Gary Oldman Says Slow Horses Wins by Not Making Fans Wait
Gary Oldman says the secret to Slow Horses' success is simple: the show does not make audiences wait years between seasons.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where he received the Global Icon Award, Oldman said the team works hard to "keep the momentum of the show going." When the next season premieres on Apple TV+ in September 2026, the streaming service will have delivered six seasons of Slow Horses in the space of four years — a pace nearly unheard of in prestige television, where gaps of two or three years between seasons have become routine.
Oldman drew a direct contrast with another Apple TV+ series, Severance, which had a three-year gap between its first and second seasons. "You invest in these people, these fictional people, and then the show ends, and you've got to wait two and a half years," he said, according to Deadline.
The actor, who plays the slovenly but brilliant spy chief Jackson Lamb, described the role as one that "fell from the sky" at the right time in his life. He said he starts every job with a "low frequency of anxiety" — except for Slow Horses over the past six years, because he knew the "alchemy, the chemistry is working" on the series.
That does not mean the pace comes easily. Oldman called it a "struggle and a fight" to persuade people to keep returning every year and to "keep on top of the quality." Six seasons in four years means the writers' rooms, production schedules and post-production all run on a compressed timeline, and the show has to be good enough each time out to earn its audience back.
Apple TV+ announced the sixth season in October 2024, confirming it would run to six episodes, according to Apple's own news outlet. Season 5 premiered on Apple TV+ on 24 September 2025.
Oldman accepted the Global Icon Award with characteristic self-deprecation. He described the honour as "flattering and frankly alarming" after Edinburgh TV Festival chair Fatima Salaria told him the news. In an on-stage interview with broadcaster Edith Bowman, he reflected on a career spanning nearly 50 years, saying he always hopes "the best work is next year" and calling himself "deeply self-critical."
For fans of the series, September brings another batch of episodes without the long wait that has tested patience across the streaming landscape. Oldman's argument is that audiences stay loyal when a show respects their time — and six seasons in four years is his evidence.
