Oldman plays the slovenly leader of failed British spies in the Apple TV+ drama, based on Mick Herron's Slough House novels. Herron is more interested in the character's failures than his virtues.
"We wanted to focus on what we call the 'messy middle...' " says Scott Burns, creator of the AppleTV+ series. "Before we get to the end, there's a lot of life that we're all gonna have to go through."