After an impressively quick turnaround, Apple TV+’s new hit series, Slow Horses, returns fans to the Slough House for Season 2. Based on the best-selling novels by author Mick Herron, Slow Horses’ first season introduced us to a team of M15’s disgraced agents, led by the disheveled and disillusioned Jackson Lamb, played by Academy Award-winner Gary Oldman. Following the explosive finale, Season 2 picks up with Lamb’s team toeing M15’s good graces and will see them tackling a new mission on a much larger scale.
When long-buried Cold War secrets begin to surface, and Russian sleeper agents threaten London – and, perhaps, the world – Lamb and his Slough House team may be the only ones in a position to stop those in power. Season 2 will see the return of Jack Lowden as the ambitious Slough House new-arrival, River Cartwright, Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish, Kristen Scott Thomas as Deputy Director-General of MI5, Diana Taverner, and more.
Ahead of Season 2’s premiere on Apple TV+ on December 2, Collider’s Steve Weintraub was able to sit down with Lowden to talk about Slow Horses’ upcoming season and how much higher the stakes are for the Slough House agents this time around. He also discusses River’s ever-evolving relationship with Lamb, how Season 3 follows the books closely, and his upcoming drama series The Gold, based on the Brink’s-Mat robbery in the ‘80s. You can watch the interview in the video above, or read the full transcript below.
COLLIDER: Nice to see you. Congrats on Season 2. I watched the whole thing over the weekend and it's another fantastic season. I like throwing a curveball at the beginning. If someone has actually never seen anything that you've done before, what is the first thing you want them watching and why?
JACK LOWDEN: Yeah, I'd watch this. I think I should probably say this. I probably shouldn't plug other things that I've done. But yeah, I would recommend this. Yeah, whatever the last thing I did was, that's what I'd recommend because hopefully I'm learning as I go along. So definitely this.
Gary [Oldman] plugged JFK.
LOWDEN: Oh, Gary was in J- oh my God, yes he was! Lee Oswald.
Yeah.
LOWDEN: Of course. Yeah, I'd plug that. I would be proud of that film if I was in that film. Yeah, that guy knows his way around a camera.
Yeah, he's going to land on his feet. You never know how something's going to actually turn out. When you were making Season 1, and filming Season 2, did you have a really good feeling about the show as you were making it? Because it ended up being both critically well received and audiences loved it.
LOWDEN: Yeah, I mean, all the ingredients in this, we didn't want to take them for granted, but we'd really have to try our hardest to mess it up. Thankfully, we didn't. And I think we knew that we were making something that people would enjoy, for sure. It's definitely entertaining. And I think the more that we have of that at the moment, the better. But no, I kind of knew that it would be really good. I hoped it would be as good as it's ended up, but we kind of knew. And you've got that past and the material is just so fantastic.
In Season 2, Gary is eating a lot. There's a lot of scenes involving him and food. When you were reading the scripts, were you like, "Thank God this is not me"?
LOWDEN: No, because I'm normally the guy that has to sit there whilst he's doing it and so it's hard. It's a hell of a challenge doing a sort of four, five-page scene with a man that's eating an inhuman amount of noodles. But I just know that it's so funny, on the paper it's just like you read this normal scene but then you add on the fact that, “Oh by the way, he's devouring a huge bowl of noodles at the same time.” So no, I love it. I love it when he does things like that. But Gary, I don't know, Gary's going to be huge if we keep shooting this. You're going to roll him into scenes on like a skateboard.
Gary told me that he hates when people are in movies, or TV, and they're pretending to eat. He said it's a real thing with him and he said he has to eat when he's filming. So, as the person who's doing scenes with him, did you feel more pressure on yourself to not mess up any takes? Because he's really eating in every take.
LOWDEN: No, I'd purposely fuck up so that he could have to eat more noodles. To just watch him slowly bloat and inflate like that, like James and the Giant Peach. Yeah.
I've seen all of Season 2, but I'm not sure what you want to tell people about it. What have you been telling friends and family about the second season?
LOWDEN: Well, it's difficult because we're shooting the third one right now. And so it's just a bit of a mind game as to go back to what is it that's actually in Season 2. So it's been quite fun to revisit it all just now. And what I've been saying is that it gets a lot more dangerous. The stakes are a lot higher in terms of what the problem is in this one. It is certainly more dangerous. But it still has that brilliant sort of M25 kind of home county English-ness that I really love, that is very unusual to see in anything about espionage. But it's definitely a lot more dangerous. Yeah.
What's interesting about Season 2 is that you have basically a better relationship with Lamb, and I think he trusts you a little bit more, but still doesn't really trust you.
LOWDEN: Yeah, I think he just enjoys riding River so much and I think everybody's probably had a boss like that and when you realize that's what they enjoy, you also work out ways to sort cope with that. And as long as you don't break, it seems to sort of piss them off even more. And so it's building and building. I do hope, dramatically, that one day it does break, one of them snaps. But at the moment it's really wonderful to play that sort of simmering tension, that he can do anything he wants to me, but I'm not going to break, because that's the one thing you want.
So yeah. I mean, that's where the noodles come in as well. I think it's all part of playing and toying with River. I wouldn't put it past Lamb that he knew River was going to come into that scene and had already eaten and purposely ordered a big bowl of noodles just to sort of really mess with River.
You mentioned Season 3. Gary also said you guys were filming Season 3. You got picked up for Season 3 and 4 very quickly, which is fantastic. What has it been like working on Season 3 and what can you tease people about it?
LOWDEN: I mean it's been a whirlwind, to be honest, because the rate at which they can put these things out now, it's so quick. So in terms of what I can tell you about Season 3, I can't really tell you anything obviously because someone will jump out from behind that screen over there and knock me out. If you know the books, it definitely follows the books. So it is out there in a way, you can go find it out, you don't need to ask me, you could go and read the book.
The relationships develop and keep developing, and from River's point of view with his grandfather and with Lamb, those relationships, they keep building to a really interesting place. But I cannot tell you anything. No.
The thing that's great about the show is it's not like CGI. It’s basically all practical, which is one of the reasons why you guys can film it so quickly and get it on Apple TV. I believe there's now seven books, or soon to be seven books. Do you feel like you could be doing this for awhile? I wouldn't be surprised if 5 and 6 get green-lit pretty soon.
LOWDEN: I mean we would love that. The world of this is such a joy and it definitely feels like a one-off, the atmosphere of it and the material. So I mean, as long as it's still interesting and people are still interested, I think it's the same with anything, I'd love to do it. I don't want to do it until I'm like 50. I doubt that River makes 50. I can't imagine him as a 50-year-old. Until someone actually said recently, which I think is quite interesting, is, “Does he eventually end up turning into Lamb?” There's just like bits of his hair just start becoming more scraggly, his shirts become more stained, and slowly just sinks into Lamb. I mean, I quite enjoy that.
My last question for you. I'm really looking forward to The Gold, which is based on a crazy true story. I'm assuming you've wrapped on that. What can you tell people about it? Because it has a great all-star cast.
LOWDEN: Yeah, it's really fantastic to be part of these things and be surrounded by a great company of actors. Yeah, we wrapped that in April, and I'm only just now managing to get back down from the weight that I had to put on for it, which is always hellish to do. The story of it is just completely incredible and far-reaching and [we’re] still feeling consequences of it today. I'm so excited for people to see that, I really am, and it's very different to this, which is always a wonderful thing as an actor.
Slow Horses Season 1 is available to stream on Apple TV+, with Season 2 premiering on December 2. For more, check out Collider's interview with Gary Oldman and Saskia Reeves below: