Sir Gary Oldman Honoured With Edinburgh TV Festival's Global Icon Award
Sir Gary Oldman received the Edinburgh TV Festival's Global Icon Award on Wednesday, recognised for a career spanning decades across film and television. The Hollywood Reporter described the honour as a lifetime achievement award, presented at the festival's 2026 edition in Edinburgh. The Hollywood Reporter
Oldman, who holds a knighthood, took part in an on-stage conversation at the festival about his role as Jackson Lamb in the Apple TV series Slow Horses — a grubby, flatulent, sharp-tongued spy chief who leads a team of disgraced intelligence officers dumped in a department known as Slough House. Variety
Oldman told the festival audience he has now played Jackson Lamb for six years. The sixth season of Slow Horses is set to air on Apple TV in September 2026, a month after the festival appearance — marking six seasons delivered within four years. Variety
That pace is deliberate. Oldman credited the show's success in part to production avoiding lengthy waits between seasons, keeping the series' momentum alive for viewers. In an era when streaming audiences routinely wait two or three years between runs of a favourite drama, Slow Horses has moved on a schedule closer to traditional broadcast television.
The Global Icon Award was first announced in June 2026. At the time, Radio Times and the festival's own announcement confirmed Oldman as the 2026 recipient. The festival's website refers to the actor as Sir Gary Oldman, reflecting the knighthood he received. Radio Times; Edinburgh TV Festival
For fans of Slow Horses, the festival appearance doubles as a signal that the next season is weeks away. For an industry that often struggles with production timelines — crews of hundreds kept waiting, writers' rooms paused mid-development — the Slow Horses schedule stands as a working example of what happens when a platform commits to keeping a show moving.
Oldman's Jackson Lamb, adapted from Mick Herron's novel series, has become one of the most distinctive characters on streaming television: unwashed, unapologetic, and quietly brilliant at his job. The award adds a career-capstone moment to a role that has already given the actor his longest continuous run in a single television part.
