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.
“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 unkempt appearance and unorthodox methods make for a refreshing change in the world of espionage. He’s fiercely loyal to his team and is the sharpest — if the most unclean — knife in the drawer. He refuses to follow rules — a petulant middle finger to the establishment.
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.
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.
“Slow Horses” is about underdogs and there’s something appropriate about the series emerging from the cold to be recognized at the Emmys.
Smith is feeling the love — a nice headwind as the show’s actors put the finishing touches on season five.
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 wish I’d thought of,” he says.
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