Why Do All British Computer Geeks Look Like They Just Stepped Out of a Doctor Who Episode?

In my effort to catch up on tech news and obscura I came across a BBC article about an exhibit on the British Micro more often called the Beeb.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7303288.stm

I am struck by a number of things in the article

1.  That nearly all 'home' computers circa 1980 looked like giant typewriters

2. Just how fantastic the BBC \ Acron effort succeeded in improving general literacy and raising a generation of computer literates. I can only dream of such an effort being undertaken in this country.

3. They sold 1.5 million of these babies!

4. Fast! with an 8bit\ 2MHz processor.

5. Did the British tech society have a special set way of being photographed? I swear every picture I see looks like it is a promotional shot of a Tom Baker episode of Dr. Who.   The man who practically single handedly forced modern computing into existence - Alan Turing-  looks almost Bogart like in comparison.  ( Mr, Turning is also one of the main reasons the Germans were defeated in WWII; I would argue equal  to the impact of the heroics of the D-Day soldiers)

6. Google reader kicks all other aggregators ass.  I have avoided using it preferring the more staid and austere RSS reader, but I finally got my act together and started to work with the tool. I already cannot understand how I found items in the past.