I imagine that the odds on Jack Lowden becoming the next Bond will inevitably be slashed once people discover just how good he is as thwarted, permanently pissed off MI5 agent River Cartwright in this impressive spy adaptation. Which is ironic, because the world of Slow Horses, based on the first in a series of novels by Mick Herron, is not remotely glamorous or hi-tech. Fellow agents drive old bangers with Coldplay CDs stuck in the hi-fi system, not Aston Martins. Lowden spends one early scene going through the contents of a rancid bin bag. 007 would never.
How did Cartwright end up on the floor of a grotty office building wearing Marigolds? The taut opening sequence, tense enough to cause the base of your stomach to fall out entirely, follows him through an airport, as frosty spy boss Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas, on glacial form) and her ingratiating subordinate Webb (Freddie Fox) issue instructions through his earpiece. His task is to identify and neutralise a suspect, who may or may not be carrying an explosive, but from the moment that a cleaner’s trolley obscures his view of his target, it becomes increasingly apparent that this op is seriously botched.
