Jacobi’s Rich Star Turn Powers ‘Code’

A person who was directly influential upon the conclusion of World War II and who simultaneously was instrumental in the invention of the century’s most powerful technology might be expected to have a name that is familiar to every schoolchild. But it’s a virtual guarantee that neither schoolchildren nor schoolteachers are aware of the identity of Alan Turing.

Yet Turing was the British mathematician who was directly responsible for breaking the German secret code, “Enigma,” thereby making it possible for Allied forces’ successes, and who, simultaneously, conceived and built a prototype for the electronic computer.

The tragedy behind Turing’s anonymity is revealed in “Breaking the Code,” a brilliantly written and acted “Masterpiece Theatre” presentation adapted from Hugh Whitemore’s play of the same name (which was, in turn, based upon a book by Andrew Hodges).

Starring as Turing, the veteran English actor Sir Derek Jacobi gives a rich, multilayered performance that is a high point in an already illustrious career.

Turing’s mathematical brilliance was obvious from the time he was a schoolboy. Equally apparent was the fact that he was gay during an era when English law vigorously prosecuted anyone indiscreet enough to come out of the closet.

But Turing’s value to the war effort, and to the critical need to crack the German code, made him a special case. Protected from the highest level--Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered that he be given every necessary resource and that his privacy be shielded--Turing successfully completed his wartime work. After the war, however, and despite warnings that his sexual life was now under government scrutiny, he carelessly acknowledged one of his intimate relationships to a police officer. It was the beginning of the end to the career of a man who should be acknowledged as one of the century’s great minds.

Whitemore’s script is theater-like, with many slowly unfolding scenes in which the sterling cast of players is allowed to bring character and substance to their readings. Jacobi is, as always, brilliantly memorable in a part that seems to fit him like a second skin. Richard Johnson, as Dillwyn Knox, Turing’s boss in the cryptography unit, adds subtle dimension to a character who is more complex than he seems.

Most compelling of all, the production reaches beyond Turing’s personal tragedy to touch upon essential enigmas, not of secret codes, but of human interaction. At one point, Knox provides the story’s ideal subtext in a quote from philosopher (and friend of Turing’s) Ludwig Wittgenstein: “When all scientific questions have been completely answered, the problems of life will remain completely unanswered.”

* “Breaking the Code” airs on “Masterpiece Theatre” at 9 p.m. Sunday on KCET-TV Channel 28.