Character sheet for the television adaptation of Slow Horses.
open/close all folders
Slough House
Jackson Lamb
Played by: Gary Oldman
The slovenly section chief overseeing the Slow Horses.
- Acrofatic: Lamb appears over-the-hill, overweight and indulges heavily in booze and Chinese takeaways. That doesn't stop him being surprisingly fast and effective in combat when he has to be.
- A Father to His Men: A subtle and downplayed example. Lamb berates, belittles and goads his staff constantly and takes a delight in mocking their ineptitude (sometimes unfairly). By contrast he often reacts protectively towards "his people" when they are insulted by those outside of Slough House. He also shows professional, restrained signs of anger and sadness when he loses people under his command in the line of duty.
- The Alcoholic: He drinks constantly. Season 3 reveals that his consumption goes well beyond the limits MI-5 sets for officers.
- Beware the Silly Ones: As lazy and drink-addled as he is, Lamb is still a force to be reckoned with — having a sharp intellect and still possessing some physical skills. Enough so that Taverner takes it seriously when he starts threatening to take action against her.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Lamb is a slovenly has-been, but he can take down a man who's much younger and fitter than him with no problem. He's also shown to be adept at playing the political game and Taverner says that he used to be one of the best agents MI-5 ever had. His observation skills are also top-notch, in Season 1's final episode he near-instantly figures out which direction the kidnappers ran and how many are still alive from "reading the signs of the earth."
- Cynicism Catalyst: He used to be one of the best, if not the best, agent in MI-5's employ with the service's leadership personally relying on him for sensitive and dangerous assignments. However, assassinating Charles Partner, MI-5's traitorous director-general ended up breaking him mentally and he withdrew to become an alcoholic dick to everyone around him.
- Gasshole: He is very flatulent that he disgusts himself, not to mention everyone in his vicinity.Lamb: Woah! Better out than in!
Taverner: God, you're vile.
Lamb: Gor, actually...maybe not. - Hidden Depths: During certain stressful situations (such as when talking to River after the apparent death of Sid) he shows a much more earnest and empathic side to his character.
- Ironic Name: He's a smart, jaded, cynical, experienced operator at both spycraft and politics — far from being an innocent lamb.
- Jabba Table Manners: Lamb is so disgusting when he eats that Cartwright would rather sit next to him and get closer to his pungent body odor than sit across from him and be treated to the sight.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As badly as he treats his subordinates, he does care about them to a certain extent and will go on the warpath if any are put in harm's way.
- It's also implied that one reason he treats his employees so badly is because he wants them to leave MI5 to live a less harrowing and dangerous lifestyle.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: He often appears to others as lazy, clumsy, uninterested and slow on the uptake. In reality he's often three steps ahead of everyone else and possesses a sharp intellect.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Part of the reason why he gets so motivated when one of the Slow Horses is put in harms way is because he wants to be the one to run his subordinates out of MI-5. He'll be damned if a terrorist or hostile nation takes his fun away.
- The Pig-Pen: He doesn't care for hygiene and smells as bad as he looks.
- Tranquil Fury: Often his go-to reaction when confronted by enemies, inept agents or backstabbing colleagues.
- Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: His clothes are rumpled beyond saving, his socks have holes in them, and the tie he goes through the trouble of wearing is lopsided, showing how much he's beyond caring about what others think of him. Flashbacks before his complete descent into cynicism show he used to be a sharp dresser.
River Cartwright
Played by: Jack Lowden
A former rising star within MI-5, who's now desperate to be brought back into the fold.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Deconstructed by River. He thinks he's hot stuff and eager to rush in to be the hero. However, this means he doesn't adequately analyze the situation and leaves him prone to manipulation by more cynical parties that exploit him for their own aims.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: In a less cynical spy story, River Cartwright would be a clear-cut hero. He's young, handsome, and athletic and eager to charge in to take down the bad guys. In the world of the Slow Horses, however, he's constantly humiliated and put into his place by the slovenly and more cynical Jackson Lamb while politically ruthless higher-ups easily exploit his heroic tendencies to turn him into a scapegoat. Cartwright is initially too idealistic to even consider how cold-blooded his own MI-5 colleagues can be.
- Nepotism: His grandfather is a legend at MI-5 and had to use his clout to save River's career after the Stansted Airport fiasco.
