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SLOW HORSES

Apple TV+

The critically acclaimed but underwatched British espionage thriller returns for a second season, and thankfully it’s just as gripping (and amusingly sardonic) as the first.

Gary Oldman is Jackson Lamb, the drunken, miserable head of Slough House – an administrative bore of an overhang from MI5 where they shove unwanted operatives to keep them out of the field and trudge through paperwork. Except Lamb is still regarded as one of Britain’s most gifted intelligence officers; the opener of series two sees him embracing his down-and-out appearance to trick a bus driver into believing he’s the grieving friend of a man who dropped dead on the vehicle – instead, he digs around the seats in pursuit of evidence and, of course, he finds it. In episode two, he meets with a mysterious Russian man about a disapparance he believes is linked to some Muscovite crime bosses.

Slow Horses shines because of Oldman, who portrays Lamb as a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders and a past filled with secrets and skeletons; Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays MI5 boss

Diana Taverner, is another standout. The first two episodes are available now, followed by one new episode weekly. Poppie Platt a weather-proof container filled with tulips for a pop of much-needed colour. Meanwhile, in this first of four specials, Sue Kent and Toby Buckland take a trip to Hauser & Wirth in Somerset to marvel over Piet Oudolf ’s beautiful, majestic gardens.

Friday 2 December Television

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2022-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

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Daily Telegraph