«Slow Horses» is a spy thriller television series based on the Slough House series of novels by Mick Herron.
Let’s find out more about the series!
- Slow Horses is a spy thriller TV series.
- It is based on the Slough House series of novels by Mick Herron.
- The series premiered on Apple TV+ on 1 April 2022.
- Season two premiered on December 2, 2022.
- In June 2022, the series was renewed for third and fourth seasons.
- It has received critical acclaim.
- Deep in the credits under “Camera Trainees” can be seen Alfie Oldman, Gary Oldman’s son. He’s worked on several movies that Gary starred in.
- This is television series regular debut of Gary Oldman.
- In the books, the Peter Judd character is clearly based on (then) future British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
- In the TV series, this connection is far less obvious.
- Gary Oldman (Jackson Lamb) and Kristin Scott Thomas (Diana Taverner) portrayed spouses Winston Churchill and Clementine Churchill in the biopic Darkest Hour (2017) for which Oldman won the Best Actor Oscar.
- “Moscow Rules” and “London Rules” are fictitious, the second made up by Mick Herron (on whose book of that title the series is based) as counterpoint to the first, made up by John L Carré.
- In the last episode, David Cartwright tells River Cartwright that “Even the best spies have their time in the cold” and “Smiley was always coming back from redundancy.”.
- This is a reference to the book series around George Smiley written by John Le Carré. The first sentence relates to the 1963 book “The spy who came in from the cold”. Gary Oldman, who plays Jackson Lamb, also played the British spy George Smiley in the 2012 movie “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”.
- Beginning with episode 2, a band wacky kidnappers have names of famous vaudeville comedy stars from the golden era: Larry (David Walmsley), Moe (Sam Hazeldine) and Curly (Brian Vernel) of the The Three Stooges fame, and Zeppo (Stephen Walters) like Zeppo Marx of The Marx Brothers.
- The series was given a straight to series order by Apple TV+ in October 2019, with Gary Oldman announced to star.
- The cast was rounded out in December 2020 with the additions of Olivia Cooke, Jonathan Pryce, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden.
- Initially the series was to consist of two seasons, but two additional seasons have since been ordered.
- Each season has been based on an individual book in the Slough House series.
- Filming of the first season began on 30 November 2020, in England, and continued into February 2021, with Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas spotted on set in Westminster, London.
- In July 2021, filming continued in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
- It was originally intended to film earlier in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In June 2022, ahead of the second season premiere, the series was renewed for third and fourth seasons, which will be based on the next novels in the series, Real Tigers and Spook Street.
- Saul Metzstein has been announced as the director of season 3.
- The title track “Strange Game” was performed by Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, who wrote the song exclusively for the show.
- Together with the show’s composer Daniel Pemberton.
- The first season received critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 95% approval rating with an average rating of 7.7/10, based on 55 critic reviews
- On the review aggregator Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.
- The second season also received critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.4/10, based on 25 critic reviews. The website’s critical consensus says, “Slow Horses says nay to the sophomore jinx with a second season that might be even better than its supremely addictive predecessor.”
- On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating “universal acclaim”.
