Sir Gary Oldman says Slow Horses has been one of the most ‘joyful’ experiences

Sir Gary Oldman has said working on Slow Horses has been one of the most “joyful” experiences he has had.

The Oscar winning actor, 67, stars as the veteran MI5 agent Jackson Lamb in the Apple TV series based on the Slough House book series by British writer, Mick Herron.

The show, which has already received the green light for a seventh season, follows a dysfunctional team of intelligence agents who end up in an MI5 “dumping ground” department at Slough House after they made career-ending mistakes.

Speaking about the series on the podcast Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware, Sir Gary said: “The first season of Slow Horses was filmed during the pandemic, and Doug and I were the only two people in this hotel. It was like The Shining. It was like The Overlook. It was so spooky.

“I’m happy to say it has been one of, in terms of just working with a group of people, the most joyful experiences I’ve had, because they are just a cracking bunch.”

Sir Gary stars alongside Jack Lowden, who plays agent River Cartwright, and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner.

He was recently knighted in the King’s Birthday Honours for his services to drama, which he described as “surreal”.

He added: “I was more emotional than I thought I would be. It’s a big deal.

“The journey one has made from a kid from Deptford.

“The Oscar is a big deal. It’s looked at as the sort of pinnacle of art. But I’ve been on stage before. I’ve been in plays, looking out at an audience. So you can imagine what it’s like to win an Oscar.

“This is, you can’t rehearse for this. It’s singular, unique. It is what it is, and it is what it is in the moment. So it’s quite overwhelming.”

The London-born star is known for his versatile acting style, having portrayed a range of figures from former prime minister Sir Winston Churchill to the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious.

He was nominated for an Oscar and a Bafta for his role playing George Smiley in the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but did not win the leading actor awards until The Darkest Hour, in which he swept the 2018 awards season, winning an Academy Award, Bafta and more.

Sir Gary started out on the stage and performed in productions at the York Theatre Royal, to which he recently returned in a staging of the Samuel Beckett play Krapp’s Last Tape.

He recounted a time when he saw the late English actor John Hurt in a production of the play, saying he “adored” Hurt and was a “fanboy”.

He said: “I did Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy, with John Hurt and many other wonderful actors, but I adored John, and I was a big fan.

“When I met him for the first time, I was a fanboy. I loved him, and he did not disappoint.

“He was a darling man, a great storyteller, and we had many, many laughs. I then caught up with him in California, and he was doing Krapp’s Last Tape,  the Samuel Beckett play.

“I went backstage and said hello, and one of the first things he said to me was, ‘Oh, I love your scarf’. So I took it off, put it around his neck. I said, ‘It’s yours now’ and I gave it to him.

“Earlier this year I went back to York, where I started my career in 1979, and I went back on stage, and I did Krapp’s Last Tape in York, and Anwen (Rees-Myers), John’s widow, came to see the play.

“She gave me a beautiful first night card that she’d made in a box frame that she’d given John, and gave it to me to sort of pass it on. I was so touched by it.

“Anyway, we went to dinner and she had a little bag, and she said, I have something for you. And she gave me the scarf back.”