We soon discover that Lamb is playing a deception game and that River has instead brought the O.B. The Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman is playing Lamb, Kristin Scott Thomas the steely apparatchik Diana Taverner, and Jack Lowden the disgraced young agent River Cartwright. But hes also brilliant, and much sharper, it turns out, than Diana Taverner herself. Tierney returns from the US, ordering all loose ends be tied up after Taverner further lies to her about the operation. . Where to start with Roddy? She is the sensible mother figure of the group. [17], The second season also received critical acclaim. To do so, however, shes had to strike up an alliance with ex-politician turned PR guru Peter Judd who has put together a group of patriotically minded billionaires willing to fund operations that the British state may balk at. edit descriptions of this character River Cartwright's photo gallery No photos have been uploaded yet. Theyve never needed to kill us, said Lamb. With Bad Actors just a few short days away, Im ponder what we might see. [2] In June 2022, the series was renewed for third and fourth seasons. Not that Mick Herron pays the slightest attention to what his fans want, but I for one would love to see the return of Sid, and would welcome possible Sid-River interactions, but I guess thats not in the cards. His bad habits belie a still keen, devious mind and his abilities as an experienced intelligence officer. Diana Taverner 18 episodes, 2022-2023 Saskia Reeves . (LogOut/ Constant budget constraints have left the Park unable to respond to Russian provocation. Such events, on home turf, require a response and Taverner is keen enough to make that happen to allow Judds involvement. His deft and sympathetic characterisation affords the reader a connection with the slow horses (the Parks nickname for their castoffs) which grows with every triumph, every obstacle overcome, and their losses are felt keenly. Rebecca recounts that Min was attacked and run over by Pitor and Kyril, and finished off by Chernitsky before his death was staged. Ho is the computer nerd, a legend in his own mind; Dander is a brash cokehead; and Wicinski a desk analyst who was framed for paedophilia. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Curly and River engage in a brief shootout, before he is knocked out by Hassan with a rock. He is as corrupt as any of the villains in the series. I won't go into the storyline since that can be found elsewhere. Warning Spoilers ahead for all books in the series! After locating the photo and evading security, he and Lamb threaten to reveal Taverner's operation to the Director-General and the press. The show begins with young MI5 agent River Cartwright amidst a terror-threat situation at the Stansted airport, where he has to follow an Asian male in his 20s and apprehend him before he sets off a fatal explosion. Guess I will have to wait for Joe Country (suspecting that is the needed volume) to become available. It is always a joy when a new addition to Mick Herron's superb Slow Horses series makes an appearance, and believe me when I say this one lives up to all my high expectations, smart, razor sharp satire and comic humour, unparalleled in its ability to follow and echo the nightmare that is our contemporary British politics and Brexit. River was there ostensibly because he messed up a training exercise at Stansted Airport that killed 149 hypothetical people. Catherine Standish 17 episodes, 2022-2023 Chris Reilly . Well, as Jackson Lamb was delighted to point out, they actually didn't. Im hopeful well get some closure on that dangling Sid plot line. She is one of the most competent agents and appears in every book. He tried to leverage his former acquaintance with Judd into calling off the kidnapping because Judd, it turns out, has a secret, extremist past and connections to the Sons of Albion's financial backer. I mean, look at us. Herron has provided another winning entry in what is becoming both a critical and commercial hit. She offers him a way out that will result in him being fired but not charged, but also threatens Standish and tells him Sid has died in hospital. $380-932/person per day, plus sea transport from Cartwright $200-400/person (return). He wants a tame intelligence service ready to do the PMs bidding and leaks rumours that a government advisor has been subject to extraordinary rendition by an MI5 gone rogue. Those consigned there are known as "Slow Horses". Desperate Measures reaches nailbiting conclusion. River Cartwright, is away in Kent, mourning the death of the OB, short for the Old Bastard who was Cartwright's grandfather, surrogate father and was a service legend. For there has been foreign agents spreading havoc, not least poisoning civilians, in a way that actually happened. And yet the Slow Horses somehow get involved investigating schemes endangering Britain. [1] Season two premiered on December 2, 