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Storming straight onto the list of the year’s best new streaming shows comes the fourth season of Slow Horses. With Gary Oldman back as slovenly but brilliant cold warrior Jackson Lamb, leading Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves and their small band of exiled spooks at Slough House, it’s another six episodes of pure viewing pleasure for one of Apple TV+’s best shows. Hugo Weaving’s mysterious spook Frank Harkness is a killer addition.
Slow Horses’ realisation of Mick Herron’s series of spy novels, ‘Slough House’, is one of its super-strengths: a grey, slightly out-of-time London that mirrors the characters’ fringe status in UK intelligence. ‘It always feels like it's seven or eight years behind the present date,’ says the show’s veteran supervising location manager, Ian Pollington. ‘Lamb is a relic of the cold war and we want to make it feel down and dirty around the edges.’ He talks us through the new – and old – locations that give season 4 its extra bang.
What London locations were used in Slow Horses series 4?
The explosion (ep 1) – Leather Lane Market, EC1
The series opens with Slough House’s obnoxious hacker genius Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) emerging from a chicken shop and witnessing a massive explosion. ‘We took over a shop on Leather Lane on the fringes of the City,’ says the location manager of the redressed chicken shop. ‘It’s tricky to take over a business for the time we'd need it, because we have to rebrand things and move walls to get the camera moving around.’
River’s afterwork pint (ep 1) – The Shaftesbury Tavern, Hornsey
A pub conversation between River Cartwright (Lowden) and Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar) was filmed in Hornsey, ‘slightly out of our catchment area due to scheduling’, says location head Pollington. ‘We've used several different pubs, always suggesting that they’re in the vicinity of Slough House.’ What does he look for in a Slow Horses boozer? ‘Texture, interest. We like dark woods and reeded glass.’
Slough House (eps 1-6) – Aldersgate Street, Barbican
Season 4 broadens the show’s London footprint but its heart is still Barbican, EC2. The Slow Horses’ HQ, Slough House, is still shot on the corner of Aldersgate Street, above Vecchio Parioli Italian restaurant. ‘We've been incredibly fortunate,’ says Pollington, ‘because we haven't had that situation where Pret a Manger has taken a whole corner and everything's completely changed.’ The fire escape, a handy egress for spies in a hurry, is filmed on nearby St John’s Street. ‘It's a service yard for another section of buildings, but it knits together well,’ says Pollington. The interior sets were filmed at Enfield’s OMA X studios.
The Park (eps 1-6) – Regent’s Park
The hi-tech nerve centre of MI5 in Slow Horses, The Park is where season 4 finds Kristin Scott Thomas trying to twist the agency’s new First Desk (Battlestar Galactica’s James Callis) around her little finger – with mixed results. ‘The building is supposedly near London Zoo on the north side of the park,’ says Pollington. ‘We shot a section of it at the old Naval College in Greenwich, but the exterior shots are a visual effects build.’
The foot chase (ep 3) – Petticoat Lane Market, Spitalfields
The third episode sees bickering fellow Slow Horse Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) and Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan) chase after a hitman through a busy east London market. ‘We were down on Petticoat Lane, just off of Middlesex Street,’ says Pollington. ‘We created our own market on a day when the regular market wasn’t trading. We try to find those gritty bits of London that are fast disappearing.’
The ‘execution’ scene (ep 4) – The Langham Hotel, Portland Place
One of London’s most elegant and most storeyed crash pads – not to mention, location for several Sherlock Holmes stories – The Langham entertains the prospect of more murderous deeds when Weaving’s ex-CIA man crosses some really bad people in one of the hotel’s top suites. ‘We had two days filming there and we hired it for a week,’ says Pollington. Scoring shoot time in a busy London hotel is no easy matter. ‘It's not a given [we can shoot somewhere] just because we’re a show with a following.’
The ambush (ep 5) – Gresham Street, EC2
The penultimate episode involves a high-octane ambush scene involving a dustbin lorry crashing into the car. ‘We closed Gresham Street in the City,’ says Pollington, ‘and filmed it over several weekends. We did some impact shots at Bovingdon Airfield, too.’
The showdown (ep 6) – Granary Square, King’s Cross
Season 4’s hero location is King’s Cross, with St Pancras station hosting two complex and key scenes. ‘We started in January, February 2023 and finished in July, so we were there in the summer,’ remembers Pollington.
A climactic episode 6 showdown between two characters was filmed at The Lighterman pub in Granary Square. ‘We hired it out for a couple of nights,’ says Pollington.
What village is Slow Horses filmed in?
Season 4 opens with River heading to visit his dementia-stricken grandfather David Cartwright in his country cottage. The house itself is situated just outside Oxford. ‘We largely shot there, but we had to build the upstairs [on a set], because the bathroom wasn't big enough and the hallway wasn't long enough. The owner was blown away by the level of detail. He said: “Oh my god, I've been meaning to clean that mark off above the light switch!”’
How many episodes will there be in Slow Horses season 4?
The fourth season comprises six episodes. They’ll be launching every Wednesday until October 9.
Where to watch season 4
Season 4 is streaming on Apple TV+ now, alongside the three previous series. Now might just be the time to sign up for that subscription, or just sign up for the free seven-day trial.
What are the reviews saying about Slow Horses season 4?
The new series has been greeted with rave reviews. ‘If Slow Horses keeps operating at this level, it won’t just be a serious awards contender, but potentially one of the best shows of the decade,’ writes Paste. ‘Drum-tight, fat-free and hugely entertaining,’ is the Irish Independent’s verdict.
The performance of show newbie Hugo Weaving has drawn praise, too. ‘He’s a hypnotic and charismatic performer, and his growling American accent is pure ASMR fuel,’ notes AV Club. But the show’s long-time star remains the MVP here, according to The Times: ‘It is Oldman you want to watch the most, contaminating the screen beautifully and weaponising how greasily disgusting he looks.’
The show’s offbeat, irreverent humour has been widely praised, too. ‘Season 4 is a bit more dramatic than seasons past, but not so much so that it prevents the usual flatulence and other stupidity,’ writes Alan Sepinwall in Rolling Stone.
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