‘This has had real legs’: Gary Oldman returns to Slow Horses — one of Apple TV’s biggest hits

Gary Oldman has played the irascible Jackson Lamb on Slow Horses for six seasons. Of course, when an actor spends that much time with a character, they come to develop an affinity for them.

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Lamb, with his steely barbs and epithets, is someone who has endeared himself to TV fans. Despite his genuine unpleasantness, Oldman, 68, has warmed up to him as well.

“I like the fact that he’s a straight talker and he doesn’t really have a filter. I do enjoy people like that,” the Oscar winner says in a video call from London.

Could they be friends in real life? Oldman lets out a loud laugh. “I don’t know if I’d want to go to dinner with him once a week, but if he was at a dinner party and I happened to meet him, I would probably enjoy that. That would be an interesting evening,” he says, smiling.

Since its first season in 2022, Slow Horses has become one of Apple’s most beloved shows. Based on Mick Herron’s Slough House thriller novels, Oldman’s Lamb leads a bunch of MI-5 rejects who have been exiled to spy purgatory.

Lamb is unkempt and he wears ratty clothes. When he’s not curtly telling off his underlings, he’s smoking and drinking. Political correctness is a trait he does not possess. His voice mail greets callers with a blunt message: “This is Lamb. If I didn’t answer it’s because I don’t want to speak to you.”

“I wouldn’t really want to hang out with him. I’d like him to shower more and then maybe,” Oldman says, his voice trailing off.

Lamb is not the first spy he’s played — Oldman nabbed an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of John le Carré’s George Smiley in 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

There are rules in the spy world — watch your back and cover your ass. Lamb lives by those in Herron’s world.

But in his own life, there are some rules Oldman goes by: honesty and loyalty.

“Always be honest and upfront. That’s something I instilled when my kids were younger,” the father of four says. “Loyalty is a big thing,” he continues. “I don’t have many friends, but the ones I do have, I’ve known for 40, 50 years.”

Season 6 finds Oldman going up against MI-5 boss Diana Taverner, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, when a rogue group of operatives starts targeting agents in Slough House.

Because Lamb has an unwavering loyalty to his team — which includes characters played by Jack Lowden, Christopher Chung, Rosalind Eleazar, Aimee Ffion-Edwards, Tom Brooke and Saskia Reeves — the threats they face cause him to work closely with his fellow agents to identify the peril they’re up against.

But coming together like a family is something that is mirrored in his real life among his castmates.

“The actors and the crew and everybody we put together has become like a family. We’re all a little crazy, but as a whole we’re all one big happy family,” Oldman says.

To prove his point, Oldman made headlines when he publicly endorsed Lowden as the next James Bond.

“It’s been rumoured that (Lowden) is on the shortlist,” Oldman said during a recent interview with Global’s Morning Show. “They have made their choice, but they have not announced it yet. So my fingers are crossed for Jack.”

Slow Horses was a bit of a slow starter. Despite garnering critical acclaim, it was ignored by the Emmys for its first two seasons before the awards body took notice of the series. It has since gone on to nab 23 nods and two wins.

Amid the success of Slow Horses — and a career that stretches back to the 1980s — Oldman was awarded a knighthood last year.
Television was something that was new to the actor, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the 2017 film Darkest Hour.

But he’s called Lamb the role of a lifetime — and it’s one he’ll happily continue playing for the rest of his career.

“You get to a certain age — I’m now 68. Scripts like this come in, a character like this comes in, so I feel very lucky that it came up,” he says.

“I’m still working, and not only that, I’m on a popular show, which you never know going in. When you start on the first season, a whole group comes together and we think it’s worth doing. But you put it out in the world and the world might go, ‘You wasted your time. We don’t like this.’ But this has had real legs and it’s very popular.”

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