2022. There are several novellas that introduce new characters and expand the Slough House world. "The Dogs" arrive, but the group prevent them from killing the detained Curly. His wife's divorcing him and even the people who like him (pretty much only Louisa) think he's still a bit of an idiot. EXCERPT: The study remained like a showroom in a vacant property - books, chairs, curtains; the shelf with its odd collection of trophies: a glass globe, a hunk of concrete, a lump of metal that had been a Luger; the desk with its sheet of blotting paper, like something out of Dickens, and the letter opener, which was an actual stiletto, and had once belonged to Beria - and if David Cartwright had left secrets in his wake they'd be somewhere in that room, on those shelves, among a billion other words. Shirley Dander and Marcus Longridge are the odd couple, though theyre not even a couple. However, she is soon reminded there is no such thing as a free lunch and we observe that there are no limits to Judds ambition. Notable other characters appearing in more than one season include: Notable other characters appearing in Season 1 - Slow Horses include: Notable other characters appearing in Season 2 - Dead Lions include: After making a serious mistake during a live training exercise at Stansted Airport, MI5 agent River Cartwright is demoted to dead end work at Slough House in lieu of being fired. Lamb and Taverner will have to work together to maintain MI5s independence, but can they put their history of betrayal and revenge behind them? And like Ashley, most readers will rush a third of the way into the book, at least, before confirming that almost all the machinations taking place have Jackson Lamb behind them. Not crucial questions but worth thinking about . English crime author Mick Herron didnt begin his writing career with the Slough House series, but theres no doubt these novels represent his most successful work. Theyre worth reading in sequence. Lamb and his team flee the property before "The Dogs" arrive, knowing that since the operation has not gone to plan that Slough House will be blamed. "[18] On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Another has just failed in an attempt to kill David Cartwright. Partner had been selling secrets to the Russians. It has been a while since I read one but watching the first series on TV reminded me just how good these books are (and I do prefer them as books). Thus compromised, Lady Di is forced to go on the run, and has to reach out to the one person she would least like to ask for help Jackson Lamb. She used to assist Charles Partner, who was First Desk at Regents Park until his suicide something its rumoured Lamb might have had a hand in arranging. Jackson Lambs Slough House crew are still coming to terms with the events in Wales that saw the death of ex-Dog Emma Flyte and their own J K Coe but they also have a more serious problem to deal with: Roderick Roddy Ho has discovered that someone in the Park has wiped their records from the Service database. The best way to find out is to read the series. First Slow Horse book, after reading quite a few chapters, i could not get Into. Slough House is the seventh book in the brilliantly unique Slow Horses British spy thriller series - soon to be seen on TV in a star-studded adaptation. Ho traces the number, which places the phone in Estonia. He deduces Katinsky is the spymaster behind the Cicada program (passing himself off as a junior bureaucrat when defecting to avoid suspicion) and was the handler of a traitor in the service. It turns out that the British term bad actor means a person whos done things that are harmful, illegal, or immoral. Charles Partner was, in fact, a double agent at the top of MI5, and had been getting away with selling Britain's secrets for years thanks to the befuddled ignorance of his alcoholic assistant, Catherine Standish. Well, that would be another book spoiler that could affect future seasons, so LOOK AWAY NOW. Which he is, but a thoroughly relatable one. Lamb meets with Nikolai Katinsky, an ex-KGB agent and defector. The impetus for the plot is a fictionalized version of the Skripal incident: Russian agents smeared the Novichok nerve agent on the Salisbury doorknob of a former Russian military officer, Sergei Skripal, who had been a double agent for British intelligence. (SPOILER) I was very sorry at the departure of two in Joe Country, though one seemed to me less of a loss. Several other members of the team think that it may have happened to them too, though their incompetence makes it difficult to be sure. Now, like his fellow slow horses, he keeps looking for new ways to revive his career. *Puts feet up on desk, lights ciggie, farts*. He is due to be accompanied by Nick Duffy, leader of 'The Dogs', for added security, but demands Taverner join him instead. The Oxford Series and other Mick Herron novels, Barbican Station A Slough House Podcast. Taverner is dealing with intelligence and now Home Secretary Peter Judd MP regarding a large upcoming anti-capitalist protest in London. