“Look what I’ve got to work with,” spits Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) during the new season of Apple TV+’s Slow Horses. “A crackhead, a drunk, a psychopath and whatever the f*** that is.” However, while Lamb’s coterie of dropouts and failures may be a hindrance to his black-sheep MI5 department, they are this show’s greatest strength. Outgoing showrunner Will Smith can shuffle his pack, rotate his squad, and give each new season fresh impetus. So while the crackhead and the drunk (Aimee-Ffion Edwards’ Shirley Dander and Saskia Reeves’s Catherine Standish) have had their moments, the psychopath (Tom Brooke’s oddball JK Coe) is still earning his stripes, and Slough House’s more capable members, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar), are out of action, the spotlight falls this time round on the “whatever the f*** that is”. Step forward, Roddy Ho.
Christopher Chung’s repellent computer hacker has always been a delightful background presence, a lurid streak of arrogance and immaturity, wrapped in the most awful tracksuits. Now, as he bops onto the screen in the opening episode, Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible” blaring from his headphones, Ho is front and centre. It seems that someone wants him dead. And, stranger yet, it seems he might have a girlfriend. Both things spark incredulity at Slough House.
Although not before the series’ brutal opening scene, in which a disaffected loner guns down 11 people in a London square. “He felt rejected by women, ignored by society, and that his British identity was being eroded,” says a detective. The zeitgeist doesn’t end there – the plot takes in growing far-right activism in Britain, political assassinations, incels and Just Stop Oil-esque direct action. Impressive, given that the source material – Mick Herron’s fifth Slough House novel, London Rules – was published in 2018.
The only thing missing is interference from the other side of the Atlantic, though Donald Trump may enjoy Nick Mohammed’s performance as Zafar Jaffrey, the mildly oily Mayor of London who, while seeking re-election, is accused by his Farage-esque opponent of being “soft on crime”. As ever, things are not as they seem – the gunman, for instance, is shot by an unknown sniper following his massacre and, rather wonderfully, the whole thing may hinge on whether Ho really does have a girlfriend or not. Ho, of course, thinks he’s God’s gift to women.
Dragging Ho into the spotlight both gives and takes away from Slow Horses. On one hand, he’s a lot of fun, and the writers can provide Chung with a wheelbarrow of zingers (“I don’t pay for sex. Sex pays for me.”). On the other, Ho is such a ludicrous character that the credibility of the world Smith and Herron have created begins to creak a little whenever Ho is too pivotal to events. It also sidelines Cartwright, the show’s ostensible hero. Lowden chugs slightly apologetically through this season.
Despite those quibbles, you know what you’re getting with Slow Horses. The performances remain superb, the script is as sharp as they come, and the comedy/action balance is handled beautifully. And Lamb really is God’s gift (albeit to television, not women). He is satisfyingly bad-tempered this season – yes, even more so than usual – with every other phrase out of his mouth being “F*** off”. In fact, all the inhabitants of Slough House seem especially cretinous and mildewed in these episodes. It works a charm. Elsewhere, Victoria Hamilton provides a winning cameo as a blowhard tabloid columnist, while the descent into dementia of River’s grandfather David (Jonathan Pryce) is heartbreaking.
With Smith leaving – screenwriter Gaby Chiappe is taking up the reins – it remains to be seen if Slow Horses can maintain its sky-high standards. But look what Chiappe has got to work with – the best group of characters on British TV.
