Starring Gary Oldman with his toes poking through holes in his socks, I needed no more persuading to watch this brilliant series, which starts off with him startling himself awake by letting off a ripper on his office couch. This, I found out, was his charming self, as during the hours he is not in slumber, Jackson Lamb is as obnoxious as they come.

Slow Horses is a British spy thriller focusing on MI5 “rejects”. It is based on the Slough House novels by Mick Herron and adapted for television by English comedian and writer Will Smith.

Each of the five seasons currently streaming on Apple TV – and two more in the making – focuses on a new case, in which the disgraced or failed agents dumped in Slough House save the day while trying to get back into the good books and ultimately The Park.

Also starring Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jonathan Pryce, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung and Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Slow Horses is thrilling as well as a laugh a minute.

Their careers hanging by a fine thread, the “slow horses” have to battle terrorism and corruption while maintaining their sanity in their manky purgatory under Lamb, who disguises his sharp mind and loyalty to his “Joes” with sour wit and utter rudeness. “I think they’re a bunch of f***ing losers… But they are my losers.”

Slough House could not be more dysfunctional. “Of course you didn’t mean to kill him. If you’d meant to kill him he’d still be alive,” Lamb tells one of his agents. “It’s like trying to explain Norway to a dog,” he says of their intelligence.

A sensational show not to be missed, if only to watch the sheer shock on the faces of those around when Lamb – who says he brushes his teeth as often as twice a month – decides to let one go.