Mick Herron, the creator behind Slow Horses, has defended a shocking element of the beloved show, explaining why it’s necessary.
Based on Herron’s Slough Horses book series, the Apple TV+ spy drama follows a team of dysfunctional MI5 agents headed up by Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb.
The critically acclaimed drama, which has already aired four seasons, with a fifth on the way next week, has seen a number of major characters meet their untimely end.
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Addressing the major character deaths throughout the show, Herron explained why he thought they were an important addition to the series.
Speaking during a Q&A for season five at the BFI Southbank, Herron told the Radio Times why he wasn’t afraid to kill off important characters.
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“Apologies to the cast,” Herron said. “That was something that I thought was going to be necessary if I were to write a series of thrillers about people doing what is essentially a dangerous job, even though they’re supposed to be sidelined.”
Explaining his choices, Herron said: “If I hadn’t killed any characters off, then it would have become more a sitcom, really.”
On why he felt that certain characters needed to die, Herron said he wanted to explore themes of grief within his work, looking at how loss affects the characters left behind.
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“And also I wanted to write, particularly with the very first death of a major character, I wanted to write about grief,” he said.
He continued: “I wanted to write about the effect on the other characters of taking one of those characters away, and the responses they would have, ranging from being really heartbroken to Roddy (Christopher Chung) who didn’t give a toss.”
Season five of Slow Horses, which consists of six episodes, is set to premiere on 24 September with two episodes, followed by weekly episodes until 22 October.
Slow Horses season five premieres on 24 September 2025.
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Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV and movies at Digital Spy.
A horror enthusiast, she joined Digital Spy after working on her own horror website, reviewing films and focusing largely on feminism in the genre.
In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.