1986: The Joy of E-MAIL | Micro Live | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

It's one of the fastest growing applications in the world of personal computers, Fred Harris and Ian McNaught-Davis explore the exciting world of electronic mail, or email for short.

Your microprocessor is just a modem away from a wider world. But what exactly is email, and why are businesses and individuals turning to it? What benefits does email have over traditional forms of communication? What can we expect from this technology in the future?

All these questions and more shall be answered.

This clip is from Micro Live, originally broadcast 12 December, 1986.

You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you through our classic clips from the BBC vaults.

[Bertie_Ahern]

"...for some reason he looked different from the pics he emailed."
And so catfishing was born.

[NeverStopRolling]

This youtube channel is probably the ONLY outlet of the BBC that understands its target audience. Maybe just after Radio 4...

[davidbull]

I never heard of email til about 1995 so it's weird seeing it being talked about a decade earlier.

[CricketEngland]

You would never believe this show was broadcast live

[PlanetImo]

I didn't know email was around as early as this. I was 11 in 1986. I don't remember coming across it until the mid 90's, when the first of my friends had access to it at home.

[phillipecook]

Fascinating to watch with the benefit of almost 40 years hindsight. Like many commenting here I first heard about e mail in the mid 1990s which means that being 27 years old at the time of this broadcast I like many others was guilty of being asleep at the IT wheel. But notice how even the experts hadn't grasped the huge implications of what was about to happen: " rival the telephone by 1995"? My God

[bigbadwolf]

What a lovely view from her office window.

[Lofyne]

When they mentioned schools, I remember back in 1986/7 a friend at school was notified that he'd received a message from an old friend from another school on the library computer.

[sanchog]

I'm old school too...I still use Hotmail.

[djdrwatson]

Great report. Little did they know that the email system would later get flooded by spam, viruses, begging emails and scams.

[iLOVEpalestineNlebanonFOREVER]

I love old tech videos from before I was born and when i was not yet old enough to remember (before 2000). It’s so foreign yet families.

[bierundkippen]

A perfect exposition of the difference between British and US computers…

[davedogge]

0:24 The legendary Fred Harris from the Playschool outtake "I cannot work with these amateurs!!" (look it up). Also he would have dropped his bacon sandwich back then if you'd told him that EA Games had a 3 Gig patch for their latest triple A shooter download !!

[ucheucheuche]

5:50 He chats like people today and on feature phones - 'OK 4 me' 🤣🤣🤣

[Christopher]

I was 16 in '86 and never heard of e mail yet. I do recall having computer classes in HS around this time, but it was so boring because it was all about DOS programs and floppy disks and I didn't understand any of it.
It wouldn't be until spring of '92 that I bought my first home computer that had Prodigy which was a pre-AOL type internet service where I discovered all the fun stuff like shopping online, message boards, chat rooms, e mail etc and it was a whole new world!

[catalinas]

I had no idea emails existed the same year I was born!! I for one did not have a computer and internet access until 2000 hahaha and it wasn't even that massive where I live (Chile). Amazing video

[mrlotusmic]

Sent my first email at 16 in 1987 at a LLoyds broker. I printed it out and still have it somewhere.

[BM-jycb]

9:35 - now I just point my communicator at it, and it shows my chosen language in AR. I used to love this stuff as a youngster in the 80's, but my god, I'm glad we've moved on.

[DavidStephenDoucette]

I wouldn't be alive if email didn't exist! My parents met online in the mid-90s

[Wizerud]

That's right y'all. BT charged 15p/minute, or 9 pounds per hour in 1986 to be connected to such a system. Which would be 28.10 pounds per hour today.