British star Oldman re-learned accent

The star said he has acquired an American twang as a result of spending so much time there with his family.

He told last night’s Graham Norton Show that he needed the extra help from the dialect tutor to brush up for his role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which won him an Oscar nomination. Oldman, 55, said: “I have lived in America for so long, my kids are American and that’s what I hear around me every day and occasionally weird sounds that I don’t notice slip in. I had to brush up my English.”

Another guest on last night’s BBC1 show, Nick Frost, spoke about how he once found himself surrounded by armed police who had mistaken him for a gunman. The actor had been preparing for his role in Channel 4 sitcom Spaced.

“I was a weapons expert and had to strip a MP5 Machine gun blindfolded so they gave me one to take home – it didn’t fire. I’d done it a few times when I pulled off the blindfold and there were six armed policemen streaming in screaming at me. A woman had seen the barrel of the gun sticking out of my bag and called the police...I was told later that they had blocked the road off and had a sniper and if I had pointed the gun at them, they would have shot me.”