What To Expect From Slow Horses Season 5

Season 4 has just wrapped up, so of course our minds are already wandering to the possibility of a Slow Horses season 5. Here’s everything we know so far.

Ruth Bradley and Gary Oldman in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

Will There Be Slow Horses Season 5?

Yes, Slow Horses has already been renewed for season 5. The news came way back in January 2024, just after season 3 ended in December. In fact, even though season 4 is only just arriving on Apple TV, filming for season 5 took place in March 2024. Apple is clearly aware it’s got a good thing going.

What Will Happen?

Slow Horses season 5 will be based on the fifth book in Mick Herron’s Slough House series of espionage novels, London Rules. Apple TV has already released a logline: ‘Everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho has a glamorous new girlfriend, but when a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the slow horses to work out how everything is connected. After all, Jackson Lamb knows that in the world of espionage, “London Rules” should always apply.’

When Will It Be Released?

We anticipate Slow Horses season 5 will start streaming on Apple TV in the first half of 2025.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Christopher Chung, Tom Brooke, Kadiff Kirwan and Rosalind Eleazar in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

What Is Slow Horses About?

Slow Horses is a popular Apple TV series following a team of British intelligence agents who have all committed career-ending mistakes. As a result, they are resigned to Slough House and nicknamed the ‘slow horses’, damned to dull, paper-pushing tasks while enduring verbal abuse from their miserable boss, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). However, the slow horses still manage to get involved with investigating schemes that endanger Britain, and each season focuses on a different plot.

Is Slow Horses Based On A Book?

Yes, Apple TV’s Slow Horses is based on Mick Herron’s Slough House series of espionage novels. Each season adapts the next novel, and the novel title is the season’s subtitle. Herron’s series of novels is as follows:

1. Slow Horses (2010)
2. Dead Lions (2013)
3. Real Tigers (2016)
4. Spook Street (2017)
5. London Rules (2018)
6. Joe Country (2019)
7. Slough House (2021)
8. Bad Actors (2022)

Herron has also written three novellas in the series: The List (2015), which is set between books two and three; The Marylebone Drop (2018), set between books five and six; and The Catch (2020), set between books six and seven. No news just yet on when we can expect the series’ ninth instalment, but it is widely believed Herron will publish one or two more books before he is finished with the series.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Kadiff Kirwan in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

The Cast Of Slow Horses

A star-studded series of actors have appeared in Slow Horses, and that doesn’t seem like it will change. Current stars include:

• Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, head of Slough House
• Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, one of the slow horses
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner, Deputy Director General of MI5
• Jonathan Pryce as David Cartwright, retired senior MI5 officer and River’s grandfather
• Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish, office administrator
• Rosalind Eleazar as Louisa Guy, one of the slow horses
• Christopher Chung as Roddy Ho, a tech savvy slow horse
• Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley Dander, a slow horse with drug issues
• Kadiff Kirwan as Marcus Longridge, a gambling-addicted slow horse
• Joanna Scanlan as Moira Tregorian, one of the Queens of the Database
• Tom Brooke as J.K. Coe, the newest slow horse
• Samuel West as Peter Judd MP, the home secretary
• Naomi Wirthner as Molly Doran, a records keeper
• Hugo Weaving as Frank Harkness
• Ruth Bradley as Emma Flyte
• James Callis as Claude Whelan
• Sean Gilder as ‘Bad’ Sam Chapman

Previous stars of Slow Horses include:

• Olivia Cooke as Sid Baker
• Steven Waddington as Jed Moody
• Dustin Demri-Burns as Min Harper
• Paul Higgins as Struan Loy
• Chris Reilly as Nick Duffy
• Chris Coghill as Hobbs
• Sophie Okonedo as Ingrid Tearney
• Freddie Fox as James ‘Spider’ Webb

James Callis and Kristin Scott Thomas in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

Where Is Slow Horses Filmed?

Slow Horses is mainly filmed in London, where the series is also set. ‘We’ve always tried to have our anchor [be Slough House], and just be true to the geography of the original writing,’ Ian Pollington, Slow Horses’ location manager, recently told The Evening Standard. ‘I think it would be easy to just put them [the cast] on a low loader and stick them off out on the A13 and say, well, they’re in the car and that’s fine. It’s not so easy to put them in a car on the Old Street roundabout and drive them through London. But it’s worth doing and it’s worth it [for viewers to] say, “actually, that all sort of makes sense, because I live in Central London and there’s logic to it”. We haven’t taken the easy way out.’

Much of Slow Horses is filmed in Islington and Tower Hamlets boroughs of London, as well as Marylebone and King’s Cross. However, some scenes are filmed just outside London in Hertfordshire.

Where Is Slough House?

In Herron’s books, Slough House is located above a Chinese restaurant on Aldersgate Street, which runs along the west side of the Barbican estate. The Apple TV series is also filmed here – though it was no easy feat. ‘We looked at that location and thought, “this isn’t really practical”,’ says Pollington. ‘It’s on a busy junction, it’s on a road, you’ve got the [Barbican] station pouring out […]. We looked at other places. We looked further down, into Hackney and Tower Hamlets, but actually we came back, after engaging with the local community and with the Barbican Estate. […] We made that decision to be true to the book and shoot on location.’ Thanks to road closures and community engagement, the TV series is true to the book.

Gary Oldman in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

Where Can I Watch Slow Horses?

Slow Horses is available exclusively on Apple TV across the globe.

When Is Season 4 Coming Out?

Episodes of Slow Horses season 4 are being released every Wednesday from 4 September 2024, after the launch of the first two episodes, until the season finale in October. The release schedule is as follows:

1. 4 September 2024
2. 11 September 2024
3. 18 September 2024
4. 25 September 2024
5. 2 October 2024
6. 9 October 2024

WATCH

All episodes of Slow Horses are available to stream at tv.apple.com

The first episode can be streamed for free, but you will need a subscription to watch the rest.