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 95% approval rating with an average rating of 7.7/10, based on 55 critic reviews. Books with River Cartwright It is revealed that Moe (real name Alan Black) was Taverner's mole, but was found out and murdered by Curly, who then fled with Zeppo, Larry and Hassan. When a Russian operative is killed, they think the slow horses who now appear to be off-the-books were responsible. Nobody Walks is even set in the same espionage world as a retired spy digs in to his sons mysterious death. Let's just make that clear from the start. [3] It has received critical acclaim. He alleges when stationed in East Berlin he overheard Popov demanding the cicada program remain funded after the fall of the Soviet Union. So, what connects the oligarch with an old rumour of Russian sleeper agents? And true, Min and Louisa managed to follow that van Until they ran out of petrol because Min was hungry and thinking about sex instead of filling up the tank. River Cartwright aliases River Cartwright MI-5 agent in London, in his early 30s; grandson of MI-5 legend David Cartwright. These are such fun books that I have to drop everything and read them as soon as each one comes out. Theyre not allowed anywhere near MI5 HQ, which is referred to as Regents Park although the organisation is no longer based there. The fun (and poignant bonding) of Bad Actors lies in watching all the others, at Slough House and beyond, gradually realize that only Lambs irreverent demands and plans are likely to get them out of a mess thats so absurd, so wracked with capers and collapses, then even Claude Whelan will say he cant tear his eyes away. Is dead, we know why Jackson whacked him and we have met Rivers spy daddy and had him whacked too, I can understand if Herron thinks he has served his purpose. I dont think John Bachelor survived the last sentence of The Catch, did he? Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice*. Hes already won a number of awards, and the development by Apple TV of a series, based on the books and with Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, should only increase its popularity. The wise move would be to find a safe place and wait for the troubles to pass. His colleague Sidonie 'Sid' Baker has also been assigned to Hobden, discreetly copying the contents of his USB flash drive in a cafe. Now that the O. Taverner has her own problems to occupy her. Louisa Guy, another member of the team who has been there from the beginning, is probably the safest pair of hands at Slough House. Cartwright, having copied the contents of Hobden's USB drive before delivering it to Regent's Park, realises it contains no information and manipulates a rival, James 'Spider' Webb, into confirming the same. River speaks with his grandfather about Bough's death. He tells River that in East Berlin Bough went AWOL and was assumed to have defected, but returned drunk. It is difficult to elaborate more without any spoilers, but. Except as noted, each character has appeared in all seasons so far shown. Alex Tropper diverts her course, defusing the situation once the Glasshouse has been closed long enough for the heist. Thanks for the review. He is never without a drink or a smoke, even when the team goes dark, and remains as rude and offensive as ever. He took on Standish as his office manager unknown to her to protect her from being imprisoned as a traitor. All we know about her on the show is that she's lonely and misses being part of a team. Who is the new Head Dog? This one seemed like the best so far, but maybe it was the wait for it to come out, or just that I'm getting to know the characters better. That means Slough House would normally be a safe book for the characters. In some cases, we earn commissions from affiliate links in our posts. River Cartwright, who is also ambitious but doesn't get the same favor from their grumpy boss, is often jealous of the fact that Sid gets (relatively) more glamorous assignments than him. Taverner confronts Judd at his home, revealing that calls he made to his far-right contacts after Hobden visited resulted in the mission being compromised and Black's death. River Cartwright 18 episodes, 2022-2023 Kristin Scott Thomas . I love this series, but it does require starting at the beginning. However, when two Britons came across the perfume bottle in which the nerve agent had been carried, one of them died. Ambitious, backslapping government toff Peter Judd (Samuel West), aka 'PJ', is definitely not supposed to be identified with any Boris Johnsons who may or may not have been Foreign Secretary at the time Slow Horses was written. Only the intervention of his MI5-legend. No wonder Jackson Lambs crew are feeling paranoid. Their boss, Jackson Lamb is still keeping his team busy with pointless and