What Time Does ‘Slow Horses’ Season 6 Premiere Come Out On Apple TV?

Slow Horses Season 6 At-A-Glance

Slow Horses Season 6 Release Schedule

Apple lists these as the official Wednesday release dates. In the U.S., episodes are expected to become available Tuesday evening at roughly 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET, consistent with Apple TV’s usual early-release pattern. This means the Season 6 premiere will land on September 15 at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET.

What Is Slow Horses Season 6 About?

Light spoilers, based on promotional material and official marketing only, follow.

Slow Horses Season 6 picks up with Slough House facing a much more personal threat than usual. Jackson Lamb and his disgraced MI5 agents discover that people connected to Slough House are being killed, and Lamb becomes convinced the deaths are anything but coincidental. A compromised secret file has exposed the identities of current and former Slow Horses, turning the unit—and anyone associated with it—into potential targets.

Meanwhile, Diana Taverner has risen to First Desk, putting her at the top of MI5 and once again in direct conflict with Lamb. Apple’s deliberately vague synopsis says the Slow Horses are forced to go on the run after Taverner embroils them in a “high-stakes game of retaliation and revenge.” Lamb orders his agents to go dark: no phones, no contact and no easily traceable movements. Naturally, this being Slough House, following simple instructions proves difficult.

There are more personal stakes as well. River Cartwright is dealing with the death of his grandfather, former MI5 legend David Cartwright, while his estranged father Frank Harkness (Hugo Weaving) returns, dragging River back into the toxic family history exposed in Season 4.

Season 6 also brings back Olivia Cooke as Sidonie “Sid” Baker, who was shot in Season 1 and subsequently disappeared. Apple is openly advertising her return, so this isn’t really a spoiler going into the new season. I’m glad she’s not dead. This show has certainly killed off enough of its heroes—and Sid is much more fun than Alicent, Cooke’s character in House of the Dragon.

The season introduces two killers, Jim and Jane, played by Kyle Soller (Andor) and MyAnna Buring (The Witcher), who appear to be hunting people associated with Slough House. Newcomer Reece Nesmith, played by Lenny Rush, also becomes tangled up with Lamb and Roddy Ho. Advance reviews describe Season 6 as darker and more dangerous than Season 5, with the Slow Horses themselves becoming the targets rather than stumbling into someone else’s operation.

The Two-Book Adaptation

This is the first Slow Horses season to combine two mainline novels, Mick Herron’s sixth and seventh Slough House books, Joe Country and Slough House. Previous seasons largely followed one novel apiece. Gaby Chiappe has taken over adaptation duties from longtime lead writer Will Smith, while Adam Randall returns as director. Apple has already filmed/ordered more of the series, so Season 6 is thankfully not the end.

In fact, Gary Oldman has stated that he’ll happily keep making the show as long as possible, saying that as long as Apple will “keep writing those checks, I’m not ready to hang up my dirty raincoat just yet” though with Mick Herron publishing new novels regularly, he jokes “I mean, if I go to Book 10, 11 or 12, I’ll have to be in a walker. They’ll have to get a stair lift.”

Keeping the cast around for that many books might be one reason Apple decided to condense Season 6. The two-book structure also helps explain why Season 6 appears more densely serialized than some earlier installments: the personal fallout surrounding River, Frank and David Cartwright overlaps with the conspiracy targeting Slough House itself.

Slow Horses Season 6 Trailer

“It definitely looks like this season is going a lot darker than the previous one, though to be fair, Slow Horses is usually pretty dark and balances that out with plenty of levity. Jackson Lamb can make the darkest of storylines hilarious with his well-timed flatulence and cutting wit.

Slow Horses Season 6 Cast

The central ensemble remains intact. Gary Oldman returns as the disgusting but brilliant Jackson Lamb, Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, Kristin Scott Thomas as newly empowered MI5 chief Diana Taverner, Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish, Rosalind Eleazar as Louisa Guy, Christopher Chung as Roddy Ho and Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley Dander.

Also returning are Tom Brooke as J.K. Coe, Ruth Bradley as Emma Flyte, Joanna Scanlan as Moira Tregorian, Samuel West as Peter Judd, Jonathan Pryce as David Cartwright and Hugo Weaving as Frank Harkness. Apple specifically lists those actors as part of the Season 6 ensemble.

The biggest returning surprise is Olivia Cooke as Sid Baker, making her first proper return since Season 1. Paul Higgins also returns as Struan Loy, another original Slow Horse who hasn’t been part of the regular Slough House crew since the first season.

New Cast Members

Slow Horses Season 6 Rotten Tomatoes Score

Season 6 ties Seasons 2 and 4 for the highest Tomatometer score in the series, though every season of Slow Horses is “Certified Fresh.” Here’s how that breaks down:

Be sure to bookmark this page for all my Slow Horses Season 6 coverage, as I’ll be updating it as the season unfolds with recaps, links to my reviews and any other relevant updates. Are you looking forward to the new season? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.