The drama is centered 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. Certain parts of the drama are based on historical fact while others are a dramatization.
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.
Martin Freeman does a great job as Chris Curry, and Alexander Armstrong seems to do a quite good impression of Sinclair.
Overall a great little movie for retro computer fans! Well produced and well paced, feels slightly reminiscent of Halt and Catch Fire.
If you watched this and enjoyed it, there is a Micro Men 10th Anniversary retrospective chat with Chris Curry, Steve Furber and Hermann Hauser from The Centre for Computing History.
Watching that now, super interesting to see! Thanks for sharing it :D
Although the dramatisation is mildly apocryphal, it does capture really well the entrepreneurship and rivalry of microcomputer development in the UK in the 1980s. I love this short movie and have to go back and watch it again every couple of years.
This is right up my street, I think I know what I’ll be watching this evening—Cheers OP
Somehow the post isn’t giving me anything other than a link to itself.
I forgot to add the link 🤦
Thanks for letting me know! It should be working now, but if not, here’s the direct link.
Works now. Thanks.