 

Roger Bunce

According to Facebook – Yes – they did get payments for being directed ‘In-Vision’, despite being invisible!