Computer expert and broadcaster Ian McNaught-Davis dies at 84 Ian McNaught-Davis, star of the BBC's The Computer Programme, has died at the age of 84. His funeral is being held in London this afternoon. MAC, as he was affectionately known to his friends, was an accomplished mountaineer, television broadcaster, mathematician and computer expert, who lit up the screens of tech enthusiasts …
Yes, the Old Man of Hoy documentary is well worth watching - they took £200,000 worth (in 1967 prices) of outside broadcast kit by boat from Glasgow to Hoy, landed on the beach and dragged it up the hill on sledges. Epic stuff. Reminds me a bit of the moon landings.
I remember Mac as the presenter of The Micro Programme when I was in my early teens, and later discovered that someone "with the same name" was a famous mountaineer and president of the International Union of Alpinist Organisations (UIAA). It was astonishing to eventually discover that he was one and the same.
Mr C Hill,
Thanks for posting that Old Man of Hoy link. That was absolutely brilliant.
Watching people broadcast live, on shonky equipment, in a roaring gale, on a vertical cliff face and sounding so relaxed is amazing.
This is one of the great things about the BBC. Every so often, somone has a really stupid idea. Which is usually either insanely difficult, or right at the technical edge of what their equipment can achieve. And then they wander off and do it
Admittedly the equipment is so much better, cheaper, lighter and more versatile now - so probably nothing is as hard as those early days of TV.
It's funny, I didn't remember McNaught-Davis at all when I read the article. But I clicked on the link anyway, because of fond childhood memories of the Adventure Game. And knew his voice. Although I'm sure they cheated. I thought you were only allowed to use the green cheese buns once...
"The Adventure Game"
I honestly can't think of any television program that I enjoyed more that the Adventure Game. Even today I still play the Escape Room games as they remind me of the program.
I must admit to not ever hearing about McNaught-Davis, shame because he appears to have been an excellent all-rounder.
I think Chris Serle was there as the beginner, the BBC were trying to show people that computers weren't all that hard. If Chris could do it then anyone can. One of their programmes had a sweet shop owner doing her accounts on a CBM PET, classic.
Lesley Judd was the one who wound up most of the viewers, Mac read out a message someone had posted on the Micro Live BBS system that was very critical of her, priceless.
If it wasn't for great men like "MAC" a lot of us would not be doing what we do today. He had such a great way of making the computer world come alive, the most important thing was he wasn't just about one aspect, he delivered the same passion for business software, games, the inner workings of the micro and the applications computers would be put to in the future.
He deserves his rest.
If each year he was on the earth were a phone book, his life would represent a stack 84 phone books high.
Always able to explain technical matters in a digestible manner, a great presenter, always compelling with good humour and the perfect foil to eager Fred Harris when peering into the latest VDU display on the BBC in the eighties.
I seem to recall the first time I ever saw an acoustic coupler it was in Mac's hands.
RIP, a really good presenter who could explain computers to the beginner really well.
I watched many of the micro live and other BBC shows recently as they're available at the archive.org site. The computer industry seemed so much better back then, it wasn't all dominated by big US companies trying to spam us with adverts.
Funnily enough was just watching Micro Men on 'Tube just the other day and those old theme tunes from my early micro days brought back so many memories.
I remember at the time experiencing a lot of excitement over the coming computer age and seeing these wonderful machines entering our lives. These days just seem grey and boring in comparison. It was a very positive time for me.
And yes of course Chris Serle and Mac were a central part of the experience for me.
RIP
It was the way he said the words "computer' and 'micro' with his northern accent that sticks in my mind, among a great deal more stuff. MAC was from the era when your dad or uncle passed on the benefit of their experience, rather than the cool older brother/sister giving you useless tit-bits of info like now.
Well remember tuning into Micro Live every Friday evening, and feeling that excitement about what was happening in computers. MAC seemed to look down on computers as entertainment, so you have to wonder what he thought of the whole smartphone concept.
Mac was the reason why I got interested in PC's.....even though to begin with, I paid £49.99 for a 1k ZX81, (from WH Smiths), expanded that to 16k with the Rampak and after that I borrowed my brothers Spectrum and bought myself a VTX5000 modem - ah, those were the days.
Here's a snippet I well remember: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rirq-uFFKRc
... I remember when they arranged for a Beeb in New York to send a program listing to one in the UK, with MAC sitting there explaining what was happening, must've been a live show since it didn't get edited...
He wasn't flustered at all when the program gave an error - he just went to the relevant line, spotted that the US ROM included 'color' instead of 'colour' so the command wasn't recognised on this side of the pond, corrected it and ran the 'message' - it drew a big red apple on screen with the text (IIRC) "Greetings from the Big Apple". All the time, explaining things, "of course, the spelling is different" etc. Very reassuring presenter - RIP.
I remember him well. It is a sad loss. The BBC Micro was my second computer and I loved watching his programmes, The trial and error of placing my light sensing diode in its rubber sucker on the TV screen to down load a free program for the BBC Model B. Mac introduced a lot of people to whom computing was a strange thing done by men in white coats in locked rooms to the joy of a writing your own code and making it work.
I remember him well. It is a sad loss. The BBC Micro was my second computer and I loved watching his programmes, The trial and error of placing my light sensing diode in its rubber sucker on the TV screen to down load a free program for the BBC Model B. Mac introduced a lot of people to whom computing was a strange thing done by men in white coats in locked rooms to the joy of a writing your own code and making it work.
I remember the programs well.Also I still remember in school sitting there typing the code in from a mag to play a new game.
First we had the commodore pet. Saving all the typed in code to tape and when we got a BBC computer saving to floppy disc
Also we had a little line drawing robot using software i think was called LOGO
Tell it to move froward 10 pen down move 10 pen up
Was one of the downloads avaiable over Ceefax for the Beeb. Took the best part of an hour to download, one screen (page) at a time. Very addictive to play, even on a green screen where most of the colours looked the same...
IIRC Mac also wrote one of the appendices to "Everest the hard way", explaining the logistics planning program he'd written for siege climbing. Reams of printout from which got lugged to basecamp.
I'm one of the lucky ones who worked with Mac, as a TV director on a couple of BBC projects after the days of Micro Live. As an engineer-turned producer, I got a dream job of making a pilot programme on the experimental european HDTV standard (1250 lines, known as Eureka95 - was in competition with a Japanese 1125 line system, Muse or Hi-Vision). The programme was to be shown at the IBC trade fair in Brighton in 1988 (yes we had HDTV then), to an audience of chief engineers and company bosses. Mac was our first choice for the gig, and happily he took the job on, not only presenting in the studio recording, but doing a personal appearance at the Brighton premiere. It can't have been for the money, but because he took on jobs that interested him.
He was fantastic to work with, as patient and unflappable when the cameras weren't rolling as he appeared to be on screen, and with a wicked sense of humour. Great company and a wonderful raconteur.
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