Electric Dreams

Episode 2: The 1980s

October 6, 2009 • 60 min

The digital wilderness (still) of the 1980s brings iconic technology such as the Walkman, Game and Watch and the CD player, but for a modern family it remains a decade of challenges. They attempt to cook a roast dinner in a 1980 microwave oven, as consumers of the time were encouraged to do. They are faced with a bewildering choice of 1982 home computers and the arduous task of finding a rental shop that still supplies films on video cassette for their newly-arrived VHS player. Dad takes a spin in the most famous technological flop of the decade, the Sinclair C5, but the family do experience an '80s success story when New Wave icons Ultravox pay a surprise visit to demonstrate the synthesiser technology which soundtracked the era.