Slow Horses
Slow Horses
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Slow Horses

"Drinker. Thinker. Rebel. Spy."

8.0
Yr 2022
Status Returning Series
Crime Drama Comedy
Series Brief

Overview

Follow a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents—and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb—as they navigate the espionage world's smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.

Why fans love it

Spy fiction usually leans into the clean aesthetic of sharp suits and high-stakes gadgets. This series takes a different route, centering on a group of intelligence officers relegated to a dumping ground for the career-ruined. Far from the suave archetypes of traditional espionage, these characters deal in incompetence, bureaucratic stagnation, and the grim reality of their own past mistakes.

The comedy here is as blunt as the violence. Gary Oldman depicts a supervisor who manages his team through insults and thick clouds of cigarette smoke rather than tactical brilliance. By grounding the threat of terrorism within an absurd office environment, the show makes British intelligence look less like a tactical machine and more like a decaying, cynical puzzle. It manages to feel both macabre and grounded, finding humor in the fact that the people defending England are the ones nobody else wants around.

Featured Players

Cast 75

Aimee-Ffion Edwards
as Shirley Dander
24 episodes
Joanna Scanlan
as Moira Tregorian
6 episodes
Nick Moss
as Old Dog
4 episodes
Gary Oldman
as Jackson Lamb
30 episodes
Jack Lowden
as River Cartwright
30 episodes
Kristin Scott Thomas
as Diana Taverner
30 episodes
Hugo Weaving
as Frank Harkness
6 episodes
Jonathan Pryce
as David Cartwright
14 episodes
Saskia Reeves
as Catherine Standish
29 episodes
Christopher Chung
as Roddy Ho
29 episodes
Rosalind Eleazar
as Louisa Guy
25 episodes
Sam Hazeldine
as Moe
2 episodes
Miltos Yerolemou
as Theo Makris
2 episodes
Paul Higgins
as Struan Loy
3 episodes
Steven Waddington
as Jed Moody
4 episodes
Freddie Fox
as Spider Webb
11 episodes
Olivia Cooke
as Sidonie 'Sid' Baker
3 episodes
Paul Hilton
as Robert Hobden
4 episodes
Antonio Aakeel
as Hassan Ahmed
6 episodes
Samuel West
as Peter Judd
10 episodes
Show all 75 cast
David Walmsley
as Larry
5 episodes
Stephen Walters
as Zeppo
5 episodes
Brian Vernel
as Curly
5 episodes
Chris Coghill
as Hobbs
8 episodes
Edmund Kingsley
as Seb
2 episodes
Charlotte Pyke
as Olivia Judd
2 episodes
Bally Gill
as Agent Singh
12 episodes
Sophie Okonedo
as Ingrid Tearney
7 episodes
Lesley Harcourt
as Agent Owen
4 episodes
Pierro Niel-Mee
as Agent McCrae
5 episodes
Ravi Aujla
as Mr Abdul Ahmed
3 episodes
Melissa Suppiah
as Mrs Fatima Ahmed
4 episodes
Dustin Demri-Burns
as Min Harper
10 episodes
Chris Reilly
as Nick Duffy
13 episodes
Marek Vašut
as Andre Chernitsky
5 episodes
Kadiff Kirwan
as Marcus Longridge
18 episodes
Naomi Wirthner
as Molly Doran
10 episodes
Rade Šerbedžija
as Nikolai Katinsky
4 episodes
Zahari Baharov
as Piotr Volodin
5 episodes
Yerden Telemisov
as Kyril Asimov
4 episodes
Tamsin Topolski
as Kelly Tropper
4 episodes
Adrian Rawlins
as Duncan Tropper
4 episodes
Alec Utgoff
as Arkady Pashkin
4 episodes
Catherine McCormack
as Alex Tropper
4 episodes
Sean Gilder
as Sam Chapman
5 episodes
Hywel Morgan
as Steve Johnston
3 episodes
Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù
as Sean Donovan
6 episodes
Charlie Rowe
as Ben Dunn
5 episodes
Eliot Salt
as Sarah Dunn
6 episodes
Sion Daniel Young
as Douglas
3 episodes
Olwen May
as Park Receptionist
3 episodes
Rebecca Dyson-Smith
as Agent Smith
5 episodes
Nick Blood
as Sturges
4 episodes
George Smale
as Rafer - Chieftain Security
3 episodes
Kal Sabir
as BBC Reporter
3 episodes
James Callis
as Claude Whelan
12 episodes
Ruth Bradley
as Emma Flyte
12 episodes
Tom Brooke
as JK Coe
12 episodes
Joshua Lacey
as Tattoo Dog
5 episodes
Tom Wozniczka
as Patrice
5 episodes
Kiran Sonia Sawar
as Agent Giti Rahman
4 episodes
Leroy Kincaide
as Beard Dog
3 episodes
Nick Mohammed
as Mayor Zafar Jaffrey
4 episodes
Cherrelle Skeete
as Devon Welles
4 episodes
Abraham Popoola
as Tyson Bowman
3 episodes
Victoria Hamilton
as Dodie Gimball
4 episodes
Hiba Bennani
as Tara
5 episodes
Fady Elsayed
as Kamal
5 episodes
Christopher Villiers
as Dennis Gimball
3 episodes
Ahmed Elmusrati
as Sami
5 episodes
Monty Ben
as Farouk
5 episodes
Sunny Dhillon
as Welsh Dog
4 episodes
Tom Bradby
as Tom Bradby
4 episodes
Anita Anand
as Anita Anand
3 episodes
Christian Bradley
as Agent Jim
3 episodes
Production Board

Crew

Director
Costume Design
Supervising Art Director
Camera Operator
Assistant Set Decoration
Costume Assistant
In Memory Of
Stunt Coordinator
Producer
Production Design
Director of Photography
First Assistant Director
Keyword Cloud

Keywords

london, england spy based on novel or book secret agent terrorism british spy blunt macabre mi5 british intelligence absurd