London is under threat from shopping-mall car bombers and espionage masterminds, and somehow Gary Oldman’s MI5 screwups once again end up in the middle of the action. That’s according to the new Slow Horses season four trailer for the black-comedy spy-thriller series.
The Emmy-nominated and BAFTA-winning series stars Oldman as MI5’s irascible Slough House section chief Jackson Lamb. The six-episode season premieres September 4 on Apple TV+.
UPDATE: Season 4 of Slow Horses gets underway Wednesday with the first episode, entitled “Identity Theft,” on Apple TV+. “A London bombing triggers and explosive hidden past,” notes the streamer’s tagline. A season review in The Guardian calls the show “faultlessly directed,” notes the cast is even better than before and says “Gary Oldman roars like a bear dipped in chip fat.”
Slow Horses season 4 trailer shows what may be the fastest-paced season yet
If you don’t know Slow Horses on Apple TV+, brilliantly adapted from Mick Herron’s award-winning Slough House spy novels, you should really get on that. The darkly humorous espionage drama follows a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents in Slough House. It’s an MI5 dumping ground for rejects and agents who rubbed the wrong people the wrong way. Jackson Lamb (Oldman), a once-accomplished Cold War-era spy who now appears permanently rumpled, jaded and, as the trailer humorously dwells on, unshowered, runs Slough House.
Action and humor in equal measure
At one point in the trailer, a female agent sent to keep tabs appears to arrest Lamb, saying she needs the handcuffs because he “looks like he gropes people on buses.” He sarcastically suggests he might have to call HR on her for “bein’ ‘urtful ’bout my appearance,” which is a joke in itself — that he, of all people, would ever contact HR for any reason (or care about his appearance).
Near the end of the trailer, after loads of action and in the wee hours of the morning, Lamb says he’s going back to bed and begins to stalk off.
“Would you also consider a shower,” the woman calls after him.
“Yeah, that’s a tempting offer, but I don’t think that’s appropriate right now,” Lamb quips as he turns back (while turning her jibe back on her). “I mean, apart from anything else, one of my team just died.”
Hugo Weaving joins the cast
At any rate, as much as Lamb hides in his office, smoking and drinking scotch while keeping the pointless paperwork moving so nobody actually does anything, his agents keep getting into trouble. The Slow Horses season four trailer, like the season itself, opens with a massive shopping-mall suicide car bombing “that detonates personal secrets, rocking the already unstable foundations of Slough House,” as Apple TV+ put it. Season four is based on Herron’s novel Spook Street. (And season five is already in the works, by the way.)
Here’s how Apple TV+ describes Slow Horses and its excellent cast, which adds a coldly brutal Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, Lord of the Rings) as a nemesis in season four:
Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but misanthropic leader of the spies who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes and who frequently find themselves blundering around the smoke and mirrors of the espionage world. The returning ensemble cast also includes Academy Award nominee Kristin Scott Thomas, BAFTA Scotland Award winner Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Kadiff Kirwan and Academy Award nominee Jonathan Pryce. Screen Actors Guild Award winner Hugo Weaving, BAFTA Award winner Joanna Scanlan, Irish Film & Television Award winner Ruth Bradley, Tom Brooke and James Callis join Slow Horses in season four.
Watch the action-packed Slow Horses season 4 trailer
Awards for Slow Horses
Apple listed awards the popular and critically acclaimed show, produced for Apple TV+ by See-Saw Films and adapted for television by Will Smith (Veep) has won:
- Two BAFTA Television Awards in 2024 for Best Editing: Fiction (Sam Williams) and Best Sound: Fiction (Sound Team)
- Nine additional nominations across 2023 and 2024 included Best Drama Series, Oldman’s first for Best Lead Actor; Lowden’s for Best Supporting Actor; Best Editing: Fiction (Zsófia Tálas); Best Editing: Fiction (Katie Weiland); Best Original Music: Fiction (Daniel Pemberton and Mick Jagger); Best Sound: Fiction (Martin Jensen, Joe Beal, Duncan Price, Craig Butters, Sarah Elias and Andrew Sissons); and, Best Hair and Makeup Design (Lucy Sibbick).
- Nine Emmy Award nominations for its acclaimed third season, including Outstanding Drama Series.
- The award for Best English-Language Drama Series at the 2022 C21 International Drama Awards
Watch Slow Horses on Apple TV+
Season four of Slow Horses premiered Wednesday, September 4 with the first two episodes, followed by one new episode each Wednesday through October 2, on Apple TV+. Fans who need to catch up before diving in can stream the first three seasons, which all hold a Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The service is available by subscription for $9.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.
After launching in November 2019, “Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 471 wins and 2,090 award nominations and counting,” the service said.
In addition to award-winning movies and TV shows (including breakout soccer comedy Ted Lasso), Apple TV+ offers documentaries, dramas, comedies, kids shows and more.
Source: Apple TV+
We first published this post on August 13, 2024, and updated it September 4, 2024, when the first episode streamed on Apple TV+.
