A national treasure? Audiences falling for Oldman once again

It's been 46 years since Gary Oldman made his professional stage debut at York's Theatre Royal.

- Nadia Khomami

It's been 46 years since Gary Oldman made his professional stage debut at York's Theatre Royal. Returning to the venue this week - for a highly praised rendition of Samuel Beckett's one-man play Krapp's Last Tape - the 67-year-old English actor is a world removed from the young upstart once advised by Rada to do something else for a living.

The intervening four decades have seen Oldman steadily become one of Britain's most respected actors, whose versatility and intense performance style have earned him numerous accolades including an Oscar, three Baftas and a Golden Globe.

Today he is beloved by British audiences for his standout performance as Jackson Lamb, the cantankerous manager of a team of defunct spooks in the Apple TV+ spy drama Slow Horses.

It's no surprise that viewers are drawn to Lamb, whose appeal lies in his fallibility: he is unwashed, rumpled, mildly corrupt and pessimistic, with a propensity to drink and swear. It's exactly the type of offbeat role Oldman has spent his entire career perfecting.

"Jackson Lamb's character arc is all in the backstory. He's not going to change or develop, we're looking at a burnt-out wreck of a man," Will Smith, the Emmy-winning creator and showrunner of Slow Horses told the Guardian. "Because Gary is such an extraordinary actor, he can convey that vast hinterland with the narrowing of his eyes or a shift in his posture.