Unlike the rest of us kids of the 60s and 70s who had to endure the painfully slow and expensive evolution of technology, the family featured in Electric Dreams woke up each day to find that their technological world had advanced by a year, with new gadgets delivered to their door.
Sure, the kids didn't have a clue who Ultravox were, but they were pretty impressed by the Yamaha DX7, which worked better than their VHS video recorder. Somewhat surprisingly, they preferred the BBC/Acorn micro computer to the Sinclair ZX81 (the histories of which were explored later in Micro Men, a dramatisation featuring Alexander Armstrong as Clive Sinclair and Martin Freeman as Chris Curry) despite the overwhelmingly better supply of games for the ZX81, some of which, to my amazement were programmed by comedian Simon Munnery, aka Alan Parker:Urban Warrior.
Naturally, the Sinclair C5 electric vehicle featured and was derided equally in both programmes. I can still remember cringeing about it at the time of release - great idea, crap product - and believe that it did more to set back the cause of electric vehicles, than advance it.
Unsurprisingly, the soundtracks to both programmes were great visits down memory lane for the 80s synth enthusiast, including Kraftwerk, Yazoo, New Order, Robert Palmer and of course Level 42's 'Micro Kid'.
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