Your favorite group of MI5 misfits are coming back.
Season 4 of Slow Horses will premiere on Apple TV+ on September 4. Deadline got together with Lead Actor Emmy nominee Gary Oldman and executive producer Douglas Urbanski to get the scoop on what to expect.
Headed up by Oldman’s recalcitrant (and often flatulent) genius Jackson Lamb, the Slow Horses continue to bumble their way to brilliance, despite being sidelined to the dingy confines of their Slough House office, far from MI5’s Regent’s Park HQ.
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Speaking at the Deadline Presents Apple TV+ Slow Horses‘ SAG screening event, Oldman called making the series “a highlight of my career.” He continued, “I’ve had more than my fair share of luck in my career. I’ve got so much gratitude. I just feel incredibly lucky — I’m nearly 67 — to be in a show this good with this group of people. And so for me, I love doing it.”
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Slow Horses received a total of nine Emmy nominations for its third season, which was based on Real Tigers, the third novel in Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series. Season 4 will cover the fourth book, Spook Street.
RELATED: ‘Slow Horses’ Lands First Emmy Nominations; Gary Oldman & Jack Lowden Up For Acting Awards
Oldman set the scene for the opening of the upcoming Season 4, saying, “We’ve had a Christmas break. You’ll notice there’s bits of tinsel that are hanging … and then there’s a dried-up Christmas tree. They’ve made half an effort to take them down. And Lamb has been on a bender. So that’s when you first meet me. I’ve probably had three days on the booze. Christmas drinks alone, more than likely in my house. And you just see a glimpse of where I live. But that’s the first time we see that, where you actually see Lamb outside of Slough House. And there’s lots good stuff coming up.”
At the close of Season 3, Lamb had confronted Standish (Saskia Reeves) and revealed that her beloved Charles Partner, who was mysteriously shot in his bathtub, had in fact been a traitor. In response, Standish had stormed off, giving her resignation. “Remember at the end of Season 3, she had quit and she was gone,” Oldman said. “Now where is she? We’re not sure. But she’s certainly involved…”
Also, the detested Duffy (Chris Reilly) met with an “accident” in Season 3 and in Season 4, Emma Flyte will take his role in the Service. Flyte will be played by Ruth Bradley (Ted Lasso). Hugo Weaving will also join the cast.
In Season 3, Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) was ready to finally take the lead as First Desk, but Season 4 sees her waylaid by the arrival of a new character played by James Callis (Battlestar Galactica). Oldman said of Callis’ performance, “It’s so unique to him. He does stuff and you just think, if I tried that, it would just be so over-the-top or so ridiculous. I don’t even know — the stuff he does with his eyes…”
Urbanski has worked with Oldman for 33 years, producing many of Oldman’s leading role films including JFK, Mank, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the Oldman-written and -directed Nil by Mouth and Darkest Hour, for which Oldman won an Oscar and Urbanski was Best Picture-nominated. And when Slow Horses first came across Urbanski’s desk, it seemed almost serendipitous: Only recently the two men had been discussing what Oldman might want to do next.
“Gary Oldman was sitting on my sofa,” Urbanski said. “I think he said, ‘Can I have a role where I don’t have any prosthetics, or I don’t have any wigs, where I don’t have any costume changes, where I can use my own accent?’ And I said, ‘Those are very hard.’ And he said, ‘Maybe something with spies.’ I said, ‘Those are very hard to come by.’ About a week later, Slow Horses landed on my desk. I read it on the plane. We were going with a Soderbergh film to Venice and [Oldman] said to me, ‘What are you reading?’ And I said, ‘I’m reading your new best friend. His name is Jackson Lamb.'”
Lamb is a character filled with nuance and layers, given that he presents as a kind of sleepy, grumpy, checked-out man, and yet he is always several steps ahead of everyone including the higher-ups at MI5. “He gives the impression that he doesn’t care,” Oldman said. “And actually he probably cares more than most. When he’s got his feet up, everybody thinks, oh he’s napping. Actually, that’s when he’s thinking and that’s when he’s working.”
Oldman also hinted that there is even more to Lamb that’s yet to be revealed in the already-shot Season 5, which is based on Herron’s fifth book, London Rules. “We’ve just finished filming Season 5 and there’s another layer of the onion that is peeled back with Lamb. You find out a little bit more about what went on and then that’s information that you can then think, ‘Oh, that would explain that.’ Or, ‘This is why he’s like he is.’ But honestly and truly, you go to Mick Herron and I don’t quite know if I’d really believe him, but you go to Mick Herron and you say, ‘Tell me a little bit about Lamb.’ And he goes, ‘I don’t really know.’ He said, ‘If I haven’t written it, then I don’t know.'”
Herron has authored eight books so far, so there are potentially more seasons to run should the show be renewed beyond Season 5.
Will Smith (Veep) serves as writer and executive producer on the show and is also Emmy nominated. Both Oldman and Urbanski celebrated Smith’s work during the panel discussion. “You’ve got six episodes,” Oldman said of each season. “You’ve got six hours. You’re trying to put an elephant in a telephone booth. You’re trying to get all this information in, so that’s not taken away. And of course, Will adds his own particular spice to it. Also over the course of now four years, he knows who’s playing the roles and he can hear our voices. And so he can tailor-make the writing, he can make it in a way more specific for each of the individual actors.”
As with each season of the show a single director helms all six episodes, and for Season 4 that director is Adam Randall. “I think he did an absolutely brilliant job,” Oldman said. “So that’s the other advantage that we have, where we have the one director and we’re not having a different person, a different director, coming in every two episodes.”
As for how the show will progress, Urbanski assured they will continue to serve up episodes that do the stories and characters justice. “You can give each season its own DNA imprint and not violate the contract with the audience,” he said. “We’re not going to have stupid things turn up in the characters. You’re going to learn new information about them. And some characters are going to die and other new ones will come.”
Slow Horses also stars Emmy nominees Jack Lowden and Jonathan Pryce, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Kadiff Kirwan, Sophie Okonedo and Freddie Fox.
Alongside Urbanski and Smith, the show is executive produced by Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Jane Robertson, Julian Stevens, Gail Mutrux and Graham Yost.
Watch the panel conversation above.