THE YEAR OF THE FRENCH (SLOW HORSES, S4)

SLOW HORSES, S4

After three adventures where they have bested agents inside and outside British intelligence, the team from Slough House face their biggest challenge yet in Series Four.

'Slow Horses' begins its fourth series in typically shocking fashion, with an explosion ripping through London as a suicide bomber drives into the Westacres Shopping Mall.

The man responsible is Zachary Hart's Robert Winters, with a pre-recorded video published of him admitting the attack.

As armed police break into his flat to find forensic evidence linking him to the bombing, a booby trap device lies in wait and detonates, killing three officers.

With a new out of his depth boss at the head of MI5, James Callis' Claude Whelan, his deputy Kristin Scott Thomas's Diana Taverner feels the heat about why the intelligence services were caught off guard.

Meanwhile Jack Lowden's Slough House operative River Cartwright confides in Rosalind Eleazar's colleague Louisa Guy that he is becoming increasingly concerned about his grandfather, Jonathan Pryce's MI5 legend David Cartwright as he struggles to cope with the increased paranoia that comes with his Alzheimer's Disease.

Lending a sympathetic ear, Louisa encourages him to take care of David who is still living in his country retreat.

Meanwhile Slough House continues to be a mess, with Kadiff Kirwan's reinstated team member Marcus still struggling with his addiction to gambling much to the chagrin of his colleague Aimee-Ffion Edwards' Shirley Dander.

Christopher Chung's IT nerd Roddy Ho is as cocky and irritating as ever - although he struggles to convince everyone he has a girlfriend.

There are two new arrivals to the team too - Tom Brooke's taciturn JK Coe who appears to be suffering from some kind of trauma and Joanna Scanlan's enthusiastic Moira Tregorian who has replaced Saskia Reeves' recovering alcoholic office administrator Catherine Standish who quit at the end of Season Three after she was kidnapped and was then rescued by Lamb and Ho.

Appalled that Tregorian has tried to clean his messy office, Lamb gives her a dressing down and tells her never to do it again.

The team at Slough House is rocked, however, when word reaches them that David Cartwright has shot a man in the upstairs bathroom of his home and that the victim is believed to be River.

Arriving at the scene, Lamb identifies the dead man as his member of staff to Ruth Bradley's new Head of the internal security unit, The Dogs, Emma Flyte.

But is it him?

Or is River, in fact, roaming around France, delving into dark secrets that pit his grandfather against Hugo Weaving's deranged former CIA operative turned mercenary Frank Harness?

And if this is what's happening, can Lamb protect River and David from Harkness' brutal instincts?

Once again, Will Smith and his fellow writers Morwenna Banks, Mark Denton and Jonny Stockwood conjure up an intoxicating brew of double cross, black humour and nerve jangling action in a fourth season where the tone is more noticeably darker.

Director Adam Randall relishes sinking his teeth into the rich storylines served up by Smith and his writers and the cast delivers on every score.

Anchoring the show, as always, is Oldman who delights as Jackson Lamb, the Slow Horses boss who may appear like he cannot give a monkey's about his team but actually cares an awful lot.

Revelling in Lamb's lack of respect for those in authority, he has a lot of fun as his character runs rings around those who ought to really know better.

Lowden, meanwhile, continues to engage our sympathies for an action hero who deserves much better than the hand that has been dealt to him.

Eleazar, Chung, Kirwan and Edwards remain a joy to watch as members of the far from perfect Slough House team, while Brooke and Scanlan are excellent additions.

Reeves is also terrific as the embittered but unshakeably loyal Standish.

Meanwhile Pryce delivers his best performance of the four seasons so far as David Cartwright's Alzheimer's really takes its toll.

Scott-Thomas amuses as Taverner and works very effectively with Callis - licking her wounds at being passed over for promotion and having to work with a boss who is a real embodiment of "the Peter Principle".

Bradley is good value too as the new leader of The Dogs and there are welcome returns for Sean Gilder as the private eye Sam Chapman who Lamb occasionally engages, Naomi Wirthner as Molly Doran, a wheelchair bound records keeper in The Park and Kiran Sonia Sawar as Giti Rahman, a MI5 agent who Claude takes under his wing.

Weaving is terrific as the malevolent mercenary Harkness, who resembles a cult leader, while Tom Wozniczka brings a 'Terminator' quality to the role of his assassin Patrice.

Like all great shows, 'Slow Horses' manages to fill in some more background of its principal characters, shedding new light on their motivations.

As it does this, it remains one of the wittiest and most thrilling shows on TV.

While it continues to go from strength to strength, 'Slow Horses' is pushing into that territory where it may be considered up there with 'The Sopranos,' 'Breaking Bad,' the first iteration of 'Frasier,' 'Succession' and 'The Wire' as one of the greatest TV shows ever made.

No wonder its fans can't wait to see Season Five.

(Season Four of 'Slow Horses' was made available for streaming on Apple TV+ between September 4-October 9, 2024)