"He Thought I Looked Like Sir Clive" - Stage Play About Alan Sugar And Clive Sinclair's Plan To Save The Spectrum Returns 3
Image: @ScytheplaysLtd

Back in 1986, Clive Sinclair's tech empire was in trouble. After the success of the ZX Spectrum, Sinclair found his market share under threat from rivals such as Commodore and Amstrad, and was forced to do a deal with the latter's Alan Sugar, selling the company's entire computer product range and the "Sinclair" name, for £5 million.

Such a momentous moment in home computing history might not seem like the obvious starting point for a stage-based comedy drama, but that's precisely what happened over a decade ago, when Together in Electric Dreams was performed for the first time.

"The simple story of how the play came to be is that producer Gareth Kavanagh had the initial idea and, after he saw me in the play The Say Can Blues at the Lass O'Gowrie in 2011, thought I looked like Sir Clive and approached me about playing the role," explains Daniel Thackeray, who not only penned the script but, as he says, also plays Sir Clive, who passed away in 2021.

"Although I had no idea who Sir Clive was, I said I'd do it if he let me have a go at writing the script. He agreed, and I went away, did a lot of research and wrote the script. Gareth loved it, so we did, and have kept on doing it!"

The play – which also stars Steve Cain as Alan Sugar – was first performed at Manchester Science Festival back in 2012, and would subsequently run at Replay Expo Manchester (2012), Play Blackpool (2014), Eurocon (2015), and, more recently, the Northwest Computer Museum (July 2025). It will be returning to the same venue on 10th October this year, alongside other locations.

Here's the full list of venues for the 2025 run of the show:

If you're interested in catching this unique show, you can order tickets here.