Posted in: Apple, TV | Tagged: apple tv, gary oldman, james hawes, Mick Herron, Slow Horses

Slow Horses: Some Broadcasters Concerned Show Was Too "Quirky British"

Slow Horses director James Hawes revealed that some British broadcasters were concerned that the Apple TV+ series was too "quirky British."

Slow Horses is a hit series adapted from Mick Herron's bestselling darkly-comic spy novels starring Gary Oldman. It might be the best series on Apple TV+ and many viewers have called it the best show on TV right now. Yet series director James Hawes recently revealed that the series was rejected by some British broadcasters and was initially deemed "too quirky and British" for Apple TV+.

Slow Horses follows a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents exiled to a dumping ground department of MI5 known un-affectionately as Slough House. Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but irascible and deliberately disgusting leader of the screw-up spies, who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes as they frequently find themselves blundering around the smoke and mirrors of the espionage world.

Surely, you might think, the quirkiness is exactly what sets Slow Horses apart from every other series out there. As reported by Deadline, Hawes said, "They wondered whether it would travel even though we have the spy genre reputation in the UK," he added. "The attachment of Gary Oldman and subsequent success shows 'quirky British' can travel, and it is now the longest-running series on Apple."

Speaking to the decline in the indie movie and TV sector, Hawes echoed comments made previously by Bectu boss Philippa Childs that the UK has become too reliant on inward investment. "There are downsides [to inward investment] because it has inflated costs, and therefore domestic production is finding it hard to compete for the best practitioners," he added. "It's been very busy out there, although not right now. That has given North America confidence in what we are doing."

Many of us have suspected that Slow Horses would not have been made by the BBC or ITV or even satellite station Sky in the UK. It deliberately has characters with rough edges and dysfunctional quirks, and it is frequently anti-Establishment in its attitude and politics, whereas most UK spy and cop series are pro-Establishment nowadays. Slow Horses takes the attitude that the entire system is corrupt and self-serving, and the threats the UK faces are a direct result of actions taken by the British Establishment. That sense of pessimism is another form of comfort for people who don't currently trust the Establishment, which pretty much means everyone at this point. Apple TV may have initially thought Slow Horses was "too quirky and too British", but it picked it up in the end and is now one of the most successful shows on the streaming service.

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