The Science of Secrecy: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Since the birth of writing, there has also been the need for secrecy. The story of codes is the story of the brilliant men and women who used mathematics, linguistics, machines, computers, gut instinct, logic and detective work to encrypt and break these secret messages. The series explains how Mary Queen of Scots was trapped by her own cipher; how the cracking of the ‘unbreakable' Vigenère code remained a Victorian secret, hushed up by the British government; how the well-timed cracking of a single encoded telegram altered the course of World War One, and how the mysteries of the Rosetta Stone were revealed, resulting in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The series also investigates present day concerns about privacy on the Internet and the invention of so-called public-key cryptography.

Series details

• Title: The Science of Secrecy
• Format: Documentary
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 2000-10-03
• Final broadcast date listed: 2000-10-31
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: Channel 4
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 25 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 79208
• IMDb ID: tt2200795
• TVDB ID: 279856

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2000-10-03; final listed air date 2000-10-31.

Source and licence

Adapted from The Science of Secrecy on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.