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Micro Men
''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. 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 * Alexander Armstrong as Clive Sinclair * Martin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Saint
Antony David Saint (born 1968, west Northumberland, England) is an England, English novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Early life He had contact with the theatre through the People's Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, People's Theatre in Heaton, Newcastle, Heaton. Whilst at university he was guitarist in a rock band ''The Little Caesars.'' In 1993, he joined the UK Immigration Service where he worked for ten years. He later wrote a book, ''Refusal Shoes'', based on this experience. Career His credits include 2009's ''Micro Men'' (about the men and development stories behind the BBC and Sinclair home computers), the 2008 ''The Long Walk to Finchley'' (on the early career of Margaret Thatcher), and one episode of ''The Whistleblowers'' in 2007 for ITV. He also wrote the 2006 TV play ''Service (play), Service''. In 2012 he wrote ''The Interceptor'', which was broadcast on BBC One. He wrote on the ''Das Boot (TV series), Das Boot'' television series, which acts as a sequel to the ori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Armstrong
Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter and singer. He is the host of the BBC One game show ''Pointless'', as well as the morning show on Classic FM. He is one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller. Armstrong's television credits include ''Armstrong and Miller'', '' Beast'', '' Life Begins'', ''Hunderby'' and '' Danger Mouse''. He is also known as the voice of Mr Smith, Sarah Jane Smith's alien (Xylok) supercomputer in ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' and the series 4 finale of ''Doctor Who''. Armstrong is a bass-baritone and has released three studio albums. Early life Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong was born in Rothbury, Northumberland, on 2 March 1970, the youngest of three children, to physician Henry Angus Armstrong and Emma Virginia Peronnet (née Thompson-McCausland). The Armstrongs are a North East landowning family distantly related to The 1st Baron Armstrong. Armstrong's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinclair C5
The Sinclair C5 is a small one-person battery electric recumbent tricycle, technically an "electrically assisted pedal cycle". It was the culmination of Sir Clive Sinclair's long-running interest in electric vehicles. Although widely described as an "electric car", Sinclair characterised it as a "vehicle, not a car". Sinclair had become one of the UK's best-known millionaires, and earned a knighthood, on the back of the highly successful Sinclair Research range of home computers in the early 1980s. He hoped to repeat his success in the electric vehicle market, which he saw as ripe for a new approach. The C5 emerged from an earlier project to produce a small electric car called the C1. After a change in the law, prompted by lobbying from bicycle manufacturers, Sinclair developed the C5 as an electrically powered tricycle with a polypropylene body and a chassis designed by Lotus Cars. It was intended to be the first in a series of increasingly ambitious electric vehicles, but the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haverhill, Suffolk
Haverhill ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England, next to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. It lies about south east of Cambridge, south west of Bury St Edmunds, and north west of Braintree and Colchester. Geography The town centre lies at the base of a gentle dip in the chalk hills of the Newmarket Ridge; running through the town is Stour Brook, which goes on to join the River Stour just outside the town. Rapid expansion of the town over the last two decades means that the western edge of Haverhill now includes the hamlet of Hanchet End. The surrounding countryside largely consists of arable land. History Haverhill dates back to at least Anglo-Saxon times, and the town's market is recorded in the Domesday Book (1086). Whilst most of its historical buildings were lost to the great fire on 14 June 1667, one notable Tudor-era house remains (reportedly given to Anne of Cleves as part of her divorce from Henry VIII and thus titled ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Centre For Computing History
The Centre for Computing History is a museum in Cambridge, England, established to create a permanent public exhibition telling the story of the Information Age. Overview The museum acts as a repository for vintage computers and related artefacts. The museum is open Wednesdays through to Sundays from 10am to 5pm in term time and 7 days a week during school holidays. On display are key items from the early era of computers (and even before) from ageing comptometers through the Altair 8800 to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Apple II series. The museum also holds vintage games consoles, peripherals, software and an extensive collection of computer manuals, magazines and other literature. It is home to the Megaprocessor, an enormous version of a computer chip designed by James Newman. History and status The centre is a registered educational charity. It is funded by a combination of sponsors from local businesses and private individuals. Venture capitalist and entrepreneur Hermann H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as ''The Daily Telegraph & Courier''. Considered a newspaper of record over ''The Times'' in the UK in the years up to 1997, ''The Telegraph'' generally has a reputation for high-quality journalism, and has been described as being "one of the world's great titles". The paper's motto, "Was, is, and will be", appears in the editorial pages and has featured in every edition of the newspaper since 19 April 1858. The paper had a circulation of 363,183 in December 2018, descending further until it withdrew from newspaper circulation audits in 2019, having declined almost 80%, from 1.4 million in 1980.United Newspapers PLC and Fleet Holdings PLC', Monopolies and Mergers Commission (1985), pp. 5–16. Its si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Computer Programme
