''The Imitation Game'' is a television play written by

Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...

and directed by

Richard Eyre Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre (born 28 March 1943) is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Biography Eyre was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England, the son of Richard Galfridus Hastings Giles Eyre and his wife, Minna Mar ...

, a BBC '' Play for Today'', first broadcast on 26 April 1980.

Plot

It is 1940 in Frinton and 19-year-old Cathy Raine turns down a job at the local munitions factory and, much to the consternation of her parents and boyfriend Tony, joins the ATS. She is assigned to a wireless listening station, transcribing Enigma coded Morse transmissions from Nazi Germany and makes friends with Mary. After an altercation in a pub she is moved to

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...

, the centre of the code-breaking operation, only to find herself cleaning and making tea. She overhears the male staff discussing the eponymous imitation game (as devised by Bletchley Park's

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical co ...

). Cathy is befriended by Cambridge mathematics don Turner (based loosely on Turing) and they end up in bed together but for Turner it is a failure and he accuses her of planning it all to humiliate him. Later Cathy is caught in Turner's room reading documents relating to the

Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. ' ...

programme, and she is incarcerated in military prison for the remainder of the war.

Cast

Harriet Walter Dame Harriet Mary Walter (born 24 September 1950) is a British actress. She has received a Laurence Olivier Award as well as numerous nominations including for a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011 ...

as Cathy Raine * Lorna Yabsley as Anna Raine * Bernard Gallagher as Mr. Raine * Gillian Martell as Mrs. Raine *

Simon Chandler Simon Chandler (born 1953) is a British film, television and theatre actor. He often plays senior establishment figures such as Members of Parliament and senior civil servants. Biography Born in 1953 and educated at Bedford School, Chandler's ...

as Tony * Brenda Blethyn as Mary *

Nicholas Le Prevost Nicholas Le Prevost (born 18 March 1947) is an English actor. Early life Le Prevost was born in Wiltshire. He was educated at Shaftesbury Grammar School, Shaftesbury, Dorset from 1957 to 1961 and at Kingswood School, Bath from 1961 to 1964. ...

as Turner *

Patricia Routledge Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge, (; born 17 February 1929) is an English actress, singer and broadcaster. For her role as Hyacinth Bucket in the BBC sitcom '' Keeping Up Appearances'' (1990–1995), she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Awar ...

as ATS Officer *

Geoffrey Chater Geoffrey Michael Chater Robinson (23 March 1921 – 16 October 2021) was an English film, television and stage actor. He appeared in the crime drama series '' Callan'', ''Foyle's War'' and ''Midsomer Murders''. Biography Geoffrey Michael Chat ...

as Colonel in cell *

Keith Marsh Keith Marsh (1926 – 28 January 2013) was an English actor who appeared in numerous television productions over a 50-year period. Born in Blackpool, Lancashire, he is perhaps best known for playing Jacko in the Thames Television sitcom ' ...

as Factory Clerk * Danny Webb as Dispatch Rider * Rhys McConnochie as Technical Officer

Inspiration

Writing in 1980,

stated: "Initially I wanted to write a play about Alan Turing, one of the founding fathers of modern computers', but his researches provided very little material, 'by this time other facts about Bletchley Park interested me more. By the end of the war ten thousand people were working in and around Bletchley. The great majority of them were women doing vital but repetitive jobs...The ‘need to know’ rule meant that the women knew as much as was necessary to do their jobs, which was very little. As far as I could discover, there were virtually no women in at the centre of the Ultra secret. There was a widely held view at the beginning of the war that women could not keep secrets. I had come to think of Ultra as a microcosm, not only of the war but of a whole society...By having a woman at the centre of the film (I no longer thought of it as a play), I could disguise my own ignorance about Ultra as hers. The idea was to have her move from the outermost ring to the very centre, where she would be destroyed."Ian McEwan ''The Imitation Game: Three Plays for Television'', London: Picador, 1982

References

External links

*
Ian McEwan writes about his television plays · LRB 5 February 1981

Home Video

The Imitation Game will be available on DVD 1 October 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Imitation Game 1980 television plays Enigma machine Films with screenplays by Ian McEwan Plays about World War II Bletchley Park Play for Today Cryptography in fiction Jonathan Cape books