Oldman has never sought to seem upper class or debonair, or even “English” he lives much of the time in Los Angeles and is comfortable playing Americans, especially if they’re as unknowable or unreliable as Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991). He does not attempt the suave ease of George Clooney or the polished manners of Benedict Cumberbatch. But he has not been an insider or an establishment favourite. Gary Oldman could not claim Churchillian wilderness as he came to play the great leader in the film Darkest Hour.

Power in that gloomy moment might be a preamble to epitaph. Some of those power-brokers hated Winston and were plotting against him. Leading figures in the Conservative Party believed that Churchill succeeding the discredited Neville Chamberlain was proof of desperation and imminent defeat. When the 65-year-old Winston became prime minister in May 1940, a place in legend seemed less likely than a poisoned chalice. Can the actor famous as Sid Vicious, Joe Orton and Dracula really play our majestic Churchill? Remember the history - perhaps our sense of the great leader has been misled.

Darkest hour total realism project