‘Slow Horses’ EP Doug Urbanski on the secret to the show’s success: ‘We try to make the perfect martini’ and what’s next in Season 5: ‘it’s the most fun and most silly’
You practically need to keep a portable defibrillator next to your remote when you stream Slow Horses. The Apple TV+ series, has more twists, near deaths (and sometimes, actual deaths), and other heart-stopping moments within a single episode than other series do over the span of an entire season. But it’s the everyday travails of its characters that keep them close to the audiences’ heart, says star Gary Oldman.
“The appeal of the show is that we give you the world of espionage, but these are people you can relate to more than the tuxedo-clad James Bond,” Oldman told Gold Derby at an FYC event for Slow Horses at the Meryl Streep Center for Performing Arts at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation on Saturday.
“They’ve got their marriage problems, kid problems, they have to pay their mortgages, and go to the laundromat,” Oldman added. “We see them do things that spies aren’t normally seen doing.”
Based on the Slough House novels by Mick Herron, the series, which is headed into its fifth season later this year, tells the stories of a group of disgraced British agents who try to bring down terrorists and other evil-doers under the supervision of Jackson Lamb, played by Oldman, who was joined at the event by the show’s executive producer, Doug Urbanski, and cast members Rosalind Eleazar (Louisa Guy), Jonathan Pryce (David Cartwright), and Saskia Reeves (Catherine Standish).
Speaking to the show’s success, Goldman, a 2024 Primetime Emmy nominee Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for his role, said, “There’s two criteria — the scripts, which are based on Mick Herron’s novels, and the gang — the cast and the crew. To work with this group of people has been a highlight, really, of my career.”
Some of those everyday-people quirks on display include Lamb’s notorious bodily functions like passing gas. “Lamb uses the flatulence, the drinking, the smoking, the sort of gruffness, the sarcasm, the insults, the bullying — all of that — as somewhat spycraft,” Oldman said. “He has gathered this persona to keep people at a distance. ‘You’re not going to get close to me. You’re not going to second guess me.’ But, because he really has no filter and doesn’t abide to social norms, he doesn’t care.”
Despite the life and death situations and the high stakes in the espionage world, Slow Horses manages to work in some comedic moments into the lives of the agents. In Season 4, we saw Louisa fall under the mistaken impression that River had romantic feelings for her. In reality, he was just trying to find a way to talk to her about his ailing grandfather, David.
“Every time I watch that scene, I’m like ‘Oh, my God, Louisa! Look at you trying to think that!’” Eleazar said with a laugh. “But I love their dynamic. Afterwards I thought, ‘Huh. Is there something between them?’ Maybe it’s explored in later seasons? I don’t know.”
An example of how the show keeps viewers guessing was in the first episode of Season 4, titled “Identity Theft.” David shot an intruder whom the audience believed was his grandson. For most of the episode, nearly everyone believed that River was indeed dead only for it to be revealed that he was alive. David had shot a look-alike intruder, Bertrand Harkness (Jack Lowden), River’s half-brother, who had murder on his mind.
“We try and have a cliffhanger, and two stories going on,” Urbanski said. “We try to make the perfect martini and keep the formula going.”
“River’s” death serves as a reminder that Slow Horses viewers should never believe anything until they see it with their own eyes. While Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan) died in the Season 4 finale, we didn’t actually see his corpse on-screen, did we? Yes, the character dies in one of Herron’s novels — but does that mean he’s gone from the series?
“I don’t believe we did see it,” Urbanski says about Marcus’s corpse appearing on screen. “That’s a good question. No one comes back from the dead like a zombie [on Slow Horses], but I think one would be wise to question anything that is purported to be a death on the show. Sure.”
Urbanski calls Season 5 “the most fun and the most silly season” that’s been done to date. “We called Season 1 The Bourne Identity season,” Urbanski says. “It had that sort of energy. Season 2 was more like [the movie] Tinker Tailor Solider Spy [which Urbanski executive produced]. That was about bad guy Russians trying to kill Papa Cartwright and Jackson. Season 3 was the sort of the ‘Hitchcock’ and ‘MacGuffin’ season. They were all looking for the file. Then, in Season 4, the bad guys wanted to kill Papa Cartwright and Lamb again.
“Season 5,” Urbanski continues, “is centered around [Roddy] Ho [played by Christopher Chung], who is sort of our least serious character.” (Watch for Ho to get a girlfriend.)
“You’re going to find a shifting of gears in terms of tone for the first two or three episodes, and then, the last three episodes are actually quite cinematic,” Urbanski adds. “You have quite a bit of fun with the chase that ensues.”