Entertainment For Lively Minds
Anyone else see Micro Men?
Posted by robram on 11 October 2009 - 2:07pm.
Caught the BBC4 80s computer drama Micro Men last night and was pleasantly surprised.
Quite apart from the nostalgia of early Sinclair products such as the calculator and ZX81, I was amazed at the portrayal of Clive Sinclair as a power-crazed megalomaniac.
Always seen as cuddly boffin, it appears he was actually a fiercely competitive, angry man.
Still time to catch it on iplayer, natch
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00n5b92/Micro_Men/
Worth downloading for a rainy October day...
My one slight gripe was Alastair Armstrong's performance as Sinclair, simply because he sounded exactly like himself - given the propensity for his voice to appear on countless TV ads, it was a teeny bit annoying.
- More from robram.
- Login or register to post comments
-
It was good - but a paradoxical problem with 'historical" drama
I agree about the insight into Sinclair's character, and Alexander Armstrong's voice - apart from that, I thought he put in a good performance. He had more of a challenge than the other actors as Sinclair was a well-known public figure, unlike Chris Curry or Hermann Hauser. (The bald wig was slightly hypnotic as well - I kept looking for the join).
But as with so much stuff set in the recent past, the, entirely accurate, period detail can be distracting. The suits, the smoking, the hairstyles, are the first thing you notice, and can get in the way of the drama. At the time, you wouldn't have noticed all of this, as you were part of it. Now, strangely, the accuracy has a distancing effect on the story.
i agree re voice,
curiously Armstrong thinks he was using a different, tailored, one-see Telegraph link below
I thought it was a cracking
bit of tele. Took me right back my ZX81 / Oric 1 days... My favourite moment was when all the Acorn geeks are eating takeaway with pliers and soldering irons & the suave Austrian finds the only fork. Beautiful.
Oh, and the end credits where Sinclair is driving the C5 & is overtaken by a Microsoft lorry. A nice touch.
The suave Austrian
if that's Herman Hauser, is currently bankrolling this:
http://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/UCPB/PlaceEx.aspx?p=6&ix=30&pid=6&prcid=27&ppi...
Couldn't interest 'Er Indoors in Micro Men so will watch myself this week-looked quite promising. We ended up seeing last but one ep of Adam Curtis' Pandora's Box which I must admit was better than I recall, so I guess she was right this time ...
That was him...
The GLW snorted derisively when I asked her if she fancied watching Micro Men, then sat down about halfway through it and was transfixed by the story of these passionate egg-heads...
i think passionate egg heads are a bit of a busman's
holiday in her view but I am enjoying the repeat-memories of the MK14, the Black Watch etc etc.
Maybe they'll do Arcam and Mission next :-)
quite
a good piece here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6255809/Micro-Men-Sir-Cliv...
but like the film rather underplays the success of the ARM chip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture
and architecture-perhaps because it goes against the chosen message of British technological eclipse by being so obviously a continuing success ;-)
one other thing
that one naturally wondered on watching it was what the key players thought, were they consulted etc etc
This seemed a good answer: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/not-quite-warts-and-all-for-bbcs-m...