Micro Men

[vilakins]

On jhall1's rec, I watched Micro Men, a comedy-drama about Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry (Acorn Computers) and the rise and sad fall of the British personal computer industry, complete with a pub brawl involving a rolled-up newspaper. Man, Sinclair was a nutter. I don't know much about Curry, but Martin Freeman made him lovable just by playing him. He's still my pick for a new Vila even though he's starting to show his age.

And speaking of Vila, there was unexpected bonus Michael Keating! He was only in about three scenes at the beginning, but still. :-)

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

We watched this last night and loved it. But didn't spot Michael Keating till the credits! Obviously we then went back to the start to see him!

I gather from mraltariel that there was a fair amount of cheeky BBC Three revisionism going on with Sinclair: for example, they neglected to point out in the captions at the end that the Spectrum massively outsold the Acorn. (Well, it was the BBC Acorn, after all!) But it was an absolutely hoot and of course we had the extra enjoyment of the Cambridge setting. The pub brawl scene was great.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I thought it looked like him in the first scene, but was sure in the second. :-D

I'm surprised they got away with it, but it was fun; loved the dark alleyway scene with the electric car. Greg knew all about the history and the various computers, which was fun. I see on Wiki that one of Acorn's developers, now female, played the pub owner; a nice touch, and she must have given them some good stories. I loved the cutlery used for takeaways.

And yes, where's my flying car?

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

Although no sign in the docco of Andy Hopper ("the happy shopper"), who was the third of the triumvirate who started Acorn, and is now head of the Computer Labs in Cambridge (following a period of political exile in the Engineering Dept).

I distinctly remember the computer-magazine headlines at the time about that punch up in the pub.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

How odd that they left him out then, given they even had one of the Acorn people in the cast. Perhaps they wanted to pare the story down.

Wow, really? I was wondering if that was one of the made-up scenes. So funny, esp them being thrown out.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

damn, I meant to watch that on iPlayer, and it's over a week ago now :0(

When I saw Martin Freeman on Who do you think you are? I thought he was looking a bit older. Then felt bad, as he's only a few months older than me, I think

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

it's there til the 19th, apparently! I just checked.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It must be the stress of showbiz; the B7 cast aged fast too.

It's a fun play. We're going to watch Podfather which was on the week after.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

We've also been enjoying Electric Dreams (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n59t4), which a family are stripped of their technology, and are forced to relive the period 1970-1999 (a year is added each day).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That sounds really interesting, much more so than the usual stuck in the past reality stuff. I'll see if we can find it.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And Greg has independently discovered and downloaded that. We shall watch one tonight. :-)

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

He's still my pick for a new Vila even though he's starting to show his age.

Okay, this I gotta see. Will watch after I've done enough work not to feel guilty XD

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

He's been in lots of other things like the Hitchhiker's Guide film--and Blake's Junction 7 where he really was Vila. Have you seen that? It's a wonderful take-off, where the crew stop off at motorway junction 7 for some fish and chips, not realising Servalan (played by Mackenzie Crook) and Travis are there too. Hang on, I have pictures (http://pics.livejournal.com/vila_restal/gallery/00003h6x)!

Freeman really has Vila's put-upon look, and I've seen it in other roles too. What fun though to see two Vilas in the same thing!

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Yes! I saw that last week. Someone finally put Blake's Junction 7 back on youtube. It's him. Of course. *headdesks* It's hilarious. Dayna moving his fish and chips and sending him off for ketchup...I thought of you when Orac exploded and cheered :P

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Great icon! I wish she had blown Orac up.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I just watched the start of Micro Men (it's so long I don't think I'll be able to watch it all) just to see what Michael Keating is like playing someone other than Vila.

aaaaaaaah. I recognised him straightaway. This is surreal because he is being so v. serious.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I recognised him too, then thought I might be being a bit obsessed. Then in the next scene he was in, I was certain. Greg agreed only when he recognised a Vila intonation in his voice. Awwww, unexpected MK!

It is long, but entertaining. I have to admit though that my viewing pleasure was enhanced by Greg knowing all that history and the various computers they developed; he kept giving me background.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

May I say, that is one nice icon :-D

Alas, I am supposed to be doing homework. Yes, my first thought on seeing your post was "What British computer industry?"

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was pretty much the end of it.

It's not really Vila, being a MK photo, but I couldn't resist iconising it. How sexy is he there? :-D

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Oh, very.

*giggles* Your icons crack me up. Vila is such good icon material because his expressions say a thousand words.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

He is! I used to have a policy that he was in every icon, but after I got so much icon space, I relaxed that. :-)

G'night!

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Dream of Vilas :P

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm. I hope. :-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Michael Keating is also occasionally in Eastenders as a vicar, but I can't bring myself to watch on the off-chance of seeing him. Apparently he's a very nice vicar.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I can see him being a wonderful vicar, actually.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

also, you're up early...or late XD

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I had another leg cramp so I came downstairs and ate a teaspoon of honey (I have no idea why it works, but a friend told me about it and it does) then came in here while it did.

Well done, you! A lot of people assume I live in the same time zone and have the same seasons as they do.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I'll remember that. When I was 5 my ballet teacher told me to bend your foot back if you get cramp in your foot. That works too.

That's so silly! (I used to put up fornightly chat notices for a community where members were from lots of places. Setting up times everyone could be there plus dealing with different countries' daylight savings schedules was...interesting.)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Bending your foot back only works if it's a thigh cramp. Mine are all over the place, even in my feet. :-P

Yeah, this is why I found it hard to RP.

I also get so fed up with people thinking I have to be having autumn (or worse, fall) and Christmas in winter just because they do. Some people forget half the planet exists.

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I find it funny because in B7 they're in space and there isn't weather or seasons except when they go down to random planets.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I doubt that dome-bred lot much appreciates weather. :-) Vila looks downright miserable in some of it. [hugs Vila]

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

[also hugs Vila, holds up polka dot umbrella for him]

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Awww, that'll cheer him up!

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

It'll cheer me up too. It's horrible and grey outside but Vilas make everything better.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's the same here: wet and grey and dark. Well, really dark now it's night, but I had to have the lights on inside during the day.

I'm sure I've seen an icon about Vila making everything better. :-)

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I've seen ones about tea and chocolate making everything better. Maybe I should combine them...

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

We just saw that on the tv the other night. I was really intrigued as I knew nothing about either of them. K didn't know who Curry was but started jumping up and down and saying "that was him?" when the BBC deal came up :-D

It was a fascinating story but personally I thought the writing was a bit of a misfire. It really didn't get interesting till the competition began, and there were a lot of background characters I would have liked more detail on, like Curry's secretary who seemed to go through more personal development than anyone else despite only having about 3 lines.

And yes! Micheal! I was spluttering "It's Vila! It's Vila!"

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I thought it was rather slow to start, and I hated the scene with the three Mensa fangirls. What the hell was the point of that? I'd have liked to know more about the geeks who did the real development work for both, but I enjoyed it over all. I didn't know who Curry was either, but I'd heard of Acorn and Sinclair. It's sad that US multinationals took over in the end, but Sinclair was a nutter about that silly electric car. I want a flying one though.

He'll always be Vila. :-)