Michael Gambon, Brian Cox, John Lithgow - we've seen several actors take on the role of Winston Churchill in recent years. Could Gary Oldman's portrayal land him an Academy Award?
On the evening of 11 September, as the credits rolled on wartime drama Darkest Hour, the audience in Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall rose to their feet to applaud Gary Oldman and the film's cast and crew.
The Toronto International Film Festival prides itself on picking out potential awards winners. And in the days following the screening it was Oldman's astonishing Churchill that dominated conversation after conversation - with many declaring him the clear frontrunner for the best actor Oscar.
A couple of months later, Gary Oldman, sitting in a London hotel, remains the odds-on favourite, but is understandably reluctant to talk his Academy Award chances, instead offering: "I feel very lucky, very privileged to have been offered it, and to have actually played it.
"So I think I've got out of it what I wanted to get out of it. Anything else beyond that is a cherry on the cake."
When pressed he does concede: "If I had an Oscar that said on it Gary Oldman, best actor for Darkest Hour, if I was going to get an Oscar, I can't think of a better part to get it for, let's put it that way."
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
