The impeccable Slow Horses is back for a fifth series. It is the only drama I can think of that can move from depicting a terrorist attack that claims a dozen human lives to an incident involving the unfortunate demise of 22 penguins, without any jarring change in tone. Someone asks Jackson Lamb, the splendidly greasy spy boss played by Gary Oldman, why anyone would target penguins. It’s obvious, says Lamb. “People f—ing love penguins.”
The story is adapted from Mick Herron’s 2018 book London Rules, and the focus this time is on Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung), the obnoxious hacker. Someone appears to want him dead. He has also acquired a gorgeous girlfriend. If you are familiar with Roddy, you will find the first of these things mildly surprising and the second completely implausible. His Slough House colleagues fear he’s falling into a honeytrap, but Roddy says that his model-esque new squeeze is attracted to him because he has “the finest mind and finest body in MI5”. Draw your own conclusions.
The plot begins with an Asian mayor of London being challenged by an anti-immigrant, populist rival who is married to an unpleasant, Right-wing newspaper columnist. Predictable? No, actually. For a start, the mayor, played by Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed, is an idiot whose catchphrase is “making London Londerful again”. The villains of the piece are not necessarily those you expect. And Lamb continues to mock political correctness. “I’m not sure you can say ‘dumb’ anymore,” he suggests when someone throws the insult in his direction. “I think it offends the vocally impaired. Or idiots. I can’t remember which.”
As usual, Lamb is in conflict with the ice-cool MI5 “Second Desk” Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) and weaselly boss Claude Whelan (James Callis), while running rings around them. Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, the closest this show has to an action hero, has less to do than in some of the previous series. Instead, we see a lot of Shirley Dander (Aimee-Ffion Hughes), who is battling grief and a cocaine habit but is also the only team member alert to the dangers that Roddy may be facing.
The six episodes are perfectly paced. When Shirley’s angry miserabilism starts to get a bit much, the other characters step in to supply some comedy. There is a beefed-up role for JK Coe (Tom Brooke), who emerges from his hoodie to display a knack for deadpan humour. A scene involving Coe, Cartwright and a rogue tin of paint is a mini-masterpiece. And, of course, we have Oldman, either wreathed in cigarette smoke or driving around in his clapped-out yellow Honda. If anything, Lamb is even tetchier than usual, but Oldman makes the lines zing. “I’ve got so much dirt on you, I could start an allotment,” he tells Taverner.
Slow Horses is unusual: a long-running show that hasn’t had a drop-off in quality. There is a supreme sense of confidence about the way it is put together. Let’s hope they can keep it up; series six is already filmed and ready to go.
Series five of Slow Horses begins on Apple TV+ on Wednesday 24 September
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