Most popular (and profitable) way to depict a spy on screen is to make the espionage business much more attractive and alluring than it really is – fancy cars, chasing the bad guys who more often than not end up in scenic locations, a lot of action with latest technological gadgets and so on, not to mention the drop dead gorgeous female spies. It’s good entertainment.
Exceptions stand out. Michael Caine in the 1965 thriller movie The Ipcress File, plays a British intelligence agent and within the first minute that he appears on the screen, you realise that this is a much more realistic depiction. For one, he is wearing big glasses and his first act on screen is the mundane task of waking up and making coffee. Then there’s Three Days of the Condor where author James Grady invented a fictional job of a CIA analyst who analyses books and magazines for secret codes and messages. This depiction was so realistic that the KGB started a 2000 member unit to do this new job that Grady had invented out of thin air! Of course, John le Carré’s George Smiley is at the top, the most realistic depiction of the dilemmas and humdrum of an espionage career.
All these realistic depictions have one thing in common – minimal action. In Le Carre’s thrilling novel Smiley’s People, the climax is reached when KGB spy Karla simply walks across the bridge to defect. No fights, no action, just a simple walk by.
Things may be changing, however. Slow Horses starts with a tense action scene where River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) is chasing a suspect through a crowded metro station. But if you think that the rest of the series will follow this recipe of full on action, you are mistaken. Sure, there is action but it is mixed with mundane spy work that is more realistic. The next time we see River, he is sitting in his office, going through smelly garbage of a journalist, looking for clues. Much of Slow Horses is about routine, boring spy work, with just enough action towards the end to spice things up.
Slow Horses is a nickname given to a group of MI5 agents. They have been banished to Slough House – a derelict building with a door that sticks – because each of them has goofed up while working at MI5. Slough House is their punishment but no one knows how long the punishment will last. They are now given boring and unimportant tasks like monitoring social networks or in River’s case, going through someone’s garbage.
Slow Horses is headed by Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). Jackson may appear old but he is sharper than all of the others combined and he can spring to action if need be. In fact, his appearance as a harmless senior often throws his adversaries off-balance. He is the sort that you would not look at twice if he passed you by on the street, but rest assured, he will have looked at you very, very carefully.
I am running out of new words to praise Gary Oldman. What can you say about an actor – except in superlatives – whose range varies from Lee Harvey Oswald to Winston Churchill? Gary carries this series to a different level altogether. He is matched by a brilliant performance by Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner who is the second in command at MI5. The dynamic between Lamb and Taverner with each trying to outmanoeuvre the other is fascinating to watch.
If you belong to the vanishing tribe of readers, Slow Horses by Mick Herron is an equally captivating read. Not much has been altered in its journey to the screen, a testimony to the powerful storytelling of Herron.
In the book, and on screen, the shadow of George Smiley looms large. Having played the great spy on screen, it would be interesting to know how Gary Oldman approached the character of Jackson Lamb. The other influence of Herron is, surprisingly, Harry Potter.1One of Le Carré’s influences was Hermann Hesse. In The Little Drummer Girl, while keeping watch on a house, Smiley recalls lines by Hesse, “Strange to wander in the fog, no tree knows another.” There is a reference to the 9 ¾ platform and Hogwarts Express and a fleeting mention of magic (“If he could magic himself back to one of those flats now he’d do do, but magic was unavailable”). River stayed with his grandparents after his mother left him. The relationship between River and his grandfather O.B. is reminiscent of the one between Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore.
Streaming networks are full of spy stories, many of them quite engaging. Slow Horses has an upper hand in two departments – powerful storytelling and brilliant acting.
Slow Horses is streaming on Apple TV.
