LEO editor

BBC News East (West) One of the world’s first computers gets VR reboot, The
LEO story retold in the context of the Cambridge Centre for Computer History
partnership expectation to build a virtual reality version of LEO I – news item on local
BBC News 24th October 2018 6.30 pm Reboot

BBC Look East 2018 BBC World ServiceBBC Look East news segment from October
2018 on the LEO story retold in the context of lottery funding received by the Centre for
Computing History and LEO Computers Society partnership project Swiss Rolls, Tea
and the Electronic Office. Includes Pathe footage of Lyons teashops and an interview
with Dr Lisa McGerty. A live studio interview with Jason Fitzpatrick was also broadcast
at the time.
Both the Centre for Computing History and the LEO Computers Society
have a copy of the recorded broadcast, and it can be viewed at CCH but we are restricted
from making this available on display due to copyright restrictions

ITV Grantchester, Episode 3, 25th January, 2019 investigating a break in at a
computer laboratory includes a sequence mentioning EDSAC and the LEO teashop job.
Available for viewing until Spring 2019 at
https://www.itv.com/hub/grantchester/2a2958a0022

BBC 2 TV The Dream Machine a series of episodes on the history of
computers televised on Sunday evenings in November and December 1991. The story of
LEO is briefly recounted in episode 2 with extracts from an ICL film on LEO. Episode 1 includes Maurice Wilkes and EDSAC

Episode 1

Episode 2

Inventing the Future, PB Series on Computer History S May 9th 2012. A 1 hour long programme telling the story of the birth of the electronic computer and its rise from obscurity as a machine for computing tables of trajectories for the American military to the universal machine of today. The program tells the story from an American perspective through interviews with some of the early pioneers and with computer historians. Much of the program is taken up by the story of ENIAC and its founders, the attempt by them to build a universal machine, the UNIVAC, and the rise of IBM to dominance. But the program switches briefly to the UK and the story of Lyons and LEO including an interview with John Pinkerton. It notes that in 1954 Lyons added computers to
their product range. The program is well constructed, informative and provides a good
analysis of, for example the rise of IBM to dominance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GropWVbj9wA X

BBC World Service, Mike Lanchin introduces Witness History including: From
cakes to computers, Wednesday 27th November, 2019 at 8.50. 12.50 and 1.50 local
time. See http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/56531/Witness-History-FromCakes-to-Computers/

Mary Coombs recalls her work as an early computer programmer on LEO, the first
electronic office system, pioneered by the Lyons catering company.In the early 1950s, the
leading British catering firm, J Lyons & Co, pioneered the world’s first automated office
system. It was baptised LEO – the Lyons Electronic Office – and was used in stock-taking,
food ordering and payrolls for the company. Soon it was being hired out to UK government
ministries and other British businesses. Mary Coombs worked on the first LEO and was the
first woman to become a commercial computer programmer. She tells Mike Lanchin about her memories of those heady days when computers were still in their infancy.
Photo:LEO 2 in operation, 1957 (credit: The LEO Computers Society)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csyx55

BBC TV 2, 5th January 2022 at 9.00 pm and IPlayer. Greg Wallace and presenters visit
factory baking Malt Loaves. Meanwhile, historian Ruth Goodman reveals the
surprising story of a British baking company that cooked up the first
business computer J. Lyons and the LEO Computer. The link is another
factory process – the miles of Swiss Rolls baked by Lyons in its Cadby Hall
factory. The TV show devotes about 5 minutes, about 40 minutes into the
program, to an excellent account of the LEO story. See: Inside the Factory

BBC Witness History
Coombs, M. and Lanchin, M., (2019), From cakes to computers, BBC Witness
History Coombs recalls her work as an early computer programmer on LEO, the first
electronic office system, pioneered by the Lyons catering company. In the early 1950s, the
leading British catering firm, J Lyons & Co, pioneered the world’s first automated office
system. It was baptised LEO – the Lyons Electronic Office – and was used in stock-taking,
food ordering and payrolls for the company. Soon it was being hired out to UK government
ministries and other British businesses. Mary Coombs worked on the first LEO and was the
first woman to become a commercial computer programmer. She tells Mike Lanchin about
her memories of those heady days when computers were still in their infancy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csyx55

A podcast designed to explain why the UK’s computer industry failed to emulate the success of IBM despite the impetus of building pioneering systems both technically and in terms of the uses the computers were put to. The explanations are broad-brush, not surprising given the number of years covered and the complexity of the subject. The result is a story narrated with confidence and plausibility pinpointing many relevant decisions over the course of many decades. But equally the approach has a number of important gaps which reduce the value of the broadcast. There is only a single mention of LEO (19 minutes into the broadcast) but without any explanation of the role it played. Nor is the attempt by the European computer companies, including LEO, to provide a united front to combat the advance of IBM and the US computer industry in Europe. The broadcast can be downloaded at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkTHDgYTh64