Political assassinations. Anti-immigration rhetoric. Woeful personal hygiene.
Welcome back to the thrilling, funny and uncannily topical world of spymaster Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and his brilliant-but-banished Slow Horses for another six episodes of high-stakes espionage on Apple TV+.
Based on Mick Herron’s fifth Slow Horses novel, 2018’s London Rules, and overseen by departing showrunner Will Smith, the new season is so topical, it could have been written last week. There’s terrorist plots, liberal and populist politicians trading blows – think Nigel Farage vs Sadiq Khan – and a British intelligence apparatus that still relies on Lamb’s broken-down spies to bail it out.
But aside from being a great – and very funny – series about spying and counter-espionage, Slow Horses is also a great London show. Rather than the London Eye, Big Ben and all the usual landmarks, the new season is another tour of the capital’s lesser-known, often grimier corners – alleys and skate parks, housing estates and underpasses. A penguin enclosure. Join us for a tour of the key locations.
What’s happened in Slow Horses so far?
Okay, hold onto your sidearm and half-eaten sausage roll, here’s a swift recap. Season 1 sent MI5 young gun River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) into disgrace after a botched op at Stansted Airport. He’s condemned to join the so-called ‘Slow Horses’, a group of exiled spies under the deeply skeptical eye of out-to-pasture Cold War legend Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) among the filling cabinets and semi-squalor of its lo-fi HQ, Slough House.
Except in their own way, the Slow Horses are total thoroughbreds. Especially in comparison with the slick but bumbling MI5 mainstream at ‘The Park’, led by career spy and Lamb rival Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas). Their run-ins with ultra-nationalist terror cell Sons of Albion (season 1), Russian sleeper agents (season 2), MI5 tiger teams (season 3) and an ex-CIA agent (season 4) would all be national security catastrophes if it weren’t for Lamb and his team rousing themselves from their dank Barbican HQ and sorting it when MI5 drop the ball.
What is Slow Horses season 5 about?
The threat to the nation comes in the form of mysterious terrorist outrages that strike the capital. A mass shooting in a nondescript shopping arcade is the first piece in a puzzle that MI5 is struggling to piece together. Meanwhile, Sadiq Khan-alike London mayor Zafar Jaffrey (Nick Mohammed) is trading blows with populist politician Dennis Gimbal (Christopher Villiers), who is simultaneously blackmailing slippery MI5 First Desk Claude Whelan. Somehow amid all these mysterious goings-on, the fact that the Slow Horses’ objectionable IT wiz Roddy Ho – ‘Rodzilla’ – suddenly has a girlfriend is the strangest of the lot.
Slow Horses season 5 filming locations
Many of the show’s key locations are back, including Slough House – found on Aldersgate Street, Barbican – and Regent’s Park, where MI5’s HQ can be found (head here for all the Slow Horses season 1-4 staples). This time, the city locales take in Power League pitches, greasy spoons, and a zoo that isn’t.
The opening sequence was filmed at Bush Fair Shopping Centre, Harlow
The series opens with a brutal set piece involving two gunmen, a Jaffrey election campaigner and an otherwise unremarkable suburban shopping arcade. In the show, it’s called Abbotsfield. The scenes, though, were filmed in the Essex town of Harlow.
Jackson Lamb has a fry-up in Beppe’s Cafe in Smithfield
This Smithfield greasy spoon is firmly on Slow Horses’ home turf – the location for Slough House’s back alley entrance is a couple of minutes’ walk away – and feels like just the place Gary Oldman’s spy would head for a quiet breakfast and a chance to ball out his underlings. You can grab a Jackson Lamb-style fry-up and a cuppa for £11.
Roddy goes clubbing at Fabric in Farringdon
To the genuine astonishment of his surveilling colleagues, Roddy Ho takes his new girlfriend clubbing. The club itself is an amalgamation of Fabric and Ladbroke Grove’s old Subterania nightclub.
