‘Slow Horses’ EP/ Writer Will Smith To Exit Show After Season 5

Slow Horses writer and executive producer Will Smith has revealed to Deadline that he will close the door on Slough House for good after Season 5, which will premiere this fall on Apple TV+.

Smith (who technically serves as showrunner, although that title does not exist in U.K. productions), set the tone and kept the bar high for the faithful screen adaptation of Mick Herron’s series of spy novels, and has shepherded Slow Horses all the way from its inception. He admitted “there were certainly some private tears” as Season 5 production came to a close.

Smith is Emmy-nominated in Writing and Drama Series this year and won for Writing last year. Slow Horses has already been renewed up to Season 7 and Smith has handed over the reins for Season 6 to Gaby Chiappe, and Ben Vanstone for Season 7, but will not remain on the production in any capacity beyond Season 5.

“Series 5, it doesn’t end things by any means,” Smith said, “but it concludes certain story arcs that started in Season 1, so it felt like a good moment to hand over the show.”

Slow Horses follows a group of reprobate MI5 rejects that have been sidelined at Slough House, a forgotten outpost far from MI5’s Regent’s Park HQ. Led by Gary Oldman’s flatulent and sardonic Jackson Lamb, the ‘slow horses’ of Slough House prove weirdly effective, often confounding MI5’s Second Desk Diana Taverner (Kristen Scott-Thomas) and, as of Season 4, its First Desk Claude Whelan (James Tallis). Series regulars include Jonathan Pryce, Saskia Reeves, Jack Lowden, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Tom Brooke and Ruth Bradley, with Kadiff Kirwan’s character Marcus Longridge having met an unfortunate end in the Season 4 finale.

“I think it’s a big show and it’s an intense process,” Smith said. “And I suppose I didn’t want to lose the sense of fun of it. There’s two things. One, there’s the risk that you’ll start to run dry or repeat, which you have to watch. And so, it’s just getting ahead of that, and knowing when the right time is for you to give it over to somebody who can give it some new energy and freshness. And then it’s likely that the schedule of it just becomes something that can be slightly daunting after a while. It feels like I might not be giving you my best work if I continue at this pace… I do want to emphasize, it’s not in any way that I thought I’m now too good for Slow Horses. It’s much more that I want to keep being good enough for Slow Horses. And I would never want it to be like, “Oh, that one wasn’t quite there.” It’s just that risk of just pushing it too far. And I just felt, I just want to go when I know I’m still delivering my very, very best for all the people that work on the show.”

The making of Slow Horses often involved overseeing three seasons simultaneously, explained Smith. “When we were doing the [writers’] room for series 5 and the writing of series 5, we were shooting series 4 and editing series 3.” While the schedule was “bananas” Smith said, “it’s also brilliant. It means that it’s incredibly intoxicating and everything is up and running all at once. But it is juggling. You’re going from, ‘This is where River is at in series five, to, ‘Oh, hang on. Saskia has a question about act four and her arc on series four,’ come to that, ‘Oh, we need to [handle] series three.’ But it’s such an amazing show, such an amazing team, brilliant writers, brilliant actors, the producers, directors and Apple. It’s amazing to be in the middle of that.”

Despite his departure, Smith will be Emmy-eligible for Slow Horses Season 5 next year. His current nominations are for his work on Season 4 of the show which aired last year, and which follows Herron’s book Spook Street, in which River Cartwright (Lowden) tangles with his long-lost father Frank (Hugo Weaving). Season 5 will follow the book London Rules. Smith said he is excited for people to see this next season, and without spoiling anything for those who haven’t read the books, he noted that there will be a big reveal about Lamb’s past in Season 5 and that Slough House member Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) will play a prominent role in the story.

Smith accepts the Emmy for Outstanding Writing For A Drama Series for ‘Slow Horses’ in 2024.

Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

As Smith departs the show though, he relishes the relationships forged there. “Mick [Herron] and I are friends, so definitely we’ll still be hanging out. And I hope he’ll still be sending me his books to read. And I’d love to work with Gary again. I mean, Gary’s amazing and we’ve got an incredible — well, I hope, I have to ask him — working relationship. I’d like to think that that cast are my friends now, so I guess we’ll be in touch.”

Smith also noted that he can’t help eyeing Herron’s IP for Slow Horses spin-offs. “His book The Secret Hours is the one I was always saying we should do. He started writing a standalone book in the Slough House universe, and you could feel the Slow Horses coming in, and it ends up flashing back to it. It’s a kind of Lamb/ Molly/ David prequel, as well as a book set in the present. And it’s absolutely brilliant. And it’s one of my favorites he’s done. I think that could be a great standalone film or a three-episode miniseries.”

Smith has plenty to be getting on with next, with two projects currently on his plate. One of these, the TV adaptation of Caledonian Road, Andrew O’Hagan’s novel about corruption among the British ruling classes, is, Smith says, Still in the process of finding a home, but there’s a pilot and a series outline, and Johan Renck is attached to direct.”

Smith is also at work on The Siege, the Ben Macintyre book about the Iranian Embassy siege. “I think we’re filming next year,” says Smith, who was drawn to the project by the involvement of production company AC Chapter One. “They had just come off Mr. Bates vs The Post Office, and I was in awe of what they’ve done with that. And they’d also done A Spy Among Friends, one of Ben’s other books, and he loved them so much, he offered them early copies of The Siege, and they were like, “Oh my god.” And then they gave it to me. And I’m a huge fan of Ben’s anyway, because it’s history, but he writes it with the pace of a thriller. He just makes everything so page-turning. He’s so economical. He just so deft the way he sets everything up. They’re just a joy to read and just full of detail you didn’t know. And this one just completely blew me away.”

Slow Horses is produced for Apple TV+ by See-Saw Films, with Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Julian Stevens, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Adam Randall, Herron, Gail Mutrux, Douglas Urbanski and Oldman also serving as executive producers. 

Slow Horses Season 5 will premiere September 24 on Apple TV+.


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