C5ALIVE Forum

C5Alive General Category => C5 Chatroom => Topic started by: Benniz on 27, September, 2009 - 16:33:48

Title: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Benniz on 27, September, 2009 - 16:33:48
Hey guys

Has everyone else seen The new drama soon to air on bbc4 called "Micro men"


Martin Freeman and Alexander Armstrong lead the cast in Micro Men, a drama from Darlow Smithson for BBC Four.

Micro Men provides an affectionately comic account of the Eighties race for home computer supremacy. The drama documents the lengthy rivalry between maverick visionary Sir Clive Sinclair (Armstrong) and his former colleague Chris Curry (Freeman) as they go head to head to achieve domination of the growing home computer market. Micro Men gives an amusing insight into the brilliant but eccentric characters that triggered the beginning of the UK computer revolution

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/comingup/micromen/

Im really looking forward to this I hope it is up to expectations Also in the clip they are showing there is of course a c5 :D was it voodoo or one of yours?

I think it airs on the 8th October but not totally sure if anyone else knows for sure?

Cheers as always! Ben
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Karl on 27, September, 2009 - 18:20:05
That will be this event ;

http://c5alive.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=493.0

....for various reasons we didn't help out in the end.They purchased their own c5's for the job.

Since Sir Clive is not at all impressed with this tv production I'm not overly fussed that we didn't get to appear .
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Benniz on 27, September, 2009 - 19:49:29
Oh no is he not happy with this production then? :(

why is he unhappy, Now I feel much less enthusiastic about it already!!

Ben
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Retro Andy on 28, September, 2009 - 15:58:20
I agree Karl, I would'nt want to be involved if it ends up just taken the p**s of Sir Clive, I see the funny side in this, I just hope it does'nt cross the line and just make fun of Sinclair.

Retro Andy
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: mike7201 on 28, September, 2009 - 16:17:27
Blimey!  This production's a little close to the wire isn't it? 

Hardly a tribute to one of the UK's greatest inventors of our time.

Let's hope the production is short lived.

Having just seen the trailer, aren't they doing something wrong by using the 'Sinclair' livery and branding?  Not really my worry I know, but if it were my company I'd certainly like a say in how the production comes across.  Maybe this isn't how things work.  Ah well.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: minimin on 28, September, 2009 - 18:26:07
That guy doesn't even look like Clive. This could be interesting =]
Did Adam Harper supply the C5's? He seems to have supplied them for many other BBC C5 related things?
Mark
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Karl on 28, September, 2009 - 18:40:13
That guy doesn't even look like Clive. This could be interesting =]
Did Adam Harper supply the C5's? He seems to have supplied them for many other BBC C5 related things?
Mark

I don't think Adam got involved either. We were asked to supply some c5's , which we initially agreed to, but it didn't work out coz they kept changing the venue/dates/times etc.

In the end they said they had purchased their own and didn't really need us - which wasn't a problem because I had found out a bit more by then....
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: minimin on 28, September, 2009 - 21:32:30
Thinking back - the new C5 Split would have been perfect!
Mark
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Karl on 30, September, 2009 - 21:06:32
Oh no is he not happy with this production then? :(

why is he unhappy, Now I feel much less enthusiastic about it already!!

Ben

Here you go, I knew I had the article around here somewhere ;
(http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i257/1stbooboo/micromen.jpg)
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: mike7201 on 30, September, 2009 - 22:41:53
Aaaargh!   :o

Did you read the last bit in the last paragraph?

Does that mean that we should be saying 'we're not worthy' to Sir Alan now??  I'm confused!  Methinks that if this were the case, my C5 don't seem so attractive now that an old car radio salesman owns the name.  No offense intended, but he's no Sir Clive.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Umpa on 30, September, 2009 - 22:57:00
Well - in 1984 I started work,  My first (and only) shop job was with currys.  I had to sell Amstrad HiFi's as they were then - and I remember them as hi-spec plastic rubbish !!.  Yes he bought out Sinclair - i'll leave it at that.....

Clive Sinclair is my hero !

Thanks for everything you have done :)
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Karl on 01, October, 2009 - 17:07:21
Aaaargh!   :o

Did you read the last bit in the last paragraph?

Does that mean that we should be saying 'we're not worthy' to Sir Alan now??  I'm confused!  Methinks that if this were the case, my C5 don't seem so attractive now that an old car radio salesman owns the name.  No offense intended, but he's no Sir Clive.

Dont forget that "Sinclair Vehicles" was sold seperately to Adam Harper , so I reckon that means "Sir Alan" doesn't have any real link to our C5's  :)
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: minimin on 01, October, 2009 - 19:37:10
Right, so just to clairfy
Adam Harper bought Sinclair Veichles
So he inherited all of the debt?

So does he own all the production moulds etc?
Mark
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: mike7201 on 01, October, 2009 - 19:45:58
To the best of my knowledge, Adam has taken on the vehicles side of the business entirely.  From looking at Adam's website, all tyres are remanufactured to original specification using original moulds. They are special low rolling resistance tyres by means of their internal construction. The rubber compound is harder wearing and will give 2 - 3 times the life of an ordinary tyre.

