We celebrate Martin Allard's birthday on 18 February in London. Above, Martin is showing Arthur Clarke how to work the electronic Mallard email system he invented in 1980. It has since given way to the giant Microsoft and other major players, but it was very original in the old days and very personal. We are in Dr Clarke's personal study at his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Arthur always wears the traditional men's sari. Martin is holding the first $100 computer, a Sinclair laptop. But it doesn't have Windows and most of the available programmes are raw code!



In this early shot you see the famous members of the Singhalese Sextet. I'll let you guess who they are, though you can see Martin at the extreme right seriously intent on his traditional zithara.