Radio indie Made in Manchester Productions is taking its first steps into drama with a self-funded one-off about WWII code-breaker Alan Turing.
Desperate Romantics star Samuel Barnett (right) plays the lead in Turing’s Test, a fictional take on what might have been going through Turing’s mind in his dying moments after eating an apple laced with cyanide in 1954. In the drama, Turing is confronted by a ‘machine’, played by Consenting Adults star Paul Kendrick (far right), about why he has taken his life and about the future consequences of his pioneering computer work.
It will be hosted on The Independent’s website (after the paper championed a posthumous apology for Turing’s treatment by the state for being gay), effectively as a pilot to showcase Made in Manchester’s drama credentials to radio and TV commissioners.
“We make lots of docs but drama is more difficult to crack,” said creative director Ashley Byrne. “Writers, actors and directors are frustrated by the conventional commissioning processes in TV and radio and want the chance to take risks on new work.”
Production company Made in Manchester Productions/Dark Smile Productions
Writers Phil Collinge and Andy Lord
Directors Mike Heath and Neil Gardner
Producers Ashley Byrne and Iain Mackness
URLwww.independent.co.uk, two weeks from 24 October
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