Micro Men

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British TV programme

title: "Micro Men" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["2009-british-television-series-debuts", "bbc-television-docudramas", "biographical-films-about-computer-and-internet-entrepreneurs", "documentary-films-about-computer-and-internet-entrepreneurs", "history-of-computing-in-the-united-kingdom", "science-docudramas", "british-docudrama-films", "films-scored-by-ilan-eshkeri"] description: "British TV programme" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Men" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British TV programme ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox television"]

FieldValue
imageMicro Men.png
captionTitle card
genreDocumentary drama
creatorAndrea Cornwell
writerTony Saint
directorSaul Metzstein
starringAlexander Armstrong
Martin Freeman
theme_music_composerVangelis
opentheme"Pulstar"
composerIlan Eshkeri
countryUnited Kingdom
languageEnglish
executive_producerElinor Day
Jamie Laurenson
producerAndrea Cornwell
editorIan Davies
cinematographyHubert Taczanowski
runtime84 mins
channelBBC Four
first_aired
::

| image = Micro Men.png | caption = Title card | alt_name = | genre = Documentary drama | creator = Andrea Cornwell | developer = | writer = Tony Saint | director = Saul Metzstein | creative_director = | starring = Alexander Armstrong Martin Freeman | judges = | voices = | narrated = | theme_music_composer = Vangelis | opentheme = "Pulstar" | endtheme = | composer = Ilan Eshkeri | country = United Kingdom | language = English | num_series = | num_episodes = | list_episodes = | executive_producer = Elinor Day Jamie Laurenson | producer = Andrea Cornwell | editor = Ian Davies | location = | cinematography = Hubert Taczanowski | camera = | runtime = 84 mins | company = | channel = BBC Four | first_aired = | last_aired = | related =

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.

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. 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

Cameo

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. 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. They also supplied other technical props, including the Sinclair C5, and Jason Fitzpatrick, director of the museum, played the part of David Johnson-Davies.

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: Though not all tracks are limited to that decade.

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."

References

References

  1. Teeman, Tim. (September 2024). "Last Night's TV". The Times.
  2. Wollaston, Sam. (9 October 2009). "Micro Men". [[The Guardian]].
  3. Arnott, Jack. (8 October 2009). "Micro Men preview". [[The Guardian]].
  4. Lyle, Peter. (7 October 2009). "Micro Men: Sir Clive Sinclair and the heyday of British computing". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
  5. (7 October 2009). "Museum-piece computers programmed into TV show". Cambridge Newspapers.
  6. (21 August 2009). "Syntax Era / Micro Men Trailer". Centre for Computing History.
  7. (14 February 2014). "Micro Men: The story of the syntax era".
  8. (10 January 2010). "Sir Clive Sinclair: Down but never out, the eternal optimist is back". The Independent.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

2009-british-television-series-debutsbbc-television-docudramasbiographical-films-about-computer-and-internet-entrepreneursdocumentary-films-about-computer-and-internet-entrepreneurshistory-of-computing-in-the-united-kingdomscience-docudramasbritish-docudrama-filmsfilms-scored-by-ilan-eshkeri