Micro Live

Micro Live
Micro Live title card
Format	Computing
Presented by	Ian McNaught-Davis Lesley Judd Fred Harris Connor Freff Cochran
Country of origin	UK
Production
Running time	30 minutes / 60 minutes 120 minutes (special)
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC 2
Picture format	PAL (4:3)
Original run	2nd October 1983 – 1987
Chronology
Preceded by	Making the Most of the Micro

Micro Live was a BBC2 TV series that was produced by David Allen as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project, and followed on from earlier series such as The Computer Programme, Computers In Control, and Making the Most of the Micro. As the name implies, the series was broadcast live (so causing its own problems such as the infamous incident of the hacked email account).

The first programme was actually a one-off two-hour-long special, broadcast on Sunday 2 October 1983 under the name Making the Most of the Micro Live.^[1] A second one-hour special was then broadcast in the summer of 1984 - in that programme it was announced that Micro Live would be back on BBC2 as a regular monthly one-hour series starting in October of that year.

A second season of Micro Live launched in 1985 as a weekly half-hour programme and was followed by a third series of weekly half-hour shows in 1986. The series broadcast its last programme in 1987.

The scope of the programme was much wider than the preceding computer series and had a less formal feel due to its 'live' nature - not only did it cover more subject areas but it also featured more microcomputers instead of its main focus being the BBC Micro. It also regularly included stories from the United States and recorded various small but significant milestones, such as the first on-air transatlantic cellphone call made in a snowstorm from the top of a New York skyscraper to Lesley Judd sitting in a C5 (car of the future!) outside Television Centre.

ITV also produced a similar programme entitled Database at around the same time, its theme tune written by Rick Wakeman.

Presenters

Ian McNaught-Davis was once again the anchorman and he was joined over the course of the series by regulars Lesley Judd, Fred Harris and Connor Freff Cochran, an American journalist who did live broadcast and filmed reports from the USA.

The Hacking Incident

The first one-off special was the subject of a memorable hacking incident. Ian McNaught-Davis and John Coll logged into the programme's BT Gold email account to demonstrate the features of the then relatively new idea of email, only to find that the account had been hacked. Shortly before air, the floor manager had informed Ian McNaught-Davis the password for the account, unfortunately while his microphone was live. Visiting computer guests, who were in the Green Room, overheard this information and immediately telephoned a friendly hacker, who proceeded to use the information to get into the account.

The following text was displayed once John Coll had logged in:

Computer Security Error. Illegal access.

I hope your Television PROGRAMME runs

as smoothly as my PROGRAM worked out

your passwords! Nothing is secure!

Hackers' Song.

"Put another password in,

Bomb it out and try again,

Try to get past logging in,

we're Hacking, Hacking, Hacking.

Try his first wife's maiden name,

This is more than just a game,

It's real fun, but just the same,

It's Hacking, Hacking, Hacking."

The NutCracker

( Hackers' UK )

HI THERE, OWLETS, FROM OZ AND YUG (OLIVER AND GUY)

After that John Coll was able to read his email and continue the demonstration as no damage had been done to the account (although Oz and Yug had sent a few emails).

References and footnotes

1. ^ This was the name as featured in the title sequence, with Live being drawn across its predecessor's original title text.

External links

• More information on the hacking incident