In its review of the second season of Slow Horses, the Wall Street Journal, no less, made the observation with some disappointment that Jackson Lamb, the gone-to-seed MI5 agent played by Gary Oldman, wasn’t quite as flatulent as he was in the first.
Informed of this observation at a press panel earlier this year, Oldman, ah, cracked a funny.
“Well, we’re just about to head off and shoot Season 4 and if you think he’s flatulent now, hold on to your hats.”
Yes, for the veteran actor, playing Lamb has been a gas (oh, stop it) and the imminent season three promises more of his terse insults, personal hygiene issues and obnoxious charm.
Depending on whether Apple TV+ back any more seasons beyond the fourth due out next year – there are eight Slow Horses novels by Mick Herron – Oldman has said he could retire happy after the show. “I hope to play Jackson as my pension,” he told Deadline.
It’s unknown if the streamer will be keeping Oldman in the manner to which he has become accustomed. Like its competitors, it doesn’t release viewing numbers from a subscriber base thought to be 25 million and which has just undergone a price rise (it’s now NZ$15 a month).
But Apple TV+ has shown commitment to star-heavy and/or expensive shows with the likes of The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, Foundation and Silo, and big movies like Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon. Its first new series is Masters of the Air, the third in the Tom Hanks-Steven Spielberg-produced World War II trilogy after Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
The likes of Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas in Slow Horses might command a price, as might its real London locations and its Mick Jagger theme song. But it has picked up glowing reviews and word-of-mouth acclaim for its smart, faithful adaptations of the Herron books, the performances and for being a show where John le Carré meets The Office. If it’s costly to produce, at least not much of its budget is going towards the lead character’s wardrobe – Lamb hasn’t changed his shirt, tie, or raincoat since Season 1.
Oldman, of course, played le Carré's George Smiley in the 2011 movie of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and was up for possible sequels that never eventuated. Lamb may well be the next best thing – and better paid.
The third season is based on Herron’s third Slow Horses instalment Real Tigers. The plot involves the kidnapping of Catherine Standish (played by Saskia Reeves in what has been the show’s other great performance), the mother hen of Lamb’s team of misfits at Slough House. The squad are pressed into action while finding themselves up against the upper echelons of MI5 and Whitehall.
The original story and a preview of the early episodes suggest this might be the most action-based and gun-happy Slow Horses series so far.
Fortunately, it’s kept its oddball character-based charms. That’s especially in the scenes involving Lamb’s strange dance with Scott Thomas’ MI5 deputy director Diana Taverner.
Elsewhere, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden), a wannabe 007 who has been exiled to Slough House like the rest of Lamb’s team, is still having impulse-control and walking-into-fist problems, while dealing with his grandfather (Jonathan Pryce), a retired MI5 grandee who is slipping into senility.
Actually, it seems all the squad have issues this time around (gambling, drugs, unresolved grief), possibly except for the office’s resident hacker-bro Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), who once again rivals Lamb for entertaining obnoxiousness. He’s even let out of the office this time. It doesn’t go well. But the third series does, and its six episodes are just as addictive as its predecessors – and just as whiffy.
SLOW HORSES
Streaming: Apple TV+, Season 3 from Wednesday, November 29.
Seasons 1 and 2 also available.