Speaking of the design and manufacture of the Amstrad CPC, architect of the machine, Roland Perry said, “We can make it twice as good if you spend another 5p on the components,” to the senior decision makers at the consumer electronics company back in the 1980’s.

And so they did!

“That’s where we’ve got the 27 colours from,” continues Roland.

“The 27 colours is six resistors! It’s absolutely nothing, it’s brain power, a very talented engineer who was on my team, but only six resistors.”

The interview

Roland Perry, who was responsible for the CPC development, was interviewed at our inaugural public meetup on the 21st June 2026.

The interviewed looked at what it was like working with Alan Sugar at Amstrad, including later being a consultant on the UK version of The Apprentice. Roland commented that Alan was:

“Very straightforward, plain speaking, honest… He in real life is absolutely the same as he is on that show, it’s not an act but it’s absolutely what he’s like”.

When taking his team to a Sinclair user show, Roland shared the vision of having an Amstrad version, which is team thought was just dreams. Low and behold, a year later Amstrad achieve that dream, “because everybody just threw their entire heart and effort” into the project.

Roland’s later work included being responsible for all those CompuServe and UK online CDs on magazine covers to get you on the internet, important work around the law for coercive control and more that you can see in our recording.

The video

You can watch the interview, hosted by our very own Jo Cook, including discussing the CPC mini and Roland’s advice for young programmers today.

If you want to see more videos of the day, just have a look the play list on our YouTube channel.

It was an honour and a pleasure having Roland with us on the day.

Continue reading Roland Perry interview: Throw your heart into it →