Down Cemetery Road: Everything We Know So Far

Later this month, Apple TV’s longest-running original series will return for its fifth season, Slow Horses – one of our most anticipated TV releases this season. Starring Gary Oldman as the unkempt but staunchly loyal Jackson Lamb, the action centres on Slough House where disgraced or failed MI5 agents are sent to work in administrative purgatory, nicknamed ‘slow horses’. But Lamb and his agents somehow find themselves in the middle of high-stakes cases that endanger the nation, and as a result the series has kept viewers gripped season after season as new investigations unfold.

It’s all based on the novels of prolific crime writer Mick Herron, adapted for the screen by British comedian Will Smith. And Apple TV is taking a punt on Herron’s stories yet again – this time in an entirely new series based on the writer’s debut novel published in 2003. Titled Down Cemetery Road and giving its name to the series, here’s everything we know so far.

Down Cemetery Road: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

While Slow Horses is helmed by grumpy Jackson Lamb (Oldman), it is over to the women for Down Cemetery Road with none other than BAFTA, Oscar and Golden Globe winner Emma Thompson taking on the leading role of Zöe Boehm. Transforming into the character with a spiky haircut and some heavy eyeliner, Zöe is an Oxford private investigator at the centre of four of Mick Herron’s novels, drawing inspiration from Herron’s time in the city, where he has lived since he was a student in the ‘80s.

Thompson is joined by Golden Globe and Olivier award winning actress Ruth Wilson who plays Sarah Tucker, a bored, married, local Oxford woman who calls on Zöe for help when she finds herself obsessed with a mysterious case in her usually sleepy suburb. The house of one of Sarah’s neighbours exploded – and in the aftershocks a girl disappears. Sarah is obsessed with finding her, but when she brings Zöe into the fold, both women realise they are in the middle of a complex conspiracy that reveals the long-believed dead are still living – and the living are quickly joining the dead.

Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson in “Down Cemetery Road,” premiering 29 October 2025 on Apple TV+.

Based on Herron’s novel of the same name, Down Cemetery Road was adapted for the screen by Morwenna Banks – who is also a writer on Slow Horses. While the drama is set in Oxford, filming took place in Bristol in summer 2024; locals will recognise locations across the University of Bristol campus, with scenes filmed in Somerset village Street, too.

Also starring Adeel Akhtar and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Down Cemetery Road is directed by Natalie Bailey, who has previously worked across crime thriller Bay of Fires (2023) as well as comedies like The Thick of It (2005–12) and Veep (2012–19) – so she is well acquainted with Herron’s signature mixture of high octane drama and dark comedy.

The Cast

Film star Emma Thompson leads the series as Zoë Boehm in one of her rare television roles. She most recently starred in one episode of the BBC’s Agatha Christie miniseries Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? in 2022; before that it was Russell T Davies’ Years and Years (2019), and before that, discounting TV films and one-off specials, it was Angles in America (2003).

Joining her at the fore is Ruth Wilson who is best known for her roles in Luther (2010–19) and The Affair (2014–18), but is perhaps most acclaimed for her theatre work for which she has bagged two Olivier Awards.

The full cast we know so far includes:

• Emma Thompson as Zoë Boehm
• Ruth Wilson as Sarah Tucker
• Adeel Akhtar as Hamza
• Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Downey
• Tom Goodman-Hill as Gerard
• Darren Boyd as C
• Tom Riley as Mark
• Adam Godley as Joe Silverman
• Sinead Matthews as Denise/Wigwam
• Ken Nwosu as Rufus
• Fehinti Balogun as Amos
• Aiysha Hart as Paula
• Steven Cree as Bob Poland

Ruth Wilson in “Down Cemetery Road,” premiering 29 October 2025 on Apple TV+.

Release Date

Down Cemetery Road will launch with the first two episodes on Wednesday 29 October 2025, with new episodes landing weekly on Wednesdays on Apple TV until 10 December. The release schedule is as follows:

• Episode 1: Wednesday 29 October
• Episode 2: Wednesday 29 October
• Episode 3: Wednesday 5 November
• Episode 4: Wednesday 12 November
• Episode 5: Wednesday 19 November
• Episode 6: Wednesday 26 November
• Episode 7: Wednesday 3 December
• Episode 8 – Season Finale: Wednesday 10 December

Will There Be A Second Season?

No news just yet from Apple TV, but if Down Cemetery Road is a hit, we expect it to be renewed pretty swiftly – and there is plenty of material to plunder. There are four novels in Mick Herron’s Zoë Boehm series, starting with Down Cemetery Road in 2003.

The sequel, The Last Voice You Hear, was published a year later, followed by Why We Die (2006) and Smoke and Whispers (2009). Herron then turned his attention to Slough House, publishing Slow Horses in 2010.

Interestingly, Wilson’s character Sarah appears in the series’ first and last books. If Down Cemetery Road is renewed, we suspect Sarah might be incorporated into the action of the second two novels as Zoë’s sidekick. Stay tuned for more.

Down Cemetery Road premieres Wednesday 29 October on Apple TV.

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