BBC Micro - Use in The Entertainment Industry

Use in The Entertainment Industry

The BBC Domesday Project, a pioneering multimedia experiment, was based on a modified version of the BBC Micro's successor the BBC Master.

Musician Vince Clarke of the British synth pop bands Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure used a BBC Micro (and later a BBC Master) with the UMI music sequencer to compose many hits. In music videos from the 1980s featuring Vince Clarke, a BBC Micro is often present or provides text and graphics such as a clip for Erasure's "Oh L'Amour". The musical group Queen used the UMI Music Sequencer on their record A Kind of Magic. The UMI is also mentioned in the CD booklet. Other bands who have used the Beeb for making music are A-ha and the reggae band Steel Pulse. Paul Ridout is credited as "UMI programmer" on Cars' bassist/vocalist Benjamin Orr's 1986 solo album, The Lace.

The BBC Micro was utilised extensively to provide graphics and sound effects for many early 1980s BBC TV shows. These included, notably, The Adventure Game, (the BREAK key on the keyboard was covered by a plastic box to prevent accidental pressing by contestants); the children's quiz game "First Class" (where the onscreen scoreboard was provided by a BBC Micro nicknamed "Eugene"); and numerous 1980s episodes of Doctor Who including "Castrovalva", "The Five Doctors" and "The Twin Dilemma". A BBC Micro was used to display pages from Ceefax (and the Time Scoop graphic) whenever required.

In Aliens, filmed at Pinewood Studios, the textual information displayed on the colonial marines' helmet cam feeds (including the name of each soldier and the elapsed mission time) is recognisably generated by a BBC Micro, using a combination of single height and double height mode 7 characters.