- This Is Reality: River's biggest problem is that he fails to realize just how cynical the world can be and that poweful people are more than happy to cause death and destruction for petty reasons. Lamb calls him an idiot for his continued naïveté, though Season 3 ends with signs that River is becoming savvier and learning to anticipate duplicity.
Catherine Standish
Played by: Saskia Reeves
Slough House's long-suffering office administrator. Lamb takes particular delight in needling her.
- The Alcoholic: Standish has a debilitating drinking problem and is in recovery. Lamb occasionally waves alcohol in her face to tempt her into drinking.
- Broken Pedestal: After she goes on a tirade to Lamb on how great her former boss Charles Partner was, Lamb shatters Catherine's world by revealing not only was Partner a traitor selling secrets to the Russians but he only kept Catherine around because he knew her drinking would cause her to miss all the signs of his treason and was set to frame her for his crimes.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Standish doesn't have an operational background and tries to see the best in everyone — even Jackson Lamb — but she's quite capable of pulling a gun on people after lulling them into a sense of false security with her quiet nature.
- Hidden Depths: She is adept at playing chess and shows an astute mind for strategy and spycraft despite a lack of formal training as an agent.
- Servile Snarker: She throws barbs towards Lamb's way. However, Lamb, being Lamb, doesn't react to them.
Roddy Ho
Played by: Christopher Chung
A computer specialist who annoys everyone with his obnoxious attitude.
- Casanova Wannabe: He has an inflated view of himself and how desirable he is to women. However, his physical appearance, bad attitude, and misogynistic comments disgusts everyone around him.
- Complexity Addiction: A recurring problem with him as Roddy tends to think others can be as attuned to elaborate moves as him. In Season 3, he brushes off his agents finding a car's plate number and ID as any kidnapper would have used an alias and swapped the plates for fakes. It never occurs to him that yes, someone would be dumb enough to use their own car with their own name for a crime.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Among all other things, he's this, openly saying things like "no way we've ever been to the moon." Lamb just gives him a "how are you this stupid?" look.
- The Cracker: Aside from his regular duties, he likes to crack into other people's personal details to cyberstalk women and ruin the lives of those he thinks wronged him.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Part of the reason why he's at Slough House is that there's not a single person within MI-5 who can tolerate his grating presence, so they shipped him to a place where he could run people out of the service by simply existing.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He sees himself as being Surrounded by Idiots but he's blind to his own shortcomings and how easily others outwit him.
Louisa Guy
Played by: Rosalind Eleazar
An agent who was exiled to Slough House due to a tailing operation gone wrong.
- Only Sane Woman: She's probably the only member of Slough House who isn't disordered or prone to making bad situations worse.
Shirley Dander
Played by: Aimee-Ffion Edwards
An agent who'd like others to believe she was sent to Slough House for anger-control issues — which is partially true.
- Functional Addict: She has a drugs problem but claims that it hasn't affected her ability to work.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: She is quick to blow her top and this is part of the reason why she was sent to Slough House.
Marcus Longridge
Played by: Kadiff Kirwan
An agent reassigned to Slough House due to being a degenerate gambler.
- Family Man: He is one of the few characters who has a functional home life and talks about trying to provide nice things for his wife and children.
- The Gambling Addict: He's lost a lot of money gambling and keeps throwing cash at his problem in the hopes of winning it all back and more. This makes him a liability in intelligence work.
- Token Good Teammate: He was previously a field operative tapped to become a Dog, but he declined because he couldn't see himself working with someone as callous and violent as Nick Duffy.
Regent's Park
Diana Taverner
Played by: Kristin Scott Thomas
The deputy director-general of MI-5, who has operational command of the Security Service's activities.
- Ambition Is Evil: Played with. Most of her more unethical and underhanded actions are driven by her desire to rise to head of MI-5.
- Bad Boss: At times, to varying degrees. Often seen to treat her subordinates with disdain, even telling Spider at one point that he's completely disposable and she's only concerned about the impact of his actions on her career. When her agents are killed carrying out her orders, which happens a fair bit, she often simply has their records erased.
- Everyone Has Standards: Downplayed. She is disgusted by Tearney's willingness to have the Slow Horses murdered in a bid to cover up the existence of the Footprint file in series 3. While Taverner herself was happy to try and pin the blame on them for her failed False Flag Operation in series 1, she never went as far as to try and have them killed.
