Gary Oldman puts in a performance of a lifetime as Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses (Picture: AP)
Slow Horses’ central character Jackson Lamb, played by Gary Oldman, is a slime ball in human form.
He is grotesquely filthy, relentlessly farts, drinks whiskey for a morning brew, and makes crude jokes, among other depravities. And yet I can’t help but love him.
It’s not so much a sigh of relief to see him back on our screens for season 4 as a sharp intake of second-hand smoke and putrid body odour.
But I wouldn’t have it any other way because Lamb is the embodiment of why Slow Horses is the best crime show to come out of the UK.
He does not fit the mould of a classic TV detective in the same way Slow Horses does not conform to the usual espionage show formula.
The drama does away with most thriller tropes – from an overabundance of female victims to missing children in backwater towns – and is all the more compelling for it.
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Season 4 takes this up a notch by making the plot, normally what drives any thriller, almost secondary to the characters.
Despite their various vulgarities, I cried twice during the season because for the first time in a long time in a crime drama, I actually cared about the characters.
It’s not just Oldman, who puts in a performance of a lifetime, but the rest of the Slough House misfits, I’m rooting for too.
Jack Lowden is surely making himself a serious contender for James Bond as determined agent River Cartwright, while Kadiff Kirwan’s gentle Marcus Longridge has me wanting to hug him every time he has a gambling relapse.
Season 4 is Slow Horses’ best season to date and focuses on character more than ever (Picture: AP)
Saskia Reeves, meanwhile, is beautifully understated as the meek Catherine Standish. It’s often the least applauded yet most difficult to play the more ‘everyday’ character.
Catherine may not have the one-liners or the idiosyncracies of the others, but her normalcy is startling – and her eyes belie the pain of a middle-aged woman who has been forgotten by society.
While not in Slough House and instead on MI5’s Second Desk, Kristin Scott Thomas is reliably excellent as Diana Taverner. With just one raise of the eyebrow, she conveys her weariness at managing all the incompetent men around her.
Season 4 begins with a terror attack at a central London shopping attack by a mysterious suicide bomber but soon becomes an intense family psychodrama.
Jack’s character River learns some home truths in Slow Horses season 4 (Picture: AP)
And among car chases worthy of Hollywood blockbusters and several edge-on-your-seat shoot-outs, what makes Slow Horses season 4 essential viewing is that it’s all about relationships.
You have everything you’d want from a propulsive crime drama – deceit, murder and backstabbing – but really, unlike any other show I’ve seen in its genre it’s not just about death and retribution, it’s about love too.
But I will warn you: you too will develop a soft spot for TV’s grossest character Lamb. Maybe it’s time to rethink that man on your dating app you swiped left on because of his toilet humour.
The first two episodes of Slow Horses season 4 are on Apple TV Plus with subsequent episodes being made available weekly on Wednesdays.
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