Of course, from looking at the shop, I see Karl stocks a great selection of alternatives of great quality, and at more wallet friendly prices.

Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: c515mph on 01, October, 2009 - 21:27:30
Just thought I would make my opinion clear.
Sir Clive Sinclair is one of our greatest inventors.The list of his inventions is well known,so I wont go into them all.
In producing the C5,he did what no other company dared to do.
He produced a machine that was designed to get some of us,out of our cars,and show the world,that we need to take a different course,as far as personal transport was concerned.
Now we all know the drawback,in the C5 design but most people do not realise the fact that it was limited in power and speed,simply to enable us to use it as easily as we would a bicycle,with no need for road tax,insurance,MOT,ETC.
We who now own the C5 have the pleasure of riding a machine that excites the imagination.We know how great it is.
The downfall of the C5 at launch,was mainly down to the press coverage.
They bent the truth,in order to sensationalise the story.
They lied about the C5 safety report,and said that R.O.S.P.A.Had said it was dangerous.But this was not so.They said it was no less dangerous than a bicycle,in fact in some ways,safer.
They took it out on busy London roads,on cold winter days,and said the batteries gave out.YES IDIOTS,BATTERIES DO GO FLAT,AND CARS RUN OUT OF FUEL TO.
And as any Londoner knows,if you took a bicycle out on the North Circular Road,you are risking your life."So strange,that they tested the C5 there"
Now I have got that off my chest,Ha,Ha,Ha,thank you Clive for opening some peoples mind up to the possibilities for future personal transport.

Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Retro Andy on 02, October, 2009 - 06:22:03
I have to agree with Ray, a very good summury of the basic story behind the C5 history, I do remmeber Amstrad buying out sinclair computers, but never knew that Sir Alan was the owner of Amstrad, so I beleive Sir Clive is still are best remmebered inventor when it comes down to personal home electronics etc. 

Retro Andy.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Umpa on 02, October, 2009 - 22:27:45
All Alan Sugar did was put it in another case !

He did add a few bits later on - but all the real work was already done by Sinclair.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Karl on 05, October, 2009 - 19:21:43
I was given a copy today of The Daily Telegraph magazine dated 4/10/09, which has a superb feature on the Micro Men drama (pages 17 & 19).

I tried scanning the feature but the font is so small it is not readable by time its gone through the photobucket process  :-[ , shame coz its well worth reading.

Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: mike7201 on 08, October, 2009 - 22:23:13
Just watched this programme, and didn't know what to make of it really.

Apart from it being a clever mix of old and new material, I thought Sir Clive had not been well represented.  Perhaps that was the intention.

Either way, I only watched it out of curiosity.  It's definitely not something I've recorded or have any intention on viewing again on 'iPlayer'.

Did anyone else watch it?
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Karl on 08, October, 2009 - 22:29:03
I've just got in from work so didn't have chance to view it ...
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Umpa on 09, October, 2009 - 05:58:38
I was watching electric dreams on iplayer at the time it was on, so it Looks like iplayer again for me tonight.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Umpa on 09, October, 2009 - 19:10:15
Ok its been watched, I can see why having C5's weren't on the priority list.

To be honest, I liked it, so it did not portray Sir Clive in the best way - BUT it was a good program all the same.  The disclamer at the beginning about parts being made up did not quite cut it, but I still enjoyed it.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Retro Andy on 11, October, 2009 - 08:14:40
I have only just watched it, I thought it was interesting to learn more of the history from back in the day, I think it was made to be funny for viewing perpose and although some parts did'nt make Sir Clive look great it did confirm at the end he is a great man and that is was Sinclair that brought the computer into our homes.

Retro Andy.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: giles on 11, October, 2009 - 11:53:33
Hi Folks,
I watched it with great interest from a nostalga point of view.
When I was 8 or 9 my dad bought a ZX80, then went on with 81, spectrum etc....  I was laways facinated with the C5, watching it on John Craven's News Round etc....  After watching the Micro Men drama, which in my view was utterly brilliant (great comedy actors those two), I have now joined your club and i will be buying a couple of C5's to add to my collection(!) of 'engineeringly' interesting vehicles.  So from that point of view, I am really chuffed the BBC made it, didn't you think it was interesting they aired it on BBC4 - their arts and discerning viewer channel?!
Their portral of SCS was to be expected I guess, genius he clearly is, but with genius comes an inevetability of extreams of behavour, you can't be that cleaver without being somewhat excentric!
Cheers, Giles (a huge fan of all things sinclair and the great man himself!)
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: PLOD11 on 11, October, 2009 - 20:17:05
Hi there ......

What other interesting vehicles have you got in your collection ???? ???

