BENEDICT Cumberbatch is the British actor of the hour.

He has been chosen for starring roles from Sherlock Holmes to Stephen Hawking and Vincent van Gogh and, although undoubtedly a very fine actor, his distinctive looks and implied awkwardness allow him to play unusual characters well.

His latest is in a new film called The Imitation Game and all about master code-breaker Alan Turing who cracked the Germans’ supposedly unbreakable Enigma code thus helping Britain to win World War Two.

The Manchester University-educated genius, who lived in the North-west,  was also homosexual at a time when this was illegal. He was later found guilty of gross indecency and his life spiralled into suicide.

It is both a sad and triumphant story and even the posthumous pardon Turing received last year doesn’t disguise a tortured life. The film’s  release near Remembrance Day is timely: it’s right to acknowledge the importance of someone whose own efforts then were so critical to the war’s outcome, especially as they became overshadowed by his sexuality.