Monday 21st November - Ch4 TV : Britain's Greatest Codebreaker

MONDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2011
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CRITIC'S CHOICE : Britain's Greatest Codebreaker
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Channel 4, 9.00pm

London-born mathematician Alan Turing was the genius instrumental in 
cracking the German Naval Enigma Code, arguably shortening the Second 
World War by two years and saving millions of lives. He was also a 
visionary thinker who played a part in the birth of the digital age and 
pioneered artificial intelligence. Sadly, these achievements went 
unrecognised during his lifetime. Instead, this hero ended up a common 
criminal, after being convicted of gross indecency with another man in 
1952, a time when homosexuality was considered a crime. He was forced to 
undergo chemical castration and two years later, aged just 41, he 
committed suicide with cyanide - driven to an early death by the society 
he'd done so much to save. Two years ago, Prime Minister Gordon Brown 
issued an official public apology for the way Turing was treated. This 
drama-documentary, in which Turing is played by Ed Stoppard, 
chronicles both the brilliance and destruction of one of the 20th 
century's greatest minds. In his last 18 months, Turing visited 
psychiatrist Dr Franz Greenbaum and their therapy sessions are movingly 
recreated. Also, we hear why technology has only just begun to explore the 
potential of Turing's ideas. MH 


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/5602956/TV-highlights.html