''The Computer Programme'' is a TV series, produced by Paul Kriwaczek, originally broadcast by the BBC (on BBC 2) in 1982. The idea behind the series was to introduce people to computers and show them what they were capable of. The BBC wanted to use their own computer, so the BBC Micro was developed as part of the '' BBC Computer Literacy Project'', and was featured in this series. The series was successful enough for two series to follow it, namely '' Making the Most of the Micro'' in 1983 and '' Micro Live'' from 1984 until 1987. Presenters The two studio presenters were Ian McNaught-Davis (known as 'Mac') and Chris Serle, the former showing the latter some of the rudimentary basics of computer operation and BASIC programming. The 'on location' reporter was Gill Nevill. The studio made heavy use of the new BBC Micro, which had recently been launched. Production Filming of the series took place in October 1981, before Acorn had fully completed the development and producti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stock Footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock footage is called a "stock shot" or a "library shot". Stock footage may have appeared in previous productions but may also be outtakes or footage shot for previous productions and not used. Examples of stock footage that might be utilized are moving images of cities and landmarks, wildlife in their natural environments, and historical footage. Suppliers of stock footage may be either rights managed or royalty-free. Many websites offer direct downloads of clips in various formats. History Stock footage companies began to emerge in the mid-1980s, offering clips mastered on Betacam SP, VHS, and film formats. Many of the smaller libraries that specialized in niche topics such as extreme sports, technological or cultural collections were boug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian McNaught-Davis
Ian McNaught-Davis (30 August 1929 – 10 February 2014) was a British television presenter best known for presenting the BBC television series ''The Computer Programme'', '' Making the Most of the Micro'' and '' Micro Live'' in the 1980s. He was also a mountaineer and alpinist. He was managing director of the British subsidiary of Comshare Inc. Early life and career The son of Stanley McNaught-Davis, an ex RAF pilot, he was educated at Rothwell Grammar School in Lofthouse, West Yorkshire (originally built in Rothwell, West Yorkshire), followed by national service in the RAF where his poor eyesight thwarted his ambitions to become a pilot. He achieved a first in Mathematics at the University of Manchester, where he also became an active mountaineer. After university he had a variety of jobs including digging ice tunnels for glaciologists on Monte Rosa in Switzerland; fixing roofs and teaching. Eventually he settled as a geophysicist for British Petroleum (BP), specialising in Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Serle
Christopher Richard Serle (born 13 July 1943 in Bristol, England) is a former BBC TV presenter, reporter and actor. Biography Serle was educated at Clifton College and Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied modern languages. He appeared as a foil for Irish comedian Dave Allen in his series ''Dave Allen at Large'' in 1971, but gained greater UK public recognition as one of the presenters on the TV series ''That's Life!''. He later presented and appeared in ''In at the Deep End'', a series in which he, and fellow former ''That's Life!'' presenter Paul Heiney, were pitched into professional situations with no prior knowledge. In the 1980s, he presented ''Windmill'' in which clips from the BBC archives on particular themes were shown (so called as the then base for BBC archives was in Windmill Road, Brentford). He also presented the viewer-response show '' Points of View'', ''The Computer Programme'', and '' Monkey Business''. On radio, he was the regular host of '' Pick of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Searle
Nigel Searle is the former managing director of Sinclair Research Ltd, and one of the company's longest-serving employees. He joined Sinclair Radionics in 1973, and for most of the 1970s, Searle worked for Sinclair in the United States to promote the company's calculators and other products. In 1977, with Sinclair in financial trouble, Searle left the company. He rejoined in 1979 when Sir Clive Sinclair formed Science of Cambridge (later renamed Sinclair Research) and continued to work from the US, successfully promoting the ZX80 and ZX81 personal computers. In spring 1982, he moved back to the United Kingdom as Sinclair's managing director, a post he retained until 1986 when Amstrad took over the company's computer business. Derek Riddell portrayed Searle in the 2009 BBC television movie Micro Men ''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. It focuses on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Riddell
Derek Riddell (born 11 January 1967) is a Scottish television and theatre actor. He is best known for the portrayal of Dr. Jamie Patterson in the Channel 4 television series ''No Angels''. He has also guest starred in '' Doctor Who'', ''Ugly Betty'', '' Silent Witness'', '' Waterloo Road,'' and '' Shetland'' (2013–). Early life Riddell was born in Glasgow, the son of teacher and former actress Hope Ross and former St Mirren and Berwick Rangers footballer Ian Riddell. He graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a degree in business before training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1990. Career After finishing drama school, Riddell was cast in '' BBC Scotland'' production '' Strathblair'' and guest-starred in a number of popular TV shows such as ''Taggart'', ''Casualty'' and ''The Bill''. His big break came in the critically acclaimed Channel 4 series '' The Book Group'' and comedy drama ''No Angels''. In addition to his television work ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
