What is it that we're really doing?
We're going to break an unbreakable nazi code and win the war.
Oh.
For this irascible genius routine, one actually has to be a genius.
He was an extraordinary man, he was made different, to be celebrated as being different, but to be made
different really by the society he was born into. Very sensitive human being who channelled
every single human experience he had into his work and his science. A man whose work
with cryptography, with algorithms, broke the enigma code, and also gave birth to the
modern computing age. His idea of a universal machine is something we still take for granted
now but is still extraordinary to think of. One machine could perform the same function
here, in Japan, in Russia, in France, in America, just anywhere in the world. He created a language
that was universal and a machine that was able to use that language in a universal way.
The rain really know when to come, doesn't it?
It did hit as soon as we all got on this carpet, yes.
The weather in London may have taken a turn for the worse, but the film festival is heating
up as Benedict Cumberbatch's new movie The Imitation Game launches the gala, we caught
up with the man himself.
How are you? By the way, well done for clearing up the rain.
I had a word.
Good, good. You did a good job. Now, if you could go back in time and ask Alan Turing
one question, what would it be?
I have to get back to you on that one, that's a really good question.
Oh God, um. The thing is- An awful lot. More than one question, a lot more than one question.
How did he manage to live a life of secrets and how did he manage to have any happiness?
Even before he was prosecuted as a homosexual; how did he manage to live a professional life
that was involved in secrets and a personal life? And, yeah, I would have tried to give
him the courage to try and believe in himself, you know?
Now talking about secrets, how are you at keeping secrets in real life?
Really good.
That's good. Is there anyone just knows you're lying? Like your mother or something?
No.
And lastly, what do you really hope audiences will go away thinking?
What do they go away thinking? I mean, I hope- It's funny; I hope they're angry because I
think you should be angry at the treatment of him. Equally I hope they're very moved
and I think it's a fascinating story, I think it's a terribly exciting story so hopefully they
enjoy it.
I agree, I certainly did. Well done, keep dry.
Thanks!