"Yours in distress" - Benedict Cumberbatch reads Alan Turing's letter to Norman Routledge (1952)

Alan Turing was a human being of exceptional intelligence — a mathematical genius — and worked as one of the leading code-breakers during World War II. He is also considered to be the "father of modern computing" thanks to his pioneering work in the field of computer science. In 1950, before the term "Artificial Intelligence" had been coined, he posed the question, "Can computers think?" and proposed the Turing Test. His achievements are staggering.

In 1952, he was charged with gross indecency after admitting to a sexual relationship with another man, and as a result was told to choose either imprisonment or chemical castration as punishment. He chose the latter. Alan Turing was found dead on June 8th, 1954, a day after taking his own life. He was aged just 41.

Turing wrote the following letter in 1952 to his friend and fellow mathematician, Norman Routledge, shortly before pleading guilty.

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Benedict Cumberbatch, Golden Globe & Oscar nominee for his role in the acclaimed 2014 Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, reads the letter for LETTERS LIVE.

LETTERS LIVE is a series of curated, live events that celebrates the enduring power of literary correspondence.