Slow Horses

Stories about the British intelligence and security services have long appealed to literary types. A recent review of a new biography of Ian Fleming--not the first, by the way--received front-page coverage. A collection of John LeCarre's letters garnered wide attention. The stories have been made into movies, tv series, and streaming vehicles. Most have lost count, for example, of how many James Bond pictures have been filmed, long past the slim half-dozen or so novels Fleming wrote.

One series I recently watched after receiving strong recommendations from friends is Slow Horses. It's a British production starring Gary Oldman, who starred as LeCarre's most compelling character in the most recent version--this one on film--of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. This new series is about MI5, the British domestic secret service. I haven't read whether the depiction is any more true to form than LeCarre's rendition of "tradecraft." 

Slow Horses is based on novels by Mick Herron. I enjoyed it enough to pick up one of his novels in his Slough House series. Slough House is the decrepit building where agents and other staff at the service are relegated after screwing up in one big way or another. In the tradition of these services appearing as corrupt, usually the innocent, or at least the wrong person is the one sent to this purgatory. Master of the house is a highly capable but totally undisciplined agent played by Oldman. He's cynical to the core, dresses sloppily and totally atrociously, and constantly berates those who work for him as losers. He even farts to emphasize whatever he's saying.

In the end, he and his losers end up solving the mysteries, exposing either the incompetence or malfeasance, even complete corruption, of the somewhat pompous leadership of the service and the denizens of headquarters. Reality is conveyed when attractive and shrewd agents at Slough House whom you've come to enjoy fall off the series, usually violently.

Oldman has the chance to depict a character far more amusing yet brilliant as George Smiley, LeCarre's favorite spymaster. He wears suits and shirts that may have been laundered ages ago, constantly shows up the bosses--in this case, the "Second Desk," or deputy chief, perfectly played by Kristen Scott Thomas. The internal affairs crew are the major villains, along with dubious cosmopolitans who usually are Russian agents. Internal affairs ruffians are "the dogs." 

These in-group slang titles are reminiscent of LeCarre's "lamplighters" and "scalphunters." The plots are well-crafted and the personal lives and idiosyncrasies of the Slough House rejects are explored to great dramatic as well as comic effect. I'm enthusiastic enough to have picked up Herron's new novel in this series, The Secret Hours. I can't reveal the ending even f I wanted to play the spoiler, because I just started reading it, and I never know whodunit until the final page, when I'm usually surprised. My wife, who devours mysteries, often has a clear idea of the ending by the time she finishes the first chapter.