Gary Oldman has argued that one of the secrets of the success of Slow Horses is that audiences don’t have to wait for years between seasons.
Amid growing viewer discontent over interregnums between seasons, Oldman said the Slow Horses team works hard to “keep the momentum of the show going.”
When the next season of the Mick Herron spy drama premieres on Apple TV in September, the company will have streamed six seasons in the space of four years. The regularity contrasts with other shows, such as Apple’s Severance, which had a three-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2.
“You invest in these people, these fictional people, and then the show ends, and you’ve got to wait two and a half years,” Oldman said incredulously. He added that it is a “struggle and a fight” to persuade people to keep returning every year, and “keep on top of the quality.”
Oldman was speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where he was handed the Global Icon Award. He said the prize was “flattering and frankly alarming,” when he was told the news by festival chair Fatima Salaria.
During an on-stage interview with Edith Bowman, Oldman said Jackson Lamb was a role that “fell from the sky” at the right time in his life. “He has no filter, he is direct, he can’t be arsed with the social norms. That’s the fun of playing him,” the Harry Potter star continued.
Oldman reflected on his near-50-year career, telling an audience of television executives that he always hopes “the best work is next year” and he is “deeply self-critical,” despite winning an Oscar for his work in Darkest Hour.
Oldman said he starts every job with a “low frequency of anxiety,” except for Slow Horses over the past six years, because he has known that the “alchemy, the chemistry is working” on the Apple TV series. “You get butterflies in the belly, and with skill and experience, you get them to fly in formation,” he explained.
Oldman said it is the small details that help him find his way into a character. For Drexl Spivey in True Romance, it was hearing a young person on a street in Brooklyn. For Lamb, it was alighting on a costume that could create a “somewhat iconic” physical silhouette.
He joked that his wife admonishes him for people watching. The actor revealed that he recently “sneaked a picture” of a man at a train station who captured his imagination. “He will go into my file,” Oldman quipped, provoking laughter in the room.
When receiving the award, Oldman was played video messages of congratulations from Manchester United icons including former manager Alex Ferguson. He said the messages made his year.
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