Warning: Minor spoilers for Slow Horses season 3!
Summary
Slow Horses returns to Apple TV+ for season 3 on November 29, with Gary Oldman once again leading the cast as the sharp-tongued Jackson Lamb. Slow Horses follows MI5 spies who have been sent to an administrative center known as Slough House to avoid embarrassment for the agency. Though these are disgraced agents, each season of the series finds the team in the midst of important espionage missions and finds them saving the day one way or another.
Based on the Slough House novels by author Mick Herron, Slow Horses stars a talented ensemble cast that fleshes out Slough House alongside Oldman’s Jackson Lamb. Jack Lowden (Benediction) plays newcomer River Cartwright, while Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient) plays MI5’s general director Diana Taverner. Also returning are cast members Rosalind Eleazar (Louisa Guy), Freddie Fox (James “Spider” Webb), Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Shirley Dander), Kadiff Kirwan (Marcus Longridge), and Christopher Chung (Roddy Ho). One significant consideration is that Saskia Reeves’ supporting character, Catherine Standish, will be more prominent than ever. Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù joins her as Sean Donovan, the former head of security at the British Embassy in Istanbul — and together they are embroiled in a conspiracy that affects all of Slough House.
Screen Rant interviewed director Saul Metzstein about the freedom he was given by Apple TV+ for Slow Horses season 3, how Catherine Standish is partially the protagonist of the arc, and which scenes or pairings make up some of his favorites in the show.
Saul Metzstein Talks Slow Horses Season 3
Screen Rant: I think it’s so interesting that Slow Horses has a new director for every season because normally a director comes on for a couple of episodes in a season. But you really get to take the story on for yourself. What was that like?
Saul Metzstein: I mean, it’s just great fun because you’re basically you’re doing a slightly too-long film – although it’s not massively too long. I’m going to see the new Ridley Scott film tonight, so it’s not much longer than that.
But no, it was good fun because Apple TV+ were very keen on, “Do your version of it.” There’s really no pushback at all on that, and I guess they have the confidence once they choose who the director is, they don’t think the director’s going to ruin their program. They’re very up for it. It also means you just have the ability to do it your way and invent it and not worry too much about how anyone’s done it before.
The characters are very strong, so you never really worry about falling off of Slow Horses when suddenly you make something else. And also you have this marvelous thing where you can just look at the previous two seasons and just use the stuff you think worked for you. And so in a totally crazy, selfish way, it’s just two seasons of rehearsals for them to come and do the proper one. I mean, the only obvious downside is it’s a very, very long shoot. But I mean, again, they pay me to be there. I’m not complaining. It takes about a year and a half to make the whole thing, including post. Let’s put it that way.
What about the collaboration with you and Will Smith, how do you both honor the story and your vision?
Saul Metzstein: The really special thing about the program is that Will Smith is firstly the world’s nicest man, but he actually responds to notes and doesn’t worry about it. And he does that to the director, he does it to the actors. And in my experience of television, that basically never happens. Television is hierarchical. The director just drops his genius work and you have to make something good out of it.
I once spent three days convincing a writer that I could never make his scene where a meteorite pinned somebody’s arm down work because it would always be a rubbish scene. Whereas Will Smith is responsible. And first, he understands mixed material very well, but he understands that it’s a complicated multi-directional process, the whole thing.
Honestly, I can’t emphasize that enough, because that’s the whole thing that makes it different. And it also it means the actors can own their parts. And in a proper intelligent way, feed it back into the core of it. And honestly, I can’t tell you how unusual that is.
When this season starts off, the stakes are high in that Catherine is in danger. We have to balance her story and concern for her with the rest of the team and still that, the humor that we always get in different seasons. How do you balance that and keep the tension high all season?
Saul Metzstein: I think in a funny way, the problem is not the problem because, actually, the advantage is that the audience are already invested in these characters. The humor doesn’t fight with the plot in a funny way. You accept the humor because you know these people.
I’m conscious of keeping a little bit of humor everywhere, even when it’s a dramatic scene – because I think that’s what makes it a little bit special. One of the things I enjoyed, for example, is that River can’t help himself. He thinks he’s James Bond, so he is going to say something that he thinks is witty. He can’t help himself. It’s that sort of thing. Catherine can’t get over herself if you know what I mean. And Lamb will never be nice. He’ll never quite do it. Feeding in all these things doesn’t feel like a problem. Because you invested in them, you care a little bit more about the outcomes of these situations.
