The recently knighted actor explains just how he landed his much-loved role in the Apple TV+ series - and how he loves not working with 'a***holes'20:56, 26 Aug 2026Updated 20:56, 26 Aug 2026Two years ago, Gary Oldman admitted how miffed he was to be the ONLY Oscar-winning British actor this century not to have been recognised by the honours system.‌Now, having finally received the long-overdue knighthood in September, he has just been handed the Global Icon Award at the Edinburgh TV Festival.‌And looking back on his extraordinary career spanning more than 40 years, the 68-year-old today said that while Jackson Lamb was “a joy” to play - he still hopes there is better to come. “I tend not to watch things back - I’m deeply self critical,” he admitted. “I hope that the best work is, you know, next year.”‌Despite his long list of hits - and awards - he said he still experiences “low frequency anxiety” whenever he starts a new job: “Will I be any good? Can I play the role?”But thanks to his recurring role as the soap-dodging, whisky-swilling Lamb in Slow Horses, this dread is currently on pause. “I haven’t had that feeling for six years, which has been really nice,” he told Edith Bowman in a packed room.‌“You go back and you know it’s been a success - the chemistry is working, there’s the same crew, same make-up, same hair and those wonderful actors. I have to pinch myself with how lucky I am.”He says he still looks at his job and feels like acting has been a good way to earn a living. “It’s dress up - we’re big kids,” he suggests. But he also knew the only way to get better was actually to take it incredibly seriously. “You need to go to bed thinking about it, wake up thinking about it and spend all day thinking about it.”Starting out, in repertory theatre, Sir Gary - who now lives in Palm Springs, California with his fifth wife Gisele Schmidt - said he had low expectations. “I wanted to work - bottom line. My heroes were Alan Bennett, Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Richard Burton. Then, in the US, Robert de Niro, Al Pacino, Paul Newman. These were the people you revered and looked up to.”‌He said the early theatre work was extremely valuable because it meant he could learn his trade and “make a fool of yourself” without it mattering too much. Since then, Oldman’s best known roles have seen him play Sirius Black across the Harry Potter films, and Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon in the Batman movies.He was a corrupt drug enforcement agent in Leon - alongside the 11-year-old Natalie Portman - punk rocker Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy, George Smiley in Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy, the titular vampire in Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula and Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK - to name the best known of his many roles.‌It was his role as Sir Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, in which he captured both the politician’s fiery energy and his vulnerability, that he won his best actor Oscar. Looking back on it, he feels it was one of the most demanding of his career with the shoots sometimes meaning he had to be in the make-up chair as early as 1am.After more than four hours, he’d then start a 12-hour shoot. “The average day was 19 or 20 hours,” he recalls. “I loved every minute but - you’ve got to be committed.”‌He also had to smoke 11 cigars a day, which made him feel quite ill. And the budget for the top-notch Cuban smokes? A cool £21,000. Asked about playing multiple versions of Dracula in 1992, he said it was hard to remember because it was so long ago. “I’m not dismissing it but I’m in Jackson Lamb land now.”When he landed the role of Lamb, he’d reached a stage in his career where he was desperate to make a long-form TV series, having long been “a little envious” of the likes of I, Claudius and Brideshead Revisited. “I thought, wouldn’t it be great to do a series where you came back year after year?”And so it was that his long-term friend and manager Douglas Urbanski was tasked with finding something suitable. Sir Gary knew he wanted something from the spy world, because he’d enjoyed making Tinker, Tailor so much and - after the rigours of Darkest Hour - wanted to have his own hair, wear no prosthetics and spend less than 20 minutes in the make-up chair.‌“I told him I didn’t want any capes, armour or rubber - I’ve done all that,” he laughed. “And I didn’t want many - or any - costume changes. Also I wanted to use my own accent, I’ve done so many different voices. So could you go and find me that?”It turns out he could. Now Jackson Lamb is one of the best-loved of all Oldman’s characters - and might just be the real reason why he got that knighthood (with Prince William saying he always wanted to give the character “a good wash”.)‌“I got cast and it was like it fell from the sky at this time in my life,” the actor declared. “What I enjoy about playing him is, we’re in an age where we’re told to eat certain things, to exercise regularly, not to smoke. He doesn’t do any of that. He eats junk food, he smokes, he’s a borderline alcoholic.“He has no filter and he can’t be arsed with the social norms. That’s the fun of it. I think we all wish sometimes we could be a bit more like Lamb.” Putting on the grubby Mac that is the character’s uniform, felt right. “It’s my nod to Columbo,” he says.Giving credit to everyone else on the production, he insisted that it wouldn’t work without the likes of Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish, Chris Chung as Roddy Ho, Kristen Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner and Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley Dander. “As delicious as Jackson Lamb is, he doesn’t work in a vacuum, it’s a lot of team effort.”‌When it comes to getting back together again, he finds himself actively looking forward to it. “I can’t wait to see everyone - which is rare,” he laughed. “You do occasionally work with a***holes.”The seventh series has already been ordered and the sixth starts this autumn on Apple TV+. Fans already know that this time around every one of the MI5 rejects at Slough House is being targeted by killers and this means that Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) is back.Article continues belowAlso returning, seemingly from the dead, is Olivia Cooke as Sid Baker - much to the surprise of River, who’d been distraught after her murder in the first series. With his trademark lack of sympathy, Jackson tells him to get over himself, “We’re spies. We’ve all faked our own death at one time or another.”Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.