When Will We Get To See Slow Horses Season 5?

Season 4 aired in autumn 2024, season 5 has already been filmed and, apparently, so has season 6. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves… Here’s everything we know so far about Slow Horses season 5, plus when we might get to see it.

Ruth Bradley and Gary Oldman in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

Will There Be Slow Horses Season 5?

Slow Horses was renewed for season 5 way back in January 2024, just after season 3 ended in December. In fact, even though season 4 only arrived on Apple TV in autumn 2024, filming for season 5 took place in March 2024, meaning the series is all wrapped up and ready to air.

According to a new interview with lead star Gary Oldman, filming has also wrapped up on Slow Horses season 6, with season 7 filming slated to begin shooting in September or October 2025. After four seasons, Oldman says Slow Horses has ‘really started to gather some momentum here in the U.S.

‘I think it’s truly international now,’ he says, describing the series as ‘truly the wonderful gift that keeps on giving. I just adore the hell out of it, and the people. It is just such a wonderful thing really to be part of.’

Gary Oldman in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

What Will Happen?

Slow Horses season 5 will be based on the fifth book in Mick Herron’s Slough House series of espionage novels, London Rules. Apple TV has already released a logline: ‘Everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho has a glamorous new girlfriend, but when a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the slow horses to work out how everything is connected. After all, Jackson Lamb knows that in the world of espionage, “London Rules” should always apply.’

Slow Horses Season 5 Release Date

Slow Horses season 5 will kick off on Wednesday 24 September 2025, with new episodes landing weekly. Seasons 1 to 4 are available to stream now on Apple TV.

WATCH IT

The first episode can be streamed for free, but you will need a subscription to watch the rest.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Christopher Chung, Tom Brooke, Kadiff Kirwan and Rosalind Eleazar in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

What Is Slow Horses About?

Slow Horses is a popular Apple TV series following a team of British intelligence agents who have all committed career-ending mistakes. As a result, they are resigned to Slough House and nicknamed the ‘slow horses’, damned to dull, paper-pushing tasks while enduring verbal abuse from their miserable boss, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). However, the slow horses still manage to get involved with investigating schemes that endanger Britain, and each season focuses on a different plot.

Is Slow Horses Based On A Book?

Yes, Apple TV’s Slow Horses is based on Mick Herron’s Slough House series of espionage novels. Each season adapts the next novel, and the novel title is the season’s subtitle. Herron’s series of novels is as follows:

1. Slow Horses (2010)
2. Dead Lions (2013)
3. Real Tigers (2016)
4. Spook Street (2017)
5. London Rules (2018)
6. Joe Country (2019)
7. Slough House (2021)
8. Bad Actors (2022)
9. Clown Town (coming 11 September 2025)

Slow Horses season 6, however, will be the first season to adapt two of Herron’s novels in one go: Joe Country and Slough House. This leaves Bad Actors for season 7, which is set to begin filming in autumn 2025.

Herron has also written four novellas in the series: The List (2015), which is set between books two and three; The Marylebone Drop (2018), set between books five and six; The Catch (2020), set between books six and seven; and Standing by the Wall (2022), set after Bad Actors.

The series’ ninth instalment has been confirmed, and will be released just before Slow Horses season 5 kicks off on Apple TV.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Kadiff Kirwan in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

The Cast Of Slow Horses

A star-studded series of actors have appeared in Slow Horses, and that doesn’t seem like it will change. Current stars include:

• Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, head of Slough House
• Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, one of the slow horses
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner, Deputy Director General of MI5
• Jonathan Pryce as David Cartwright, retired senior MI5 officer and River’s grandfather
• Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish, office administrator
• Rosalind Eleazar as Louisa Guy, one of the slow horses
• Christopher Chung as Roddy Ho, a tech savvy slow horse
• Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley Dander, a slow horse with drug issues
• Kadiff Kirwan as Marcus Longridge, a gambling-addicted slow horse
• Joanna Scanlan as Moira Tregorian, one of the Queens of the Database
• Tom Brooke as J.K. Coe, the newest slow horse
• Samuel West as Peter Judd MP, the home secretary
• Naomi Wirthner as Molly Doran, a records keeper
• Hugo Weaving as Frank Harkness
• Ruth Bradley as Emma Flyte
• James Callis as Claude Whelan
• Sean Gilder as ‘Bad’ Sam Chapman

Previous stars of Slow Horses include:

• Olivia Cooke as Sid Baker
• Steven Waddington as Jed Moody
• Dustin Demri-Burns as Min Harper
• Paul Higgins as Struan Loy
• Chris Reilly as Nick Duffy
• Chris Coghill as Hobbs
• Sophie Okonedo as Ingrid Tearney
• Freddie Fox as James ‘Spider’ Webb

James Callis and Kristin Scott Thomas in “Slow Horses,” premiering 04 September 2024 on Apple TV+.

Where Is Slow Horses Filmed?

Slow Horses is mainly filmed in London, where the series is also set. ‘We’ve always tried to have our anchor [be Slough House], and just be true to the geography of the original writing,’ Ian Pollington, Slow Horses’ location manager, recently told The Evening Standard. ‘I think it would be easy to just put them [the cast] on a low loader and stick them off out on the A13 and say, well, they’re in the car and that’s fine. It’s not so easy to put them in a car on the Old Street roundabout and drive them through London. But it’s worth doing and it’s worth it [for viewers to] say, “actually, that all sort of makes sense, because I live in Central London and there’s logic to it”. We haven’t taken the easy way out.’

Much of Slow Horses is filmed in Islington and Tower Hamlets boroughs of London, as well as Marylebone and King’s Cross. However, some scenes are filmed just outside London in Hertfordshire.

Where Is Slough House?

In Herron’s books, Slough House is located above a Chinese restaurant on Aldersgate Street, which runs along the west side of the Barbican estate. The Apple TV series is also filmed here – though it was no easy feat. ‘We looked at that location and thought, “this isn’t really practical”,’ says Pollington. ‘It’s on a busy junction, it’s on a road, you’ve got the [Barbican] station pouring out […]. We looked at other places. We looked further down, into Hackney and Tower Hamlets, but actually we came back, after engaging with the local community and with the Barbican Estate. […] We made that decision to be true to the book and shoot on location.’ Thanks to road closures and community engagement, the TV series is true to the book.