20 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
louthyMar 2022Strongly recommends
Nice reference there! Micro Men really is a great docu-drama, it really feels like it captures the time very well. As my first computer was a BBC Micro, it really struck a chord. It’s great seeing the specs for the (yet to be built) ARM chip on the board in the Acorn office, and it’s also awesome that Sophie Wilson playing the barmaid too! For those that haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worth a watch [1] [1] ▶ this video
in “March 5, 1981: Timex Sinclair ZX81 Launched (2018)” · View on HN
tpmxSep 2021Strongly recommends
The excellent Micro Men docudrama ( [link] ) has somehow been on Youtube since 2013: ▶ this video (1h24m) Micro Men, working title Syntax Era, 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. (Sinclair didn't exactly like it though.)
in “Sir Clive Sinclair has died” · View on HN
joostersApr 2019Strongly recommends
If you haven't already seen it, 'Micro Men' is an excellent TV drama that details the history of the BBC's computer project and the battle to be the chosen computer: ▶ this video
in “Codecademy vs. the BBC Micro” · View on HN
jdietrichJan 2018Strongly recommends
I can highly recommend the BBC drama "Micro Men", about the early years of the British home computer boom and the rivalry between Sinclair and Acorn. It gives a real flavour of the mad, maverick years before the IBM clones took over. ▶ this video
in “PiTubeDirect: A Raspberry Pi as a BBC Micro Second Processor” · View on HN
ochristNov 2023Recommends
To people asking why a broadcasting corporation needed a programming language you might watch 'Micro Men'. It's available on YouTube. [link] ▶ this video
in “BBC Basic returns on multiple platforms, open sourced” · View on HN
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thorinJul 2022Recommends
And if you're interested in that watch the movie :-) ▶ this video Micro men, story of the zx spectrum vs the bbc
in “BBC Basic Editor” · View on HN
billywhizzApr 2022Recommends
one of the reasons it was cheap was they got faulty 64k ram chips at a knock down price - hence the 48k. this film about sinclair is well worth a watch. ▶ this video
in “Celebrating 40 years of ZX Spectrum” · View on HN
klelattiFeb 2022Recommends
It's easy to quibble about some aspects of the Speccy - the rubber keyboard or the limited BASIC for example - but the key thing is that it offered an awful lot for the price - starting at £125 in the UK when the cheapest BBC Micro was £300. This made computing with colour and enough memory to write programs that were substantial and interesting available to a much wider group than before. Sir Clive Sinclair had a unique genius for designing and then marketing products that caught the public imagination. Sadly, he seemed to lose interest in building on his success and quickly moved on to the next project. Famously the C5 electric "car" but also wafer scale memory! [1] If anyone hasn't seen Micro Men, on the Sinclair vs Acorn rivalry, its definitely worth a watch: ▶ this video And seeing some of the participants watch it and recall their own versions of the story is good too: [link] [1] [link]
in “ZX Spectrum at 40: a look back” · View on HN
ffhhjMay 2021Recommends
[link] Favorites about real and fictional creators: Micro Men ▶ this video Pirates of Silicon Valley Halt and Catch Fire ... and some documentaries like "Mother of all Demos", the history of Internet Explorer vs. Netscape, and the creators of the spreadsheet
in “Movies every physics lover should watch (2020)” · View on HN
codeulikeDec 2020Recommends
ah yes you are right, the in-line ELSE Obligatory shout out for 'Micro Men', about the making of the BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum ▶ this video
in “If-then-else had to be invented” · View on HN
29athrowawayDec 2020Recommends
Acorn was not obscure. It was a household name, with TV ads and such. There's this nice TV show about Sinclair and Acorn from BBC 4. ▶ this video (Micro Men)
in “The Acorn Archimedes and the first ARM processor” · View on HN
chvidJun 2020Recommends
▶ this video The full BBC movie without commentary. An authentic drama about the heyday of British home computing featuring Clive Sinclair plus Curry, Furber, and Hauser from Acorn computers. Also appearing are the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro, and the ARM processor on a whiteboard.
in “Micro Men – 10th Anniversary – With Chris Curry, Steve Furber and Hermann Hauser” · View on HN
hyperpalliumAug 2019Recommends
"26 years" is oddly precise, but the sinclair C5 was 1985, 34 years ago, so it's probably just how long he's served or something. [link] BONUS "Micro Men" documentary/drama about Sir Clive Sinclair vs Acorn (from which grew Acorn RISC Machine -> ARM) ▶ this video (1h 24m) "A man's reach should exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for?"
in “Homemade Electric Motorcycle Stopped on M25 in Hertfordshire” · View on HN
andyjohnson0Jul 2015Recommends
Micro Men is available on youtube [1] and is definitely worth a watch. The scene were one of the characters is eating noodles using multimeter probes as chopsticks made me smile. [1] ▶ this video
in “Sophie Wilson, Acorn and the development of ARM” · View on HN
LioMar 2026Cites it
Fixing the 16K RAM pack makes an apperance in the Micro Men film: ▶ this video RAM was so tight on those 8-bit machines that many games used tricks like hiding things inside the viewable area of the screen to eck out just a little bit more.
in “15 years, one server, 8GB RAM and 500k users – how Webminal refuses to die” · View on HN
JoeboyDec 2022Cites it
Stutters quite badly on my laptop (Thinkpad P53 / Ubuntu / Firefox) So here[0]'s the original as used at the end of Micro Men, featuring Acorn / ARM's Sophie Wilson as the barmaid. [0] ▶ this video
in “Jean-Michel Jarre’s Classic ‘Oxygene 4’ Recreated with 19KB of JavaScript” · View on HN
pitspotter2Sep 2021Cites it
Thanks! I've heard that quote a few times but till now never grasped the full meaning. A link to the quote in the film: ▶ this video
in “Sir Clive Sinclair has died” · View on HN
tobychJun 2020Cites it
The BBC made a drama, "Micro Men" (2009), about some of the behind-the-scenes drama behind the BBC Micro. As I recall, it doesn't explain the whole Fred, Jim and Sheila thing though. Martin "Bilbo Baggins" Freeman is in it. ▶ this video
in “The BBC Microcomputer User Guide” · View on HN
contrapunterJun 2020Cites it
The closing scene is priceless. Clive Sinclair defiantly drives into the future on his C5, without helmet or neck support, overtaken by lorries/juggernauts: ▶ this video
in “The BBC Microcomputer User Guide” · View on HN