NewsSaint's Micro Men receives great reviews
Tony Saint's television film Micro Men airs again on BBC4 on 12 October 2009 at 10 pm. Mentioned in today's Guardian Editorial the programme has recieved excellent reviews in The Times(****) and The Guardian.
Directed by Saul Metzstein, Micro Men stars Alexander Armstrong as Sir Clive Sinclair and Martin Freeman as his sometime employee and rival Chris Curry, founder of Acorn Computers. The one off comedy drama charts the commercial rivalry between the inventors that drove the British home computer market in its heyday of the early 1980s. Micro Men also stars Nicola Harrison as Clive Sinclair's wife
'The story of the battle for home computing supremecy between Sir Clive Sinclair during the Eighties is turned into an affectionate comic drama by the writer Tony Saint (Margaret Thatcher:The Long Walk to Finchley) ...the archive news clips, attention to period detail and Saint's colourful script make it fun to watch.' The Times
'Micro Men depicts with tragicomic glee the struggle for home computing primacy that ensued, a primal clash of egos and ever-expanding RAM, set against a backdrop of flashing cursors and aggressive price-slashing' The Guardian
'This superbly flippant period piece recalls the battle between Clive Sinclair and his ex-collaborator, Chris Curry: Martin Freeman is typically precise and understated as the relatively normal boss of Acorn, while Alexander Armstrong is off the leash as the bumptious tyrant Sinclair, wearing a stick-on beard and sounding like Hannibal Lecter's ineffectual British cousin...It's a very funny story of invention through incompetence, but as those who recognise Jet Set Willy as high art will tell you, the stakes were oh so high.' Radio Times