NEW YORK – Jackson Lamb is an Englishman who solves mysteries, but he's not your typically elegant, charming type. One clue is that he often passes gas, rather loudly.
Lamb — portrayed by Gary Oldman — is the beating heart of Apple TV+'s “Slow Horses,” a critical darling that seems to have gained traction in the U.S. only lately, now in its fourth season. Ignored at the Emmys for two seasons, it goes into Sunday's telecast with nine nominations, including for best drama series.
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“I think it’s been a slow burn,” says Oldman, who earned an Emmy nod for his Lamb. “More people are now coming up to me and saying, 'I really like the show.' I’ve become that guy on TV, which I kind of like, actually.”
Lamb is the comically unpleasant leader of a band of dejected British spies nicknamed the “Slow Horses” because they work at lowly Slough House, far from the gleaming center of power in London. They’ve messed up their careers in a variety of ways, including botching surveillance operations, gambling addictions or leaving a top secret file on a train.
Lamb’s hair is unkempt and greasy. He wears a ratty, dirty raincoat and his stocking feet are forever up on his desk. He smokes too much, drinks scotch on the job, is violently un-politically correct and is blunt to the point of rude. His voice mail says: “This is Lamb. If I didn’t answer it’s because I don’t want to speak to you.”
He’s also fiercely loyal to his team and is the sharpest — if the most unclean — knife in the drawer. He can tell from just a footprint the person’s salary and is at least three steps ahead of anyone else. He refuses to follow rules — a petulant middle finger to the establishment.
“If there’s a sign that says ‘No smoking,’ Lamb will smoke,” says Oldman. “He’s just a bloody pig. We just like watching. Maybe we’d would love to be so direct.”
Will Smith, the showrunner and executive producer, says we're meeting Lamb late in his career after he has run afoul of the hierarchy and been dismissed by others.
“He’s a puzzle. He’s an enigma because he’s not like what you’ve seen. I think the character is intriguing on that level,” says Smith. “You’re meeting him at the end of his arc — he's burned out — and then you’re kind of unpacking what made him this way and given little glimpses of the man he was and can be when he when he has to be.”
Many of the series' most delicious scenes are when Lamb meets with his nemesis, the perfectly coiffed Diana Taverner, played by Kristin Scott-Thomas, who is in many ways Lamb's opposite: polite, politic and striving to get to the top of MI5.
The series also stars Jack Lowden, Jonathan Pryce, Christopher Chung, Rosalind Eleazar, Aimee Ffion-Edwards, Kadiff Kirwan and Saskia Reeves. One high-profile fan of the books is Mick Jagger who co-wrote the theme song.
“Slow Horses” is about underdogs and there's something appropriate about the series emerging from the cold to be recognized at the Emmys.
“It’s a nice thing when the reviews come in and people like it and, and it and it gets a nod,” Oldman says. He's looking forward to catching up with his co-stars on Sunday around a table “and have a laugh.”
“Slow Horses” is based on Mick Herron’s Slough House novels and Oldman gives Herron much of the credit for creating such an enjoyable Lamb. “I just immediately responded to it,” says the actor.
Critics have fallen under its sway, with the Los Angeles Times asking of the attention and accolades: “What took so bloody long?” and Empire magazine saying Oldman steals "every scene he’s in either with acidic sardonics or acid indigestion.”
“Lamb is about as far away from the tuxedo-wearing, Savile Row-tailored James Bond as you can get and yet, he’s the best spy we’ve had on screen for years,” declared New Musical Express.
Smith is feeling the love — a nice headwind as the show's actors put the finishing touches on season five.
“There’s a lot of evangelical fans out there who really have done a wonderful job of bringing the audience. It seems it’s sort of reached some sort of critical mass,” he says.
Lamb is among the gallery of memorable characters who Oldman has created, which includes Sid Vicious, Lee Harvey Oswald, Count Dracula and Winston Churchill. "In terms of characters that I’ve played, he’s up there," says the actor.
It is not the first spy he's played — Oldman once portrayed John Le Carré’s much more elegant George Smiley. “Some wit said I’d gone from George Smiley to George Smelly, which I which I wish I’d thought of,” he says.