The London Zoo scene was filmed in Battersea Park
Animal lovers look away now because episode 3 features a zoological atrocity. Battersea Park doubles for London Zoo – well, ‘Regents Park Zoo’ – in those scenes.
River and Louisa meet on Albert Embankment
Fellow Slow Horses River (Jack Lowden) and Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar) talk through their disenchantment with life at Slough House during a night-time tête a tête on Albert Embankment opposite the Houses of Parliament. It’s a romantic setting, only not in quite the way River thinks.
David Cartwright’s care home is Hartsfield Manor in Surrey
Jonathan Pryce is back for the new season as River’s ailing dad, a spy whose razor-sharp mind is being ravaged by dementia. We see him fussing over his beloved bees and finding moments of clarity to share his intel insights with his son at his care home. In reality, the 19th-century Victorian manor house is a hotel and wedding venue.
Gimball and Jaffrey prep for the mayoral debate at Queen Elizabeth II Centre
Four seasons of Emmy-winning TV opens a lot of doors for a show and the new season gets access to some highly realistic locations, including this Westminster convention hall where the two political adversaries prepare for this television debate. At least, until the situation in the city spirals out of control.
Claude Whelan’s house is on Chalcot Crescent, Primrose Hill
Yes, the wily but largely witless Claude Whelan shares a street with Paddington Bear. When we see MI5’s current chief pulling up outside his house, it’s the same Primrose Hill street that stands in for Windsor Gardens in the Paddington movies. Hard stares for the doofus spy chief.
The MI5 boss is accosted by a tabloid reporter on Primrose Hill
Primrose Hill is well-trodden terrain for British camera crews, with the scenic spot appearing in everything from Back to Black to Bridget Jones. Slow Horses joins the party when Whelan’s morning jog is interrupted by a hack sniffing a gossipy story.
Gimball’s Rally takes place at Conway Hall, Holborn
This Grade II listed building near Holborn is where Dennis Gimball holds his anti-immigration rally in episode 4. Conway Hall has seen similar scenes during its 100-year history: a National Front meeting in 1974 ended in a riot and the death of an antifascist protester, Kevin Gateley.
River works out at Powerleague Shoreditch
Season 5 teams up River with newish team member JK Coe (Tom Brooke), an enigmatic, hoodie-wearing psych specialist. In a slightly suspect piece of plotting, Coe deduces that River will be working out at a free outdoor gym and – presto! – finds him flexing his guns at Shoreditch’s Powerleague venue.
Mayor Jaffrey’s rally takes place at London City Hall, Royal Docks
The angular Crystal building in east London opened in 2012 and became London’s new City Hall in 2022. An apt spot, then, for a mayor to give an election speech as Jaffrey does in episode 4. Although would an actual mayor use the catchphrase ‘Londerful’?
Emma Flyte runs an op at Piccadilly Circus tube station
Another MI5 op goes down in a later episode amid the nocturnal bustle of Piccadilly Circus and inside the tube station itself. No spoilers but no-nonsense agent Emma Flyte (Ruth Bradley) won’t be putting it on her CV.
Who stars in season 5?
Christopher Chung steps into the spotlight as hacker Roddy Ho in the new season, with the other Slow Horses also back. Saskia Reeves is wise owl Catherine Standish, Aimee-Ffion Edwards is volatile recovering addict Shirley Dander, Jack Lowden is the bruised and introspective River Cartwright and Tom Brooke plays a prominent role in the new season as hooded newbie JK Coe. Kristin Scott Thomas and James Callis (Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy) return as the top dogs at MI5.
New additions for season 5 include Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed as pompous London mayor Zafar Jaffrey, French-Moroccan actress Hiba Bennani as Tara, Roddy’s unexpectedly glamorous new girlfriend, Top Secret! veteran Christopher Villiers and Victoria Hamilton as right-wing firebrand Dennis Gimball and his equally ambitious wife, tabloid columnist Dodie.
When is the new season of Slow Horses streaming?
All six episodes land on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, September 24. Watch the trailer below.
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