Slow Horses season 5 is finally here, and the cast are ready to deliver more drama in all-new episodes of the hit Apple TV+ show.

The spy drama is officially underway and much like Slow Horse season 4, we’re expecting more edge-of-your-seat action, dark humour and general destruction in the latest instalment – all led by our favourite gang of misfits.

The new episodes will include many familiar faces on screen, including Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden,. But there’s one or two new additions that you’ll want to get clued up on. Here’s your ultimate Slow Horses season 5 cast guide with key character details and information on where you’ve seen the actors before.

Slow Horses season 5 cast: Who plays Zahar Jaffrey?

Ted Lasso star Nick Mohammed joins the cast of Slow Horses season 5 on Apple TV+, taking on the role of Zahar Jaffrey.

Apple TV+ describe Zafar as an ambitious politician who is running to be Mayor of London. Oh and it helps that he’s a friend of the Prime Minister. Teasing what fans can expect from his on-screen character, Mohammad told Radio Times: “He’s vain, he grandstands a lot, he likes the sound of his own voice.

“He uses as many things as he can to his own advantage. He tries to score political points,” he added. “So he’s dynamic in that way, but also quite complicated. He’s sort of an amalgam of lots of different politicians, really.”

Back in February, London buses were spotted around the capital with fake political campaign posters as cast and crew filmed Slow Horses season 5. A photo of one bus banner read “Moving London Forward” and “Vote for Jaffrey” with his character posing on it.

Who is Nick Mohammed?

It’s a suitably more serious dramatic role for Leeds-born Mohammed whose career started in comedy. Some will be familiar with his alternate stage persona Mr Swallow, who did a sketch at last year’s BAFTA Film Awards ceremony. Most recently, Mohammed also appeared in the 2025 season of Channel 4 show Taskmaster, where he finished in fifth place.

As for his acting roles, the 44-year-old was last on screen in Prime Video movie Deep Cover alongside Orlando Bloom. He also created and starred in Sky One comedy Intelligence with Friends star David Schwimmer and appeared in Bridget Jones’ Baby in 2016.

However, most viewers will know him best for playing Nathan ‘Nate’ Shelley in Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso. He earned a legion of loyal fans across the globe as the loveable-underdog-turned-unlikely-villain who finds redemption in the end.

Slow Horses season 5 cast: Hiba Bennani plays Tara

Apple TV+ only announced Hiba Bennani as a Slow Horses season 5 cast member this month. She made her first appearance in the trailer release. Bennani said she was “thrilled” to be a part of the show.

Bennani plays Roddy Ho’s (Christopher Chung) new mysterious girlfriend Tara. He tells his colleagues: “I have a girlfriend, I’ve not been compromised.” Of course, they seem unconvinced given his poor romantic track record (his last girlfriend was a bot, after all).

In the trailer, Tara is seen giggling and cosying up to Roddy in a nightclub. Shortly after, MI5 take Slough House hacker Roddy in for questioning. Is Tara responsible at all? And can Roddy trust her?

Tara Bennani is a French-Moroccan actress, who appeared in the Showtime series Ghosts of Beirut. Her biggest English language role to date was in Apple TV+ series Prime Target starring Leo Woodall.

Slow Horses season 5 returning cast: Gary Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb

Acclaimed actor Gary Oldman, 67, returns as Jackson Lamb – his grubbiest, most cantankerous role to date. Cue greasy hair, his signature pot belly and more holey socks. Unsurprisingly, professional etiquette has never been important to Lamb who heads up Slough House and the Slow Horses team, regularly chastising his misfit agents for being proactive and courting trouble. He proves to be a constant pest to MI5’s second chair Diana Taverner. The pair’s working relationship goes back decades.

King Charles knighted Londoner Sir Gary Oldman for his “services to drama” in January this year. Gary has also been the recipient of several prestigious acting awards. These include an Academy award, three BAFTA awards, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

He won the Oscar in 2017 for portraying Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the Darkest Hour, and has received a further two Oscar nominations for his roles in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Mank. Other notable film roles include Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Sirius Black in the Harry Potter film franchise.

Oldman has been nominated for two Emmy awards for Slow Horses. It marks the first time he’s played the lead role in a TV series.

Kristin Scott Thomas plays Diana Taverner

While she may be second chair, Diana Taverner rules the Park, manipulating everyone around her to ensure MI5 succeeds. She’s ruthless, no nonsense and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

Dame Kristin Scott Thomas has an exemplary stage and screen career spanning three decades. She came to wider attention for playing Mary Sharon in 1986 film Under the Cherry Moon, directed by musician Prince. She went on to play Fiona in Four Weddings and a Funeral, which led to her first BAFTA win in 1995.

