Floella Benjamin ascends to the Lords – but who should be next?

Floella Benjamin has ditched her Polo mint earrings and ascended to the House of Lords this week, in recognition of her campaigning charity work. She becomes Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham, which appropriately sounds like a character from a kids' TV show. Oh look, here comes Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham on her blue bicycle! It's obvious why she's been honoured now, after all these years. The people in government are in their late 30s and 40s and therefore the right age to reminisce about the reassuring personalities from their childhoods. Floella could open the floodgates for scores of old TV faces to be clad in ermine and propped up among the decaying reactionaries already gathering dust there. You can just see Cameron and Clegg sat in front of a laptop, looking up their favourites on YouTube and sharing a Milky Way. Here are my suggestions for the government's next round of peerage bestowals. Feel free to add your own. Derek Griffiths He's a trained Shakespearean actor but this honour would of course recognise his work on Play School, Play Away and Heads and Tails. He could liven up dreary debates with his impressive range of funny voices and animal impressions. Brian Cant Not just a delightfully reassuring presenter but also distinguished for his work as the voice of Chigley , Trumpton AND Camberwick Green . We all knew what he meant when he said that cider had made Windy Miller a bit "sleepy". Such powers of diplomacy would serve him well in his new career. Dagnor The backwards-talking man from The Adventure Game . He's the Australian bloke resident on the planet Arg who played pool and spoke in reverse riddles during the well-loved kids' gameshow. While most peers in the Lords only contribute a slurred "hear hear" to debates, Dagnor would of course respond with his traditional "doogy rev, doogy rev". It'd never get old. Johnny Ball Despite his recent conversion to climate-change denial, we cannot deny the impact he had on all our young lives. He performed the impossible and made learning actual fun. No one who saw Think of a Number or its many followup shows can fail to acknowledge his loveliness and his enthusiasm for maths. Professor Heinz Wolff He is eligible – he's lived in the UK since he was 11. The presenter of the legendary Great Egg Race was and is an eccentric professor with a foreign accent, wild hair and half-moon glasses. He did for science what Johnny Ball did for maths. He's even got his own game for the Wii . This is the next logical step. Keith Chegwin The former chubby-faced child star became a kids' favourite in the late 1970s with Cheggers Plays Pop and by assisting Noel Edmonds on his Multicoloured Swap Shop. Obviously his more recent work (that naked Channel Five game show) would have to be brushed under the carpet. But he needs something to do. He's now presenting his own TV channel on the web , whether people are watching or not. He clearly misses public life.