Jackson Lamb Has a New Sparring Partner in Slow Horses Season 4 Trailer

“Cuffs won’t be necessary,” Jackson Lamb tells the new Head ‘Dog’ in the first trailer for Slow Horses season four. She slaps a pair on him anyway with the retort that she’d rather not take any chances with a man “who looks like he gropes people on buses.” Affecting sensitivity, Lamb drily jokes that after such a personal insult, he might have to call HR.

Slow Horses is back, baby.

Well, almost back. The fourth season starts streaming on Apple TV+ with a double-bill on Wednesday September 4, followed by a new episode weekly until the finale arrives on October 2.

Lamb’s season four sparring partner is Emma Flyte, the new head of MI5 internal affairs, replacing former tactical unit boss Duffy. He went the way of so many of this show’s characters after the events of last season, and now Ruth Bradley’s unflappable Flyte is on ‘hit Lamb on the nose with a rolled up newspaper when he jumps on the furniture’ duty. Let’s hope she has a whole stack of Sunday supplements at the ready.

Also introduced alongside Humans and Guilt’s Ruth Bradley, is The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings’ Hugo Weaving as ex-CIA agent and current “monster” Frank Harkness, plus a glimpse of James Callis (Battlestar Galactica) new Regent’s Park higher-up Claude Whelan alongside Kristin Scott Thomas’ slick Taverner.

As for the Slow Horses or “rejects” (“They don’t like being called that,” Lamb tells Flyte, who asks what he calls them then. “The rejects”. Of course he does.), we see River (Jack Lowden), Louisa (Rosalind Eleazar), Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), Marcus (Kadiff Kirwan), Ho (Christopher Chung) plus mysterious newcomer JK Coe (Tom Brooke). There’s even a brief appearance from Standish (Saskia Reeves) to reassure fans fearing her total absence after season three took its toll.

The big news of the trailer, other than Lamb and Flyte’s verbal back-and-forth, is the line we heard some months back in our very first look at the new season. Comedically batting away Flyte’s suggestion that Lamb might like to take a shower, he tells her that her ‘offer’ is inappropriate in the circumstances. “I mean apart from anything else, one of my team just died.” Gulp. We’re going to need a name, and depending on what it is, potentially a counselling session.

If you’ve not yet had the pleasure of this sharp-witted, hugely entertaining spy thriller adapted from the Mick Herron novels and powered by Gary Oldman’s extremely enjoyable lead performance, there’s just about time to catch up before the new episodes arrive. So what are you waiting for? Chop chop.

Slow Horses season 4 starts streaming on Apple TV+ on September 4.