Other notable film credits include The English Patient, Gosford Park and The Other Boleyn Girl. She co-starred with Gary Oldman in the 2017 Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour. The 65-year-old also appeared in the Mission: Impossible and Tomb Raider film franchises.

Scott Thomas considers herself a Francophile and has also established herself in French cinema. Her role in I’ve Loved You So Long earned her a BAFTA and Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

Jack Lowden stars as River Cartwright

Slow Horses wouldn’t be what it was without River Cartwright. His demotion from the Park to Slough House essentially kicked off the successful first season. He’s desperate to prove himself and get reinstated as a field agent with MI5, much to the annoyance of Jackson Lamb.

River is also MI5 royalty, with his grandfather David once holding a very senior position in the intelligence services. David also raised River, with his mother absconding after his birth. As for his father, season 4 revealed his identity as villain Frank Harkness. The corrupt former CIA agent ran a pay for assassin army and tried to recruit River, but he turned him down.

Jack Lowden plays the Slough House golden boy. He earned an Emmy nomination for the role in 2024. The Scottish star initially trained as a ballet dancer, but later switched to acting. He appeared in the 2016 BBC adaptation of War and Peace. On the big screen, he’s starred in films such as Dunkirk, Denial, A United Kingdom, Capone and Benediction.

Scot Jack, 35, is married to Atonement actress Saoirse Ronan. They met while starring in the 2018 film Mary Queen of Scots together. They welcomed their first child this year.

Jonathan Pryce is David Cartwright

River’s grandad David is long retired from the security services. Nevertheless, his experience and knowledge of the Park proves to be helpful and a hindrance for the Slow Horses – with dark details of past events only just coming to light. David’s health is declining and he has been diagnosed with Dementia. At the end of season 4, viewers saw River forced to put his grandad into a retirement home. David made it clear he wasn’t happy about the arrangement.

Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce, 78, plays David. He has a long established and esteemed acting career. He rose to prominence in Terry Gilliam’s satirical dark comedy Brazil. Pryce has appeared in James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, we well as the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. He’s also known for his role in musical film Evita. Most recently he played Prince Philip in The Crown season 5 and 6.

In 2019, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Pope Francis in The Two Popes. He appeared opposite Anthony Hopkins.

Saskia Reeves plays Catherine Standish

Slough Houses’ former secretary Catherine is better known as ‘Standish’ by her boss Jackson Lamb. She may come across as timid and polite, but she steps up in a crisis and you definitely don’t want to cross her.

Previously, we’ve learnt that Standish is a recovering alcoholic, who turned to drink after finding her former MI5 boss dead in the bath. She’s been a long-standing fixture at Slough House and is a trusted confidant of Lamb, taking his put-downs and questionable behaviour in her stride.

Saskia Reeves, 64, plays Standish. TV fans will know her for her roles in British dramas including Spooks, Bodies, Luther and Portlands. Most recently, the Londoner appeared in the film The Outrun. Her Slow Horses co-star Jack Lowden acted as executive producer.

Rosalind Eleazar portrays Louise Guy

Louise is another well-established fixture at Slough House. Like River, she was a field agent who was later dismissed by the Park. She is now working overtime to prove herself and her abilities.

Season 2 saw heartbreak for Louise who had grown romantically close to fellow Slow Horses team member Min Harper (Dustin Demri-Burns). However, a corrupt Russian brutally murdered him, and Louise sought revenge in the season finale. Ever since, she’s grown closer to River… The season 5 trailer teased a potential kiss…

Londoner Eleazar, 37, had a leading role in Harlan Coben’s Netflix drama Missing You, which was a streaming success earlier this year. She also had a central role in 2019 ITV drama Deep Water. In the same year she made her film acting debut as Agnes in The Personal History of David Copperfield.

Christopher Chung stars as Roddy Ho

Slough House’s hideously smart cyber hacker is Roddy Ho, played by actor Christopher Chung. But he’s far from a tech nerd. This Slow Horse exudes ego and regularly rubs his colleagues up the wrong way with his bravado.

“The best thing is not having to worry about the other characters’ feelings. You can be as arrogant and obnoxious as you like,” Chung told the Guardian of Roddy. In fact his arrogance is exactly what landed him in Slough House, with the Park deeming him too risky to have around.

Nevertheless, Chung believes his character is slightly misunderstood, never meaning to be nasty but just lacking a censor when communicating with others.

