‘Slow Horses’ Officially Back in the Saddle for Season 8
'Slow Horses' will continue to trot along with Season 8 officially confirmed to follow Seasons 6 and 7.
Slow Horses is one of the very few shows outside of Ted Lasso that Apple TV can call a genuine word-of-mouth hit. Based on the Mick Herron thriller novels, it’s also one of the few shows the streaming service has consistently handed early renewals. Apple announced Season 6 in October 2024 and Season 7 in the summer of 2025. Now, with Season 6’s premiere mere hours from arriving, Apple has confirmed what most already assumed: Season 8 has been officially handed a six-episode order, based on Herron’s most recent novel, 2025’s Clown Town.
The Slough House Series currently runs nine novels and five short stories. Seasons 1 through 5 covered Slow Horses, Dead Lions, Real Tigers, Spook Street, and London Rules; Season 6 will be the first to combine novels, mashing up 2019’s Joe Country and 2021’s Slough House. Season 7 will switch back to the one-book-per-season model, adapting 2022’s Bad Actors.
Though Season 8 will adapt the last existing novel, Herron is still actively writing the series, and a tenth book (and probable ninth season based on it) is expected to be announced in due course.
(Herron has not said how many more Slough House novels he expects to follow the planned tenth installment, but the answer is probably “until the time the show becomes unprofitable.”)
Here is the synopsis for Season 6:
Slow Horses is a darkly humorous espionage drama that follows a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping-ground department of MI5 known unaffectionately as Slough House, run by Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but cantankerous leader of the spies who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes and who frequently find themselves blundering around the smoke and mirrors of the espionage world.
Season 6 sees the Slow Horses on the run as Diana Taverner embroils them all in a fatally high-stakes game of retaliation and revenge.
And here are the loglines for Seasons 7 and 8:
In Season 7, Lamb and his Slow Horses are on the hunt to find and neutralize a mole at the heart of the British Government before they can bring down the state.
Season 8 sees Jackson Lamb and Diana Taverner face off in their most explosive confrontation yet. When a botched attempt to blackmail the Park puts Taverner on the offensive, Lamb must unravel one of MI5’s darkest secrets and end it once and for all.
Once again, given how many characters get killed off each season, Apple TV+ understandably hasn’t announced who will return for Season 7 yet, let alone Season 8. That being said, the loglines confirm Gary Oldman (Oppenheimer) will return as Jackson Lamb, with co-lead Kristin Scott Thomas (Rebecca) as Diana Taverner.
The rest of the current Season 6 ensemble includes longtime series regulars Jack Lowden (The Gold) as River Cartwright, Saskia Reeves (Roadkill) as Catherine Standish, Rosalind Eleazar (The Personal History of David Copperfield) as Louisa Guy, Christopher Chung (Blitz) as Roddy Ho, Aimee-Ffion Edwards (Wolf Hall) as Shirley Dander, and Jonathan Pryce (The Crown) as David Cartwright.
(Apple TV)
Samuel West (All Creatures Great & Small) returns as Home Secretary Peter Judd after sitting out Seasons 4 and 5, and, for the first time since Season 1, Olivia Cooke (House of the Dragon) returns as Sid Baker.
Newer additions who have stuck around since being introduced include Hugo Weaving (Patrick Melrose) as Frank Harkness, Joanna Scanlan (The Larkins) as Moira Tregorian, Ruth Bradley (Guilt) as Emma Flyte, and Tom Brooke (Bodyguard) as J.K. Coe.
Season 6 also adds Lenny Rush (Doctor Who), Kyle Soller (Poldark), and MyAnna Buring (Unforgotten); it is unclear if they will return for Seasons 7 or 8.
(Apple TV)
Gaby Chiappe, who takes over from Slow Horses’ longtime lead writer, Will Smith, adapted Season 6, with Season 4 director Adam Randall returning to helm all episodes. For Seasons 7 and 8, Chiappe will pass the baton to Ben Vanstone (All Creatures Great & Small) as lead writer, with new-to-the-series director Robert McKillop (Guilt) set to direct Season 7, while Randall will return to direct all episodes of Season 8.
Chiappe, Herron, and Oldman are listed as executive producers for Season 6, with Vanstone replacing Chiappe for Seasons 7 and 8, alongside Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gail Mutrux, and Douglas Urbanski. Randall and Julian Stevens will executive produce Season 6; Graham Yost will step in for Season 7. Randall returns to executive produce Season 8 along with Billy Bowring and Helen Gregory.
Slow Horses Season 6 debuts on Wednesday, September 16, 2025, followed by one episode per week through October. Season 7 is expected in 2027, and Season 8 in 2028.
Seasons 1 through 5 are streaming on Apple TV.
Sign up for full access to Telly Visions' recaps and reviews!
(We occasionally use affiliate links in our posts to help keep cat food on the floor.)
