MORE : Artistic licence : Alan Turing in 'The Imitation Game'

Letters to The Telegraph
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Monday 01 Dec 2014

Private lives and open secrets at Bletchley Park
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SIR – The descendants of Commander Denniston ( Letters, November 27 ) may 
perhaps take heart from the fact that the film The Imitation Game is so 
full of historical inventions that it must be regarded solely as 
entertainment. However, some of the inaccuracies go to the heart of the 
human story they have devised.

My father Peter Twinn worked closely with Alan Turing, sharing an office 
with him for many months. My father recalled that Turing’s homosexuality 
was well known at Bletchley and not considered an issue. He himself was 
once propositioned by Turing, but when he said that he was “not interested 
in that sort of thing” the matter was dropped without ill feeling, 
embarrassment or surprise for either party.

This throws grave doubt on the film’s thesis that fear of being “outed” 
was powerful enough to prevent Turing from exposing a Soviet spy and 
contributed to the pressure the mathematician was under. Once the urgency 
of the war was past, people returned to a more judgmental stance.

Stephen Twinn
Dorchester, Dorset


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