Micro Men

"Syntax Era" redirects here. For the hip hop song, see T.I.M.E. (The Inner Mind's Eye).

Micro Men is a 2009 one-off BBC drama television programme set in the late 1970s and the early-mid 1980s, about the rise of the British home computer market and the early fortunes of Sinclair and Acorn Computers. It focuses on the rivalry between Sir Clive Sinclair (played by Alexander Armstrong), who developed the ZX Spectrum, and Chris Curry (played by Martin Freeman), the man behind the BBC Micro.^[2]

Micro Men
Title card
Genre	Documentary drama
Created by	Andrea Cornwell
Written by	Tony Saint
Directed by	Saul Metzstein
Starring	Alexander Armstrong Martin Freeman
Theme music composer	Vangelis
Opening theme	"Pulstar"
Composer	Ilan Eshkeri
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Elinor Day Jamie Laurenson
Producer	Andrea Cornwell
Cinematography	Hubert Taczanowski
Editor	Ian Davies
Running time	84 mins
Original release
Network	BBC Four
Release	8 October 2009 (2009-10-08)[1]

Plot

The drama is centred on two of the leading players and their respective companies in the home computer market of the late 1970s and early 1980s focusing on the race to win a grant from the BBC to become the provider of a home computer for the BBC's programming for schools.^[3] Certain parts of the drama are based on historical fact while others are a dramatisation.

The main characters are ZX Spectrum creator Clive Sinclair and BBC Micro creators Chris Curry, Sophie Wilson, Steve Furber and Hermann Hauser. The real-life Wilson also makes a brief cameo as a barmaid.

Cast

• Alexander Armstrong as Clive Sinclair
• Martin Freeman as Chris Curry
• Edward Baker-Duly as Hermann Hauser
• Sam Phillips as Steve Furber
• Stefan Butler as Roger Wilson
• Colin Michael Carmichael as Jim Westwood
• Derek Riddell as Nigel Searle
• Peter Davison as Bank Manager

Cameo

• Sophie Wilson plays a pub landlady.
• Chris Serle and Ian McNaught-Davis also appear through the incorporation of stock footage from The Computer Programme, during the scenes when Steve Furber is desperately trying to keep the demonstration BBC Micros running behind the studio set.
• Jim Westwood appears in the background of a scene set in the computer department of a WH Smith store.

Production

Development

The programme was created by independent production company Darlow Smithson and was written by Tony Saint, directed by Saul Metzstein and produced by Andrea Cornwell.^[4] It was produced as a BBC Drama, shot in the UK, with some scenes shot in and around the colleges of Cambridge on 15 July 2009. Computers were supplied by The Centre for Computing History, then in Haverhill.^[5] They also supplied other technical props, including the Sinclair C5, and Jason Fitzpatrick, director of the museum, played the part of David Johnson-Davies.^[6]

The programme's titles use green lettering similar to that produced by the 1980s monitors to which BBC Microcomputers would have typically been connected.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack uses a number of early 1980s electronica tracks:^[7] Though not all tracks are limited to that decade.

• "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath
• "Layla" by Eric Clapton
• "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy
• "Pulstar" by Vangelis
• "Zoolookologie" by Jean Michel Jarre
• "Oxygène (Part IV)" by Jean Michel Jarre
• "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
• "99 Red Balloons" by Nena
• "Pipes of Peace" by Paul McCartney
• "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd
• "Title" from The Carpetbaggers by Jimmy Smith
• "Computer World 2" by Kraftwerk
• "Wouldn't It Be Good" by Nik Kershaw
• "Planet Earth" by Duran Duran

Release

It was first shown on BBC Four on 8 October 2009.

Reaction

When asked about the programme in an interview for The Independent — despite being involved in the production — Sinclair himself stated: "It was a travesty of the truth. It just had no bearing on the truth. It was terrible."^[8]

See also

• Micro Live

References

1. Teeman, Tim (9 October 2009). "Last Night's TV". The Times. Retrieved 16 May 2011.^{[dead link‍]}
2. Wollaston, Sam (9 October 2009). "Micro Men". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
3. Arnott, Jack (8 October 2009). "Micro Men preview". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
4. Lyle, Peter (7 October 2009). "Micro Men: Sir Clive Sinclair and the heyday of British computing". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
5. "Museum-piece computers programmed into TV show". Haverhill Weekly News. Cambridge Newspapers. 7 October 2009. Archived from the original on 15 May 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
6. "Syntax Era / Micro Men Trailer". Centre for Computing History. Centre for Computing History. 21 August 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
7. Smith, Tony (14 February 2014). "Micro Men: The story of the syntax era". www.theregister.com. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
8. "Sir Clive Sinclair: Down but never out, the eternal optimist is back". The Independent. 10 January 2010. Archived from the original on 14 May 2022.

External links

• Micro Men at BBC Online
• Micro Men on the British Comedy Guide
• Micro Men at IMDb
• The Guardian: Battle between ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro to be BBC4 comedy drama
• TechRadar article
• BitterWallet blog entry by Andy Dawson (09.10.2009, just a day after Micro Men was broadcast first)
• The Jitty: Interview with the British IBM