Spymaster Jackson Lamb will return to Apple TV+ for fourth and fifth seasons and perhaps more. The role that Gary Oldman was perhaps born to portray will continue for much longer, and that’s a damn fine thing because no shortage of demand exists for espionage-fueled shows that appeal to both the Dad TV crowd and the rest of the binge-friendly audience, too. If you want some f*cked up, subversive agents to spice up the usual spy-thriller vibes, then Oldman and frenemies have you covered.
Oldman appears as the cantankerous spymaster who has a gas problem and isn’t afraid to let it out. He heads up the Slough House faction of British intelligence screwups who have been relegated to purgatory as originally written by Mick Herronthe’s South Horses book series, which contains eight titles about MI5 agents (and a ninth to come) so far. In other words, there’s plenty of source material, and Apple TV+ has been firing off seasons in rapid succession. In fact, Slow Horses is one of the only Apple TV+ shows to be renewed for a fifth season (another one being For All Mankind starring Joel Kinnaman), so let’s get prepared for what shall come next.
Plot
The dysfunctional agents of Slough House not only endure Lamb’s bodily functions but are essentially sentenced to an unending run of dull and miserable days filled with rote administrative tasks. That would be the official plan, but that wouldn’t make a very entertaining set of books or a TV show, so they end up on missions that are essential to maintaining the fabric of British society. And you know what? These characters aren’t “with it” but are refreshing compared to the usual breed of dashing, beautiful, and perfectly coiffed spies that we usually see onscreen. As well, Gary Oldman is loving this job and would be cool with ending his career — “to be able to sort of wrap it all up” — with this show. As he further told Deadline, “I would consider myself very honored and very lucky to be able to do that.”
In the fourth season, expect the story to follow Herron’s fourth book, Spook Street, and “open with a bombing that detonates personal secrets, rocking the already unstable foundations of Slough House.” The season will provide followup on River getting his hands on the “Footprint” file, which is supposedly destroyed, but of course copies exist. First, the Slough House agents will get sucked into a terror attack carried out on a packed shopping district.
Also, will River hook up with Louisa? On that last question, showrunner Will Smith promised Decider that the subject would grow “messy”:
Yeah, we’ve definitely played with that, I would say. And I think that comes from their performance, that comes from that hug as much as anything. And I think people would want to see them together, but all I could say is we’re going to be true to the character dynamics of the books. But it’s definitely — the question will not go unanswered. Put it that way. It’ll be in a Slow Horses way. And it will be messy. I can’t give too much away.
Additionally, expect the “messy” to extend into showing the audience where (via Indiewire) Jackson Lamb lives:
“In Season 4, it will be the first time we can see inside Lamb’s flat, Lambs house. What was really fun: Will said to me, ‘What do you think? What posters would he have on the wall? Would he have any posters or anything?’ You’ll catch it, only in passing really, but books are everywhere. I said, ‘What about a leg broken on the coffee table, but he’s put the books to level it up?’”
Just a hunch: the audience is ready to see this majestic mess.
Cast
Deadline reported that the fourth season’s cast will receive several new cast members including Hugo Weaving, Tom Brooke, Ruth Bradley, Joanna Scanlan, and James Callis. They will join Oldman and regular cast members Kristin Scott Thomas, Olivia Cooke, Jack Lowden, Jonathan Pryce, Steven Waddington, Rosalind Eleazar, Saskia Reeves, and Paul Higgins.
Release Date
Smith duly revealed (back in December 2023) that the fourth season “won’t be later than this time next year. So you won’t have to wait longer than a year.” In other words, expect this to happen before the end of 2024.
Trailer
No trailer has surfaced yet, but please enjoy this joint interview of Gary Oldman and Jack Bowden discussing Lamb’s “tough love” on his underlings: