Slow Horses Season 6 is out of the gate and off and running. The show, which you can watch with an Apple TV subscription, has consistently been among the best shows of the last half-decade, and if the first episode is any indication, Slow Horses isn’t…slowing down. So far, each season of the book-to-screen adaptation has been based on one of the novels in the Slough House series by author Mick Herron.
Slow Horse Without Jackson Lamb Doesn’t Work
Season 6 is different, as it’s pulling from two novels, the 6th and 7th novels in the series, Joe Country and Slough House, respectively. The reason it isn’t just based on one book is simple: There isn’t enough of Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) or “Lady” Diana Travener (Kristin Scott Thomas) in Joe Country. Oldman and Scott Thomas are both amazing on the show, and one of these days, Oldman better win an Emmy! A season without Jackson Lamb’s wisecracks and farts just wouldn’t work, even if it does in the book.
Director Adam Randall confirmed this decision in a recent interview with The Radio Times:
With season 6, we decided that we needed to combine two books, which was the first time we'd done that, so I read them both. I read Joe Country and Slough House. They're both fantastic. Joe Country would make the most amazing film, but it was felt that there was not a huge amount of story for a number of our characters.
Those two characters are, specifically, Lamb and Travener, who aren't featured much in Joe Country. Randall added:
Taverner’s not in it a great deal, Lamb hasn't got a huge amount to do, so it was sort of the decision to combine them and find a way for them to work together. But then we had the opportunity to draw on both of them throughout the process, which was really fortunate.
I haven’t read Joe Country, so I don’t know exactly how much Lamb and Travener have to do in it, but I do know that the show needs these characters.
I’m a huge fan of Slow Horses, and while I love the whole cast and the exciting adventures the MI-5 castoffs find themselves in the middle of, it’s really Jackson Lamb who keeps me coming back again and again. His quips and belches get me every time, as does his Sherlock Holmes-like ability to know exactly what is going on at all times. He’s the most offensive person in every room he’s in, but he’s also the smartest. It’s an irresistible combination.
I’ve been waiting all year for Slow Horses Season 6 to hit the 2026 TV schedule, and now that it has, I’m already jonesing for the next episode. The hour-long episodes fly by, and they always feel shorter than 60 minutes. It won an Emmy last week for the second time (both for directing, including last year for Randall), and I expect the quality to continue, as Apple has already renewed the show for at least two more seasons after this. Since the show has been consistently getting seasons out yearly, it's never a long wait.
