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Ep 66 – The Imitation Game – Alan Turing, Oscar Bait and the Spy Subplot No One Asked For

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In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we take on The Imitation Game (2014) and unpick all the ways it does Alan Turing dirty. With guest George (our usual SAS Rogue Heroes correspondent) taking on several sidequests with us this summer), we tackle the unnecessary spy plot, the myth of the lone genius, and why turning one of history’s most brilliant minds into a socially inept robot is just lazy, disrespectful writing. Sam did all the reading, Maartje Googled for one minute and George has actually been to Bletchley Park. All of us instantly agree: this movie is not it.

We talk queer erasure, posthumous pardons, codebreaking accuracy (or lack thereof), and Sam explains EXACTLY how Turing’s codebreaking machine works ;).

This movie is Oscar bait biopic mayhem (it worked, I guess), and we have some strong thoughts.

The Imitation Game trailer

Bletchley's Crossword Puzzle

We thought you might enjoy the puzzle that Bletchley Park had printed in the Daily Telegraph on January 13th, 1942, as a means to recruit new codebreakers. View it below or actually play it here to see how fast you can solve it.

 

 

Book Rec by Sam

If you want the full story, read Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. It’s the source material for the film (barely), and it’s everything the movie wasn’t: deeply researched, richly contextualised, and genuinely invested in who Turing actually was. Yes, it’s a chonky book. Yes, there are maths. But if you want to understand the man behind the math, and the machine (somewhat), it’s absolutely worth your time.

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