Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Micro Men is an enjoyable docu-drama about the early days of the home computer revolution. As I was there at the time reading computing magazines avidly and typing out the printed programmes which never worked because of typos, this was avid viewing.Its Sinclair versus Acorn. Although you would never from this film would realise Clive Sinclair was better known as Uncle Clive, the genial, nerdy 1970s whiz kid who built cheap home computers with dead flesh keyboards. The Acorn boys on the other hand built more stylish computers with proper keyboards and they even got the contract for the BBC computer.In this drama, Clive Sinclair (Alexander Armstrong) is seen as a bad tempered bully (he was never regarded as such a person at the time, although he was later revealed to be a bit of ladies man, loved a flutter at the Vegas casinos and voted Tory.) Chris Curry of Acorn (Martin Freeman) is the more lovable one. The nice, genial one with his more business headed Austrian partner.The early 1980s when British companies led the world of home computing although Microsoft had plans for a uniform operating system. Pitching Acorn v Sinclair helped with archive footage is a great history lesson and drama. Unfortunately, both companies were also left picking up the pieces afterwards as Microsoft surpassed them a few years later.

Havily simplified, to the point of absurdity.Clive is shown as a clown. They have shown his eccentric sides without representing his ingenuity. He is no mental slouch by any means.Real dynamics around Sinclair Research was far more colorful.Cliwe did not stick with C5 because he just couldn't see its flaws but because he was desperately trying to push it to some point where he could hit some market niche and make some money off it. Anyone that has ever done some electronic projects, sold them and lived off that profit will tell you that sometimes you have to get creative to put bread on the table and some projects you do in some arrangements for the money.Sinclair Research was not exception, rather the opposite.

This was a generally enjoyable watch and I'm grateful that anyone would make a programme on such a "niche" topic, however it was not without flaws. For a start, as has been mentioned by other reviewers, Sir Clive is painted as borderline psychotic with serious anger management problems, whereas Curry is some kind of super-good Luke Skywalker of the computing world. I'm sure it can't have been as clear-cut as this. It's also true that Alexander Armstrong's acting is very mannered and feels like something out of a comedy sketch show, while Martin Freeman gets to act much more naturally.The second problem is really just an anachronism caused by poor library footage placement. At the computer fair/exhibition we see the team telling reporters about the capabilities of the new Acorn Atom, and we also see Clive Sinclair talking to the Sinclair User journalist about issues to do with the "new" ram pack for the ZX81. Even leaving aside whether these two events happened at the same computer fair, since blah blah artistic license etc., there are two pieces of library footage shown, as if they are taking place at the same event. The first piece of film shows some schoolboys using some computer that I can't identify from the clip, playing a game, then the next clip shows a man trying out an Amstrad CPC464. This computer wasn't introduced until much later: 1984 in fact and is really out of place. I don't know about other people but it caused me anguish seeing it.

Just saw this on BBC4. A very interesting take on how close the UK came to dominating the world computer development and manufacturing industry in the early 80s, only for it to all fall apart just 5 years later.Despite some garish and unconvincing make-up, Armstrong shows he can do serious drama in his portrayal of Sir Clive Sinclair, the man who brought affordable computing to the masses. Martin Freeman is good (as always) as the confidante in Sinclair's company who, unable to understand Sinclairs bloody mindedness over what to concentrate their efforts on, leaves and sets up arch rival 'Acorn Computers' with an Austrian business partner.The production team have done a solid job in displaying the drabness of the era. The mix of archive TV footage of the time inter-cut with this filmed TV drama works quite well. The background story of how the UK became a world leader in the home PC market, and then blew it, is a fascinating tale for anyone interested in recent history. At one point Freemans character turns to Sinclair and says 'We could have been the British IBM but you wouldn't listen to me' is very apt. Sinclairs obsession with the notorious C5 is also addressed. It does make you wonder what would have happened had there been more cohesion in the industry at the time rather than the arrogant self interest of the industry that resulted in the UK losing such a massive foothold.A thought provoking drama that has just enough momentum to keep itself interesting despite some flaws.