More pic than bio

Rating: 1/10 (14 October 2016)

I hesitated a long time before watching this film, because I feared disappointment. My fears were realised. Crucial parts of the story are grossly distorted. In particular, the depiction of Turing's colleagues and of his boss, Alastair Denniston, unacceptably, and unnecessarily, traduced them, and Turing himself. Denniston had been a schoolmaster before he became a code-breaker, and understood his people. When recruiting for the forthcoming war, he realised that mathematicians were going to be needed as well as linguists. And there is no evidence whatsoever that Turing's colleagues regarded him with anything other than affection and respect, as evidenced by his nickname of 'the Prof'. As to the 1951 episode, Turing told the police himself that he had been with a young man at the time of the burglary. The truth is dramatic enough, and I cannot understand why the film lacked the confidence to stick closer to the facts. In the end I could not stand it any longer and switched off. I prefer my biopics to stick closer to the bio.