‘Slow Horses‘ is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down, with Apple TV renewing the award-winning spy drama for an eighth season, just as Season 6 prepares to arrive this September.
The six-episode eighth season will once again star Sir Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as the gloriously irascible Jackson Lamb, and will adapt Clown Town, the ninth novel in Mick Herron’s acclaimed Slough House book series. Production on the new season is expected to begin shortly.
For anyone attempting to keep track, that means Apple has quite the ‘Slow Horses’ production line running. Season 6 arrives this week, Season 7 has already been filmed, and now Season 8 is preparing to head into production. At this rate, Slough House might be the most secure department in MI5, at least when it comes to job security.
Season 8 will see Jackson Lamb and Diana Taverner heading towards what Apple describes as their most explosive confrontation yet. A botched attempt to blackmail the Park puts Taverner on the offensive, leaving Lamb to uncover one of MI5’s darkest secrets and put an end to it once and for all.
“‘Slow Horses’ continues to charm audiences all around the world and I’m delighted that Jackson Lamb and his gang of lovable misfits will be back for an eighth season,” said Jay Hunt, creative director, International, Apple TV. “Their acerbic take on the high-octane world of espionage is completely unique.”
However, the speed at which Apple is making ‘Slow Horses’ does create one rather unusual problem. The TV series is rapidly catching up with the books.
Season 6 adapts Joe Country and Slough House, the sixth and seventh novels in Herron’s series. Season 7 moves on to Bad Actors, book eight, while Season 8 will tackle Clown Town, the ninth novel.
And that is currently where the books stop.
Clown Town was released in 2025 and remains the most recent full Slough House novel. Herron is planning a tenth book and has previously talked about trying to stay ahead of the television adaptation, but Apple’s extremely efficient production machine is beginning to breathe rather heavily down his neck.
Assuming Apple maintains the show’s current annual release rhythm, we would expect Season 7 to arrive in 2027 and Season 8 in 2028. However, that potentially gives Herron rather less time than it might appear. With Season 7 already filmed and Season 8 preparing to shoot, development on a hypothetical ninth season could need to begin long before Season 8 actually reaches our screens.
The series has also previously filmed seasons back-to-back, which has helped it maintain the sort of annual release schedule that feels almost alien in the streaming era. There is some additional material available in the wider Slough House universe, including several novellas, so Apple could potentially raid those if it ever needed some breathing room. But if the plan is simply to continue adapting the main novels in order, Herron may want to keep the coffee flowing.
And then there is another potentially interesting complication involving Jack Lowden (Dunkirk, War & Peace).
Lowden, who stars as River Cartwright in ‘Slow Horses’, has long been mentioned as an outside possibility to become the next James Bond, but has recently rocketed up the bookmakers’ rankings. Following renewed speculation around the role, including comments from Richard Osman on The Rest Is Entertainment, Lowden is currently back at the top of William Hill’s market at 5/6 at the time of writing, ahead of Callum Turner (The Capture, Masters of the Air) at 6/4.
That puts Lowden’s implied probability at around 54.5%, although it is worth stressing that betting markets are not casting announcements.
The intrigue has increased further as Bond 26 screenwriter Steven Knight has been extremely cagey when questioned about whether the new 007 has already been selected. No actor has officially been announced by Amazon MGM, so Lowden remains firmly in the realm of speculation for now.
Still, if he did land the role, he would become the first Scottish James Bond since Sean Connery, and it could create an interesting scheduling puzzle should ‘Slow Horses’ continue into a ninth season and beyond.
That is, admittedly, several “ifs” stacked on top of each other. There needs to be a Season 9, Herron needs to finish book ten, and Lowden actually needs to be Bond. But given the speed at which Apple is turning out ‘Slow Horses’, these are questions which may arrive rather sooner than you would expect.
Based on Herron’s novels, ‘Slow Horses’ follows a dysfunctional collection of British intelligence agents dumped into Slough House after making the sort of career-ending mistakes MI5 would rather forget. Unfortunately for their bosses, the supposed rejects have an annoying habit of repeatedly stumbling into major threats to national security.
At the centre of it all is Lamb, a brilliant intelligence officer buried beneath questionable personal hygiene, an appalling diet and enough sarcasm to qualify as an offensive weapon.
The show has become one of Apple TV’s most consistently acclaimed dramas, winning three Emmy Awards, including two for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and one for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, alongside five BAFTA Television Awards.
Season 8 will be adapted for television and executive produced by Ben Vanstone, with Adam Randall returning to direct. Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Douglas Urbanski, Adam Randall, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gail Mutrux, Billy Bowring, Helen Gregory, Mick Herron and Sir Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) also serve as executive producers.
The complete first five seasons of ‘Slow Horses’ are available to stream now on Apple TV.
‘Slow Horses’ Season 6 premieres Wednesday, 16th September 2026 on Apple TV.
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