BBC4 Docu-Comedy ‘Syntax Era’ Tells Tale Of 1980s British Computing
Author: Rees | Date: July 2, 2009
The epic 1980′s battle between computing giants Sinclair and Acorn will be covered in an upcmoming BBC4 documentary, The Guardian reports. Sir Clive Sinclair will be played by Alexander Armstrong, while Martin Freeman will fill the shoes of Sir Clive’s ex-colleage and Acorn founder Chris Curry. The show’s creators are aiming for a comedy approach, evidenced by the excellently geeky working title of Syntax Era.
The 90 minute programme specifically covers the marketing fight between the BBC Micro and the Sinclar ZX Spectrum (which we covered in some detail here), and will include genuine retro archival footage as well as the new “docu-comedy”. BBC4 controller Richard Klein had this to say:
“Those of us who lived through the 1980s will remember the sense of excitement when gadgets and technology started to appear in our homes, but not many of us will know the fascinating stories behind their arrival. Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman are excellent choices to portray Sir Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry at a time when battling to have the UK’s most-loved home computer was their number one priority.”
Syntax Era is due to be shown on BBC4 “later this year”. I can’t wait.




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I really hope this mentions the C64 as I was very much a Commodore man although I was familiar with the BBC Micro.
Should be interesting!
I should hope they’d cover all the other stuff that was around at the time – especially as the C64 was so massively popular. Some of the old Atari machine should get some love too!
Sorry to dissapoint, but it won’t feature the Commodore 64 except maybe on the shelves in WH Smiths in one of the later scenes. It is very much a personal story between Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry. I can assure you that it will be very good though …
To be honest with you, that comment may have dissapointed me as recently as a couple of weeks ago but since then I’ve bought a bunch of Spectrum games and have a +2 on the way so now I am VERY interested in this documentary.
Just wish I could watch it right now! =oD
It’ll be well worth the wait … trust me!
I saw some short clips last Friday and it is looking extremely good. It has a great feel of the time and a good light hearted approach. I think it’ll be excellent. But then I am biased!!
You can now see the trailer here :
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/news/5293/Syntax-Era-Trailer/
I’m really DISAPPOINTED that you people cannot even spell!