Welcome to the Forum .....    ;D
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: giles on 12, October, 2009 - 10:45:55
Plod..... as per the bottom of my posts.  Interesting to me only perhaps!
Mini - greatest car of all time and mine is quite a special rare cooper S.
Imp - all ali engine, rear drive/powertran, first(?) hatch all introduced in 1963, and what's more you have to be an engineer to own one ;-)
Series Landy, the iconic 4x4 and fabulous along the green lanes!
Boxster S - bit more borning, but blimey it's a great vehicle.
Hope fully soon my first step into electric ownership too!
Cheers, Giles
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: PLOD11 on 12, October, 2009 - 16:33:56
I only noticed the bit at the bottom after i had posted the question. DOH  ::)

All sounds really good, my dad had an imp when they first came out, we had a local dealer right next door to us, and i can remember them all lined up down the side road just after they were deliverd.

Plod11
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: James Foster on 13, October, 2009 - 09:38:42
It was quite interesting (haven't seen the end of it yet) as it did illustrate the history of the UK computer industry quite well and the subsequent downturn in their fortunes. I am going to look up historical footage of Sir Clive later to see if he was actually like that! It just seemed like a parody character that Armstrong plays on his comedy show. I was quite interested by Acorn as well. My friends dad had the dubious pleasure of being made CEO of Acorn by new owner, Olivetti, in order to try and to turn around the company in the 1990's.

On a separate note, another friend of mine had an Acorn Archimedes - anyone remember them? I think at the time they had the unheard of memory of 512Kb 
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Umpa on 13, October, 2009 - 11:48:20
I think that we should remember that this is television, it should not be taken as a documentary (and even then they are not always right).  I'm sure that some creative licence was taken with the attitudes and behavior of the men portrayed.

Think of the hit Titanic - yes we all know it exsisted and we all know it sank, but most of the film was made up, as it had to be to make it watchable, my guess is its the same here.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Karl on 13, October, 2009 - 19:03:12
You mean just coz it's in colour, it doesn't mean it's all true ?  :o

I agree, you have to take everything with a hefty pinch of salt these days  :P

Still haven't got round to watching this programme yet  :-X
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Umpa on 13, October, 2009 - 20:32:22
I must confess to have watched it twice. I love iplayer !!
But I have also watched electric dreams more than once too. In fact they are the reason I am late with the videos, well that and having run out of homebrew lol.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: alan1310 on 20, October, 2009 - 11:41:48
well i enjoyed it but not so much for the storey line but for the sights around cambridge and the house they used for sir Clive was actually his house and the baron of beef is still open and i drink in their alot and never realised until i saw the program that he did indeed drink in the baron of beef so next cambridge run we have lots of new places to go i Evan know were the green covered bridge is lol how sad
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: PLOD11 on 20, October, 2009 - 16:10:40
Where abouts is that  strange looking glass building, its sort of dome shape and looks like its down the side of an alley ?

I remember seeing it once when i was in Cambridge years ago, have not managed to find it since, is it still there ??

John

PLOD11
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Retro Andy on 21, October, 2009 - 07:09:37
well i enjoyed it but not so much for the storey line but for the sights around cambridge and the house they used for sir Clive was actually his house and the baron of beef is still open and i drink in their alot and never realised until i saw the program that he did indeed drink in the baron of beef so next cambridge run we have lots of new places to go i Evan know were the green covered bridge is lol how sad

A Cambridge run next year maybe Alan ?

Retro Andy.
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: radiomarty on 21, October, 2009 - 07:20:53
Great idea - a kind of Micro Men tour !!!!
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: alan1310 on 21, October, 2009 - 10:17:29
yeah no probs the building is still thier if you look at the pics from the last cambridge run you will see us down a alley with sinclair writen on the wall that is the building but its all been buit up around it and is now owned by anglia ruskin university they let us go down the side but not in but i am sure with enough notice(blagging) we can get in next time
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: Retro Andy on 22, October, 2009 - 05:50:56
I'll look forward to it, keep us posted mate.

Retro Andy
Title: Re: Micro Men !!! :D
Post by: techytype on 28, October, 2009 - 21:34:01
have to say i really enjoyed the program, i had not realised Acorn was a fracture of Sinclairs organisation, and the line "had you not insisted on that dam electric car (which finally caused the split) we could have been the British equivalent to IBM' was a brilliant observation and imo very likely true.

i did not feel it showed Sir Clive in to a bad light, the shouting and phone throwing tantrums perhps were not so violent as portrayed, he was/is a very driven man but thats show business.

they twice run with the theme he held no grudges, after a typical heated argument he would then buy drinks to make amends, so the guy had good humility qualities as well as his sheer genius.

i'm 60 now, my first computer was a ZX81 i bought when i was mid 20's, i learn't an awful lot from it using 'sinclair basic' programming, it meant i did not need to learn mind torturing machine code.

frm the program i took it that Sir Clives basic drive was to make technology cheaper, Alan Sugars drive was exactly the same with HiFi but he was better at negotiating with makers which resuted in some quality issues in both companies in order to cut costs.

had they combined at an earlier time before the split taht started Acorn, i wonder if we would now be riding the C500 2 wheel turbo?

regs
alan