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  • 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!

What is it that we're really doing?

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