Slow Horses is an excellent British spy series based on the Slough House novels by Mick Herron and the show was created by showrunner Will Smith. It is the story of an MI5 unit of failed agents. It is a popular and acclaimed series on Apple+, has consistently garnered rave reviews, and has already been renewed for two more seasons. It stars legendary actor Gary Oldman, who has delivered some of the best performances of the past four decades. Director Adam Randall (I See You) helmed the impactful season four and spoke to Immersive on Zoom about his experiences.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.]
Let’s dive right into Slow Horses season four. This is your first season with the show? How did you get involved with this?
I knew one of the executives, and my name came up because they were talking about directors. I got an email to come in, and then it all happened very quickly. I met the executives and Gary Oldman, and six days later, I started.
When I first saw the image of Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb – a disheveled, unkempt leader of a group of disgraced spies, I thought that’s what I wanted to watch… What was it like first meeting him and then working with him?
I was intimidated by him before I met him because it’s Gary Oldman. I grew up on Gary and his characters, and there are so many amazing villains like Norman in Leon (aka The Professional) and Drexl in True Romance. These are things that I watched as a teenager. He was a proper hero of mine. It was a daunting process to think I would be directing one of the greats… But then he’s incredibly collaborative, working unbelievably hard.
You think someone with that skill could just kind of phone it in at this point, but he’s been studying those scripts months before and has thought of every little detail. The words are so deep that they’re just a part of him by the time you’re working with him. Then it’s just finding things, and he’s up for trying different things.
Were you familiar with the novels and the previous seasons?
I was familiar with the novels. I had read the first one, then caught up with the rest once I got the job. Only the first season was out when I got the job, even though it’s season four; the speed at which they make the show meant that season two came out a couple of weeks after I started, and season three came out when I was finished the edit almost of season four. What was so interesting, this came down to Gary, was how each season had only one director. Each season, he wanted to have its own identity and for the director to bring a vision to it.
Such a great cast: Kristen Scott Thomas, Jonathan Pryce, Rosalind Eleazar, Jack Lowden… For this season specifically, I want to bring up Hugo Weaving. Talk about the arc of his character Frank Harkness and Hugo’s performance leading into the finale.
The interesting thing about Frank is that he’s so charismatic and has a warmth to him. I think it was important to Hugo Weaving and me to see those dimensions. In the dinner scene in episode six, you almost want River to go off with him even knowing how morally compromised he is. That’s what makes a character interesting, and that’s what Hugo really brought to it. There’s just such humor in it.
Every character thinks that they’re right. They believe they are doing the right things, even if they’re not. And if you’re charming, you get a lot of bad shit done.
It’s true. But he does. Frank truly believes what he’s saying when he is talking to River. He thinks this is how the world is, and he’s built a system that he thinks is a way of navigating it. Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) believes that she’s doing the thing that needs to be done, even though she’s, in many ways, can be seen as a villain, you know? But in her eyes, she’s not. She’s, she’s navigating a very, very difficult world. I mean, these are great characters.
The last episode’s title is “Hello Goodbye.” Talk a little bit about the emotional resonance of that.
It’s an incredibly emotional episode, which is unusual for Slow Horses. Specifically for River (Jack Lowden), and the emotion of learning about his family and him losing his father figure that’s been there throughout his life, and then this new father figure being appalling, you know? I think the scene with him and Frank, I thought, was beautifully played, and it is very sad when you have those moments where Frank almost sweeps in River, and you can see the longing he has to have a father. The scene where he puts his grandfather in a care home was one of the few scenes we didn’t undercut with comedy. We must play it for what it is, which is very sad.
They’re a close-knit group. I like the fact that they’re like the MI-5 rejects. They spend all this time together, but it’s also a dangerous job. When you watch these kinds of shows, you could be saying goodbye to any of these people at any moment. And musically, you’ve got Nick Drake in there at the end.
I love Nick Drake. It felt tonally absolutely the right feeling at the end, this kind of melancholy – but there’s also hope there. That scene with River and Lamb wasn’t in the original script, but we felt we needed it as an element of hope and optimism, a sort of third father figure.
What were some of the challenges of making this on location… You shot in King’s Cross and places like that.
Most of it is shot on location, certainly the action sequences. So it’s incredibly complicated in Central London with all the restrictions. We wanna have extremely anarchic scenes but keep everything grounded so you fully believe what’s happening to these characters. Even though they’re shootouts in Central London or King’s Cross Station, you wanna feel this isn’t fantasy land. What is important to me in the scene where River’s convoy is attacked… is not helicopter shots spinning around them; we stay with the characters the whole time, experiencing it with them. It just felt like that’s what this show is.
Any favorite moments from this season?
There’s a lot. That scene where River’s convoy gets attacked at the end of episode five was great. I thoroughly enjoyed planning it, experiencing it, and having the actors perform it in that way. Also, the scenes with Jonathan Pryce and Jack Lowden. We got to rehearse them a fair bit, and these two actors really just being in this incredibly small space. It wasn’t fun to shoot, but watching these two work was a joy.
What’s it like being on the other end of season four now?
It was genuinely just an incredible experience making this. It was like a very long film. It was a six-month shoot in France and Central London with huge action sequences, comedy, drama, and emotion, working with Gary, Jonathan, Hugo, Jack, and Kristen. So it was absolutely wonderful—so wonderful that I’ve just done it again with season six.
Is there anything that you can say about season six?
I can say that we’ve pushed everything further. It’s more cinematic, darker, and more emotional. It allows us to take our characters out of London and put them in different landscapes and environments that are increasingly dangerous for them. It’s a bold season. I’m excited about it.
Slow Horses is streaming at Apple+.