One of the things I think is interesting in this season is that, in a way, Catherine is the central character. Because actually, what the whole season’s actually about is her coming to terms with her problem. And of course, then you realize the cleverness of a script like this is that there’s a plot, but there’s the real plot, which is what the actual thing is about. It’s so much fun as a director to know that you’re doing this layered thing. In a strange way, the opening sequence is a misdirection in Istanbul – but it’s all a misdirection. That’s all fun stuff you can play with the characters. Because it doesn’t really matter what Sean Donovan knows or not; it matters what Catherine’s fight is with Lamb.
Speaking of Sean, you get to really work with Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù this season. He’s one of the major new characters. What was that experience like working with him?
Saul Metzstein: Firstly, on a very basic level, he’s an uncomplaining guy who doesn’t mind running up a hill in Istanbul 500 times. We really torture these guys. I mean, the scene where they run across the field was more or less the hottest day in the history of Britain. That’s literally the hottest day it’s ever been. But Ṣọpẹ́’s good. He’ll just take that terrible thing.
The other thing, I think he’s just dead soulful. I love his relationship with Catherine, and I think they just hit it off really nicely. To me, the core of this is that they’re these two broken people. And I think they just liked each other. I just think he’s got that lovely proper movie star thing, which is where they don’t do much, but it’s in the eyes. You slightly want to cry. He was terrific. But my God, we tortured him. It’s like, “Really?”
Is there any member of Slow Horses that you identify most with after having worked with them for a season?
Saul Metzstein: I want to say absolutely not. [Laughs] No, they’re terrible misfits. They’re all more interesting than me in a terrible way.
Speaking of terrible yet fascinating, I love the back-and-forth with Sophie Okonedo and Kristin Scott Thomas, with all the backroom politics of MI5. Can you talk about handling that storyline?
Saul Metzstein: I mean, they’re both terrifying. [Laughs] There were all sorts of subtle things that Will talked about when it came to how they differ and things like that. Again, it’s one of these things where you think the A story’s the story, but actually, it’s their story. They’re quite subtle with these little chess-playing scenes.
You try to do just enough choreography, and then let them run it in a funny way. But you don’t want to do too much. I think the challenge of making this stuff is just to sit back when their own intensity runs it. I would say they were quite difficult scenes to shoot for various reasons, especially because these are the ones where you have to worry if you’re over-egging it, or under-egging it. You know what I mean? You have to just get that right. But they’re both very good actresses, and they’re the most pleasurable scenes to shoot because you actually get to enjoy them. It’s a bit like going to the theater. Whereas zooming around on a boat in the phosphorus is mechanics, these scenes are something you get to see.
I think the scenes between two characters are the ones I like. I love the scene between River and David Cartwright, and I just adore the scene between River and Louisa in the car. I just think that it’s such a nice piece of writing. One of the scenes I love in Slow Horses season 2 is with Gary and River in the noodle place. Occasionally, the program just lands on a scene that does all of it. It does the whole program in the scene, and you wouldn’t have to see the rest of it to know. I think, in a way, Sophie and Kristen’s scenes and the one with River in Louisa’s car just capture Slow Horses. You go, “Oh, this is actually very cleverly written.”
About Slow Horses Season 3
This darkly funny espionage drama follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 due to their career-ending mistakes. Led by their brilliant but irascible leader, the notorious Jackson Lamb (Academy Award winner Gary Oldman), they navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.
In season 3, a romantic liaison in Istanbul threatens to expose a buried MI5 secret in London. When Jackson Lamb and his team of misfits are dragged into the fight, they find themselves caught in a conspiracy that threatens the future not just of Slough House but of MI5 itself.
The first 2 episodes of Slow Horses season 3 premiere November 29 on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.
Release Date: 2022-04-01
Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, Gary Oldman, Saskia Reeves, Chris Reilly, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Olivia Cooke
Genres: Thriller, Drama
Seasons: 2
Summary: Slow Horses is an adaptation of CWA Gold Dagger Award-winning Mick Herron’s first novel in the “Slow Horses” series, which follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 – Slough House. Gary Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but irascible leader of the spies who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes.
Story By: Mick Herron
Writers: Will Smith, Mark Denton, Morwenna Banks
Streaming Service(s): Apple TV+
