See what happens to GARY OLDman

Gary Oldman and the decline of the working-class British actor

There is no blue plaque on Hatcham Park Road, London SE14. The fact that Gary Oldman grew up on this tight run of what were once two-up-two-downs behind New Cross Gate station is officially unrecognized. The closest thing to a tribute around his former patch of south-east London is the continued presence of the Five Bells at the top of the road, the pub where his alcoholic father used to drink.
Maybe an Oscar will change that. Thirty-five years into his strange, lurching career, Oldman is now the star of Darkest Hour, in which he plays Winston Churchill, facing down Hitler and appeasers alike in the grim pinch of 1940. Under much latex, it is at once a performance of breathtaking subtlety and huge, juicy GIFs in waiting. In other words, it is very Gary Oldman. And it has made him favourite at miserly odds to win an Oscar for best actor.
A backlash may yet arise. On Sunday night, as Oldman received a Golden Globe wearing a Time’s Up badge, social media recalled accusations of violence against his ex-wife Donya Fiorentino – always denied, and for which he was never charged – and queasy 2014 comments about Mel Gibson’s exile from a Hollywood “run by Jews”, that led to public apologies. Still, this particular Oscar has the feel of a done deal, to double as a lifetime achievement award.
What may not be obvious to US audiences is the irony of Oldman playing Churchill at all – the aristocratic scion of Blenheim Palace, scourge of the striking miners of Tonypandy, portrayed by the son of a welder whose first job on leaving school at 16 was in a Peckham sports shop. An optimist might even take it as a sign of a country on the brink of classlessness.