Micro Men

Micro Men is an enjoyable docu-drama about the early days of the home computer revolution. I was there at the time reading computing magazines avidly and typing out the printed programmes which never worked because of typos. This was avid viewing.

It is Sinclair versus Acorn. Although you would not realise from this film that Clive Sinclair was better known as Uncle Clive, the genial, nerdy 1970s whiz kid who built cheap home computers with dead flesh keyboards.

The Acorn boys on the other hand built more stylish computers with proper keyboards and they even won the contract for the BBC computer.

In this drama, Clive Sinclair (Alexander Armstrong) is seen as a bad tempered bully (he was never regarded as such a person at the time.) Although he was later revealed to be a bit of ladies man, loved a flutter at the Vegas casinos and voted Tory.

Chris Curry (Martin Freeman) of Acorn Computers is the more lovable one. The nice, genial one with his more business headed Austrian partner.

The early 1980s British companies led the world of home computing, although Microsoft had plans for a uniform operating system.

Pitching Acorn v Sinclair is a great history lesson and drama. Unfortunately, both companies were also left picking up the pieces afterwards as Microsoft surpassed them a few years later.