It looks like Roddy will play a pretty central role in season 5, thanks to new love interest Tara. She appears to have MI5 and his fellow Horses concerned. In fact, in the trailer, we see Roddy being taken in and detained at Headquarters following their evening out together.

Australian Chung, 37, got his first big acting break in BBC school drama Waterloo Road playing Archie Wong in series 9. However, he credits Slow Horses with opening up new exciting career opportunities for him. Since joining the show in 2022, the actor has gone on to appear in Doctor Who, and the Steve McQueen-directed drama Blitz.

Up next he’s playing the romantic lead in new Netflix period drama My Brilliant Career.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley Dander

Welsh actor Aimee-Ffion Edwards plays the permanently angry Shirley in Slow Horses. She’s rough-talking, always ready for a fight and partial to sniffing powder, but clearly cares deep down.

Shirley joined Slough House in season three alongside Marcus (Kadiff Kerwan) and the two quickly became unlikely yet close comrades. We saw Shirley devastated at Marcus’ death in season 4 and are expecting her to be mourning him in season 5. At the very least she can use a friend – and it looks like she might find a new one this season.

“Her relationship with River becomes very important in this series,” Edwards told Radio Times. However, she was quick to shut down any romance between the two. “You don’t see many platonic male-female relationships on TV. There’s an expectation of sex and romance. But chemistry and sparks can be all sorts of things.”

Edwards, 37, is perhaps best known for her role as Esme Shelby, wife-turned-widow of John Shelby in BBC’s Peaky Blinders. The Newport-native most recently had a prominent role in Sky One’s Dreamland with Lily Allen. She’s also appeared in Detectorists, Death in Paradise, Skins, and Luther.

Slow Horses season 5 cast: Joanna Scanlan stars as Moira Tregorian

Moira Tregorian arrived at Slough House as Standish’s replacement and couldn’t be more different if she tried. She’s a general busybody with standards and rules, none of which are exhibited by her new boss Lamb – who leaves her frankly disgusted.

Moira misses her Park days and doesn’t understand why she was moved. But the season four finale uncovered the reason behind her fate, with first chair Claude Whelan (James Callis) fearing she knew a bit too much about his curbside cruising. Armed with this information – provided by Roddy who hacked the MI5 database for her – viewers saw her successfully land her old job back with a better salary and a day off. Lesson learned Claude.

Moira is played with aplomb by the ever faithful Joanna Scanlan whose a face you’ll recognise from The Thick of It, The Larkins, Gentleman Jack, Getting On, Bridget Jones’ Baby and more. She appeared in the Channel 4 drama The Accident alongside Sarah Lancashire in 2019. Meanwhile, 2023 saw the 63-year-old bag a Best Actress BAFTA award for After Love, She played a woman who converts to Islam for her husband, only to discover his secret second life after his death.

Hugo Weaving returns as Frank Harkness

We thought we’d seen the last of him in the season 4 finale. However, Harkness will be back and making an appearance in season 5.

His return was confirmed by the man himself in November last year at the International Film Festival of India. “Each season generally is a book, but also each season departs a little bit from those books,” he said, explaining how his character return is possible.

For those in need of a quick recap, the Park arrested and detained Harkness for his crimes in the season 4 finale. But Taverner was forced to let him go after he revealed that a letter would go public connecting MI5 with his dirty work if he wasn’t freed. What more malice could Harkness be cooking up in the new season?

British born, Australian-based Hugo Weaving is a Hollywood favourite, having appeared in The Matrix, Lord of the Rings franchises, and Marvel movie Captain America: The First Avenger. The 65-year-old came to prominence in the early 90s for his role in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which saw him win his first of six AACTA Awards.

Slow Horses season 5 cast list:

Gary Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb.

Jack Lowden plays River Cartwright.

Kristin Scott Thomas portrays Diana Taverner.

Jonathan Pryce is David Cartwright.

Saskia Reeves plays Catherine Standish.

Rosalind Eleazar portrays Louise Guy.

Christopher Chung returns as Roddy Ho.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards plays Shirley Dander.

Tom Brooke is JK Coe.

Joanna Scanlan stars as Moira Tregorian.

James Callis stars as Claude Wheelan.

Ruth Bradley plays Emma Flyte.

Hugo Weaving returns as Frank Harkness.

Nick Mohammed stars as Zahar Jaffrey.

Hiba Bennani plays Tara.

Christopher Villiers is Dennis Gimball.

Victoria Hamilton stars as Dodie Gimball.

Cherelle Skeete portrays Devon Welles.

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Slow Horses streams on Apple TV+ from Wednesday September 24, 2025.