- Iron Lady: Deconstructed. She's tough and no-nonsense but also keen to get herself promoted to director-general. This results in her making sloppy and short-sighted decisions that would turn into national disasters if Jackson Lamb and the Slow Horses weren't around to clean up her messes. Also, because she has a one-sided focus on being seen as tough, this means she has few friends and allies in the Service and government.
- Manipulative Bastard: As befitting a spymaster, and similarly to Lamb. She plays the political game constantly, whether it is engaging with corrupt politicians for her own career advancement, or manipulating others into taking the fall for her actions or providing her with blackmail material.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite doing some shady things to advance her career, she is generally competent at her job as Deputy Director-General. She also regularly agrees to provide Slough House with intelligence and resources when she recognises that they genuinely require them for a useful project.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: She despises Lamb and he returns the enmity. Unfortunately, the two need each other to further their own aims and need to ineract on a semi-regular basis.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Regularly engages in this with Lamb.
- The Chessmaster: At least when it comes to office politics. Even when her complicated schemes and operations backfire, she has a habit of coming out of the chaos with a nice promotion and a pat on the back.
- The Stoic: Very rarely shows much in the way of emotion, except when pushed to extreme frustration.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Played with. Diana is certainly not a villain when it comes to national security; she ultimately cares about keeping innocent people safe and running the security services efficiently. However, she is also happy to do deals with sleazy extremist politicians to advance her career, and ruthlessly throws others under the bus for her own mistakes. She also engages in highly corrupt behaviour for political reasons, such as knowingly having unarmed people murdered by armed response teams in order to bury evidence that she orchestrated a False Flag Operation. Despite her clearly unethical behaviour at times, she has a far more prestigious department than Lamb and is higher in rank.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: She sometimes sanctions extreme operations that have good intentions (such as snaring a collection of Far Right terrorist groups) but these often go awry and endanger her own agents or innocent people.
Nick Duffy
Played by: Chris Reilly
Head of the "Dogs" at the start of the series, the internal affairs and armed tactical wing of MI-5.
- Asshole Victim: Technically he is quite high in rank and was just following orders when he authorised and directed a Chieftain PMC unit to murder fellow MI-5 members. Even so, given his obnoxious personality and willingness to follow even the most amoral orders without question, no one sheds a tear or takes much action when his operation goes wrong and he is instead killed by the Slough House team.
- The Brute: Duffy is stocky and imposing, and is comfortable with physical violence up to and including murder.
- The Bully: A rather unpleasant man who seems to relish scaring others and engaging in the violence his job often entails.
- Dirty Cop: Happily willing to engage in all kinds of unethical cover-ups and plants a firearm on an unarmed person that his men just gunned down.
- The Dragon: In addition to physically protecting MI-5's internal security with his department, he serves as a glorified henchman for the higher ups with Taverner and Tearney using him to enforce their personal agendas.
- Foil: To Marcus. This is explicitly shown in their final battle together; both are large, imposing men who are good at hurting others and are affiliated with the Dogs. However, Marcus states he would never have wanted Duffy to be his boss, and is repulsed by his amorality and thuggish sadism.
- Just Following Orders: Duffy prides himself in being a man who follows absolutely any orders he's given, though he extends this logic to an excuse for his darkest actions.
- Killer Cop: He's technically a state security police chief, but he regularly engages in murder, sometimes when it's perhaps not even necessary.
- Lack of Empathy: Doesn't show much emotion other than anger and doesn't care about the lives he and his men ruin.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Duffy tends to leap rapidly to simply killing people whenever he has to cover something up.
- Psycho for Hire: While he's generally professional and good at security detail, he also doesn't have any qualms at all about murdering innocent people if ordered to do so, even for some very flimsy reasons. He also seems to enjoy abusing his power to brutalise and intimidate people he personally dislikes.
- Sadist: He apparently gains a lot of satisfaction from brutally beating up River while he is defenceless in the holding cells, knowing River will be fired if he fights back due to his superior rank. River lied to him, making him justifiably angry, but the level of violence he then subjects him to is extreme.
- State Sec: The head of what is essentially a secret police force within MI-5.