unproductive assignments: following up social media absconders (#gonequiet), failures to pay fines or potential safe-houses for non-friendlies. Herron does his usual, clever job of merging these strands into one and theres a lot of fun to be had in seeing how it ties in with the continuing battle between Lamb and Lady Di over control of Slough House and its resources. River Cartwright was sent to Slough House after a training exercise left King's Cross crashed. EEAAO star gives tearful speech after historic win, The best Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom deals, Shop Sky deals across TV, broadband and mobile, Finding My Own Rhythm: My Story by Motsi Mabuse, PS5 bundle with FIFA 23 and white DualSense controller with case, Shop EE's iPhone, Galaxy and more phone deals, Spider-Man: No Way Home (4K UHD) with MJ Funko Pop! But is the victim who he first appears to be? True, Ho and Standish managed to retroactively track the movements of Alan Black's alias and locate the van he had hired for the kidnapping. But in the end, he takes the high road and lies to him, saying that according to his grandfather, Ho was just so awesome that he was making everyone else look bad, so had to be disposed of. Quite young and still deluding herself that the infamous Diana Taverner will take her back into important operations, Ashley is also obsessed with the source of her demotion: Jackson Lamb, head of Slough House. Mick Herron. He could see one of either breed breaking a lock, finessing a window; could see them working round the study, looking for clues. The devils in this case are Peter Judd, a thinly veiled Boris Johnson, and young, wealthy new tech and online Channel Go media owner, Damien Cantor, looking to outwit and own Diana, who frankly admits to the corpulent and flatulent Jackson Lamb that she has made an error. River discovers the bomb left at the airfield and realizes the attack was a hoax, calling Taverner to have the Code September retracted. But it was Hassan who turned the goons against each other reducing their numbers to one and Hassan who finally knocked his captor out with a well-thrown rock. Lamb theorises that Slough House is going to be blamed for whatever operation Regent's Park is running and be disavowed if it fails. Wannabe free spirit. Haunted office manager Catherine is seen attending AA meetings and is regularly taunted by Lamb about alcohol. Is River really dead? So he gave Partner the gun to protect himself. The 7th in Mick Herrons SLOUGH HOUSE SERIES is another fast-paced, action packed spy thriller that adds biting satire to the temperature of the nation. Slow Horses is a spy thriller television series based on the Slough House series of novels by Mick Herron. Jackson Lamb investigates, finding Bough's hidden phone under the seat with the message cicada, and gets the team to look deeper. River Cartwright was sent to Slough House after a training exercise left Kings Cross crashed. But wasnt it time for a change.. Curly forces Larry and Hassan to a secluded woodland at gunpoint to carry out the beheading. Newcomer Marcus Longridge replaces Min on the Pashkin assignment, and confesses to Louisa he has a gambling addiction. ps the casting in the series on screen is wonderful. Lamb really is an appalling character and I can easily understand those who don't like him but he is bloody funny too! i read the first 2 books then saw the series then dove back inseeing it enhances if have already read some of the books- how you imagine the environment will change once you see it and LAMB, but no matter. Larry arrives at a seaport in Harwich, but is shot dead by "The Dogs" on the orders of Tierney, who plant a weapon on his corpse to justify the killing. Reviewing and collecting spy fiction and nonfiction. The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal on season 3, Neighbours announces seven more returning cast. David Walmsley as Larry, a member of the Sons of Albion. Their boss, Jackson Lamb is still keeping his team busy with pointless and unproductive assignments: following up social media absconders (#gonequiet), failures to pay fines or potential safe-houses for non-friendlies. (Had to listen 4-5 times to audiobook last chapters of novel previous to this one. Curly prepares to kill Hassan outside what he believes is a Norman castle, which Ahmed points out is actually a folly. I am not sure I can read any more. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 2021 Crime Fiction Lover. History Season 1 At an airport, River Cartwright gets ready to board his flight while waiting for someone. Ho notifies River that Chernitsky's destination is Tunbridge Wells, where his grandfather lives. Love Herons London, his wit, capability with language and how skillfully characters and plots are crafted. Initially the series was to consist of two seasons, but two additional seasons have since been ordered. 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