Slow Horses: Gary Oldman to Star in Apple TV+’s New Spy Drama Series

November 15, 2019

Slow Horses: Gary Oldman to star in new Apple TV+’s new spy drama series

The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Academy Award-winning actor Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) has signed on to star in Apple TV+‘s forthcoming spy drama series adaptation titled Slow Horses, based on author Mick Herron’s espionage novel series Slough House. Oldman is set to portray the role Jackson Lamb, who is described as the brilliant but irascible leader of a group of spies.

Oldman hasn’t appeared in TV for almost 17 years since guest-starring in an episode of Friends in 2001 and in episode of Greg the Bunny in 2002. This project will mark his first major TV role as a series regular.

Slow Horses follows the story of a group of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 called Slough House after the big mistakes they’ve made that resulted to the end of their mainstream careers. The novel was first published in 2010 and has already spawned off seven book sequels consists of Dead Lions, The List, Real Tigers, Spook Street, London Rules, The Drop, and the most recent one Joe Country.

The first book’s official synopsis reads: “London, England: Slough House is where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their failed careers. The “slow horses,” as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here. Maybe they messed up an op badly and can’t be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they all have in common, though, is they all want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

River Cartwright, one such “slow horse,” is bitter about his failure and about his tedious assignment transcribing cell phone conversations. When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. But is the victim who he first appears to be? And what’s the kidnappers’ connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone has his own agenda.”

The series will be written by Will Smith (Veep, Avenue 5), who will also serve as an executive producer along with Graham Yost (Justifies, The Americans), Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gail Mutrux and Douglas Urbanski. It is a production by See-Saw Films.

You can pick up a copy of the Slough House series here!

Some of the upcoming original shows that will debut on Apple’s recently launched streaming service include: the drama series Defending Jacob starring Chris Evans and Jaeden Martell; Mr. Corman starring Joseph Gorden-Levitt; the comedy series Ted Lasso which will be led by Jason Sudeikis; the sci-fi series adaptation of Foundation; and Oscar winner Octavia Spencer’s Truth Be Told.