Skip to main content
Cracking the code S1 E2

Cracking the Code: Episode Guide

Cracking the Code reveals the greatest codes known to humanity and the brilliant minds that cracked them.

Image: Cracking the Code

The universe is full of coded secrets – in its flora and fauna, its solar systems, its medicine, its mathematics, its criminal behaviour, and its manufacturing. Man-made enigmas hiding top-secret information, ancient wisdom lost in indecipherable languages, mysteries from space brought to us in strange radio waves.

Featuring the stories of the female codebreaker who helped win World War II, Einstein’s universe-defining equations, classical texts that held the secret of Ancient Greece’s origins, and messages from the Mafia. Cracking the Code reveals the greatest codes known to humanity and the brilliant minds that cracked them.

Cracking the Code is available now on Sky HISTORY, including an episode revealing the US efforts to break the Japanese Super Code - a task that ultimately led to the end of World War II and triggered VJ Day celebrations.


Episode One

This episode reveals the story of one of history’s greatest codebreakers, Elizabeth Friedman. Against the odds, she cracks the codes which bring down the Mob, saves countless lives during WWII, and prevents a Nazi invasion of America.

Episode Two

The Zodiac Killer Code reveals the desperate bid to crack the crazed codes sent by America’s most mysterious serial killer. As fear mounts in San Francisco, the only way to stop the death toll from growing is to unravel the killer’s complex coded messages.


Episode Three

The Japanese Super Code reveals the US efforts to crack Japan’s unbreakable WWII code following the horror of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But can one Naval Officer with a penchant for crosswords really stop the Japanese onslaught?

Episode Four

Decoding a lost civilization reveals the monumental challenge undertaken by some of the academic world’s most brilliant minds to decipher a mysterious long-lost language. It will take more than 50 years and lead to tragedy for everyone involved.


Episode Five

Criminal gangs across the world using highly encrypted phones to stay under the radar are revealed. The police are always one step behind until a team of investigators works out how to turn the phones against the criminals.

Episode Six

The Cold War Code reveals America’s top-secret team of codebreakers charged with unravelling a seemingly uncrackable Soviet code. What they uncover is shocking; a vast ring of Soviet spies at the highest levels of the US Government and America’s weapons programme.