SLOW HORSES PRODUCTION
LIFE OF GRIME Slow Horses plays out in deliberately grubby locations, flipping the usual perception of the glitzy, glamorous spy life
moments and biting humour and yet which, as Oldman notes, subverts many of the expectations associated with stories about spies and secret agents. “We have had fun with that, with slightly defying expectations,” Cohen says. “People think spies are all Bond and fast cars. What I’ve really enjoyed is how it’s not any of that.” What it is, he says, is all about creating a unique atmosphere. “With the interiors of Slough House and all the locations that we’re finding, we’re going for distinctly unsexy environments. It’s not sexy backlight with smoke. It’s whatever the opposite is. We want the walls to be dripping with grease.” In Season 3, there’s a moment where Lamb wakes up and takes a wash in his toilet sink, pressing into service a piece of soap that’s wafer thin. “You could almost smell the reality,” smiles Cohen. “That’s not something Daniel Craig would do.
“The show has got a very stylised look in the sense that we’re always thinking about how things play off against each other,” he adds. “But the fun is to make it feel very, very unstylised. I love the Bourne films, but Slow Horses isn’t that. It’s kind of the anti- Bourne .” While the spies in Slow Horses do not operate on a Bond or Bourne level, they are still called to action. Season 3 had a somewhat Bondian chase through
Istanbul, while the new season has a big set piece unfolding around London’s King Cross station. “Our characters are the worst spies. They’re rubbish at their jobs; the reason they’re in Slough House is because they’re all misfits and useless,” Cohen explains. “But, then again, you can’t help yourself sometimes because when you have a chase, you have a chase – and that gives you an excuse to go down the Bourne or Bond road. Jumping around, stylistically, is a lot of fun.” Cohen is a fan of many films in the genre, including the Bourne movies, and name-checks both The Spy Who Came in from the Cold , the 1965 John le Carré adaptation with Richard Burton, and 1984’s Defence of the Realm , starring Gabriel Byrne, Greta Scacchi and an excellent Denholm Elliott. Among their many attributes, both films feel very authentic. As does Slow Horses .
PEOPLE THINK SPIES ARE ALL Bond and fast cars. WHAT I’VE ENJOYED IS HOW this is none of that ”
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