Slow Horses jumps ahead with Season 8 renewal

The Apple TV spy series won last night's Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.

By Dennis Perkins  |  September 15, 2026 | 10:05am
Screenshot: Apple TV/YouTube
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Slow Horses jumps ahead with Season 8 renewal

Slow Horses may have only gone one-for-five at last night’s 78th Annual Emmy Awards, but that was apparently good enough for Apple TV. The British espionage series, about a motley crew of screw-up secret agents led by Gary Oldman’s rumpled, infamously flatulent Jackson Lamb, squeaked out a win for series director Saul Metzstein during an evening dominated by network-mate Widow’s Bay. (Nominees Oldman, supporting actor Jack Lowden, and screenwriter Will Smith pulled up short, as did the series itself for Outstanding Drama Series.) But the beleaguered crew of Slough House can breathe easier knowing that their jobs are officially safe for at least another year. 

Apple announced this morning that the acclaimed series will continue for at least two more outings, with its eighth season adapting author Mick Herron’s novel Clown Town. That story, as Apple’s announcement summarizes, “sees Jackson Lamb and Diana Taverner face off in their most explosive confrontation yet. When a botched attempt to blackmail the Park puts Taverner on the offensive, it is up to Lamb to unravel one of MI5’s darkest secrets and put an end to it once and for all.”

It’s a vote of justified confidence in the Oldman-led series, as Slow Horses sixth season is set to premiere tomorrow. Series creator Will Smith (no, the other one), who was nominated for writing last season’s episode “Scars,” has officially departed the show, handing showrunner duties over to Gaby Chiappe for the upcoming sixth season and Ben Vanstone for the seventh. Whoever takes the reins after that is anyone’s guess, but the newly greenlit Season 8 is at least guaranteed perennial Emmy nominee Gary Oldman in the lead. 

 

 
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