“We do very short days”: Slow Horses director explains how Apple TV+ manages the show’s rapid filming schedule

Slow Horses, Apple TV+'s espionage drama, defied industry standards by releasing a new season virtually every year since originally debuting in 2022, aided by an exceptionally efficient shoot schedule and production choices.

Discussing the pace of the show with ScreenRant at New York Comic Con, director Saul Metzstein revealed that, contrary to expectations, the pace is "quite leisurely". He added that it takes around 110 days to shoot the whole season.

While the majority of streaming phenomena require one to two years between seasons, such as Netflix's Stranger Things, Slow Horses has predictably had new episodes come out regularly, with Season 5 currently in progress and principal photography on Season 7 set to begin at the end of October 2025.

All this is possible by short, focused workdays as well as by virtue of the show's six-episode-per-season length.

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How Apple TV+ keeps Slow Horses on a rapid filming schedule

Saul Metzstein provided an insider's perspective on the way Slow Horses is handled, what looks from the outside to be the frantic yearly schedule. Speaking with ScreenRant, Metzstein stated:

“We're quite slow at making it. It's a sort of odd thing. Each season is like 110 days of shooting. It's quite leisurely; we do very short days. We just somehow are efficient enough that it just keeps going. But it never feels like a particular rush. It actually feels very nice, pleasant, slow. We also only make 6 episodes as well. Some of these programs make a lot more episodes, but I think 6 episodes is the right kind of length for the kind of program [we are] and the kind of stories we're telling.”

The one-to-one nature of production, the improvised working on location, has also been singled out by editor Robert Frost. In an interview with No Film School, regarding the editing of Slow Horses, Frost explained how editing on set enables real-time feedback, which enhances the final product.

He explained that his experience of working alongside the director, Adam Randall, and writer Will Smith in the production of the films helped them to work hand in hand. They were able to rewrite dialogue, rewrite shot lists, and grab the required footage on the spot, particularly when it was necessary to rewrite a complicated action sequence.

This adaptable and teamwork style prevented the prolonged post-production process associated with bigger productions where the episodes are more lengthy or the effects are complex. Another aspect that Frost pointed out in regards to this arrangement was that the shoot was directly informed by the evolving edit, which also provided clarity and consistency in scenes.

Furthermore, the approval of subsequent seasons indicates Apple TV+'s confidence both in the production process itself and the show's sustainable success.

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What is Slow Horses about? A look into Slough House's disgraced MI5 agents

Slow Horses centers on the misfit cast of the MI5 outcasts exiled to Slough House, a division for spies whose careers have been derailed by professional blunders or interpersonal failings. Under the abrasive but genius Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), the "slow horses" are relegated to menial missions and professional exile, but are repeatedly pulled into danger-laced, high-stakes assignments.

Season 1 is an adaptation of Mick Herron's novel, following River Cartwright, whose fumbled training exercise sends him to Slough House, carrying the shadow of his father's legendary spy career.

As the slow horses work on the vanishing of Hassan Ahmed, a British Pakistani student, kidnapped by an extremist group with the threat of murder, they find the conspiracy is from an unstable right-wing UK organization rather than foreign fanatics.

The slow horses' operation to rescue Hassan keeps them at a crossroads with MI5 power plays, ultimately getting Lamb and his team to unravel both conspiracy politically and personally.

Each following season builds on this formula by introducing character-driven drama alongside convoluted spy plots. The season's highlights include gruff banter among agents, morality plays, and biting satirical commentaries on British intelligence.

Season 4 and the new Season 5 hold the stakes high, including high-level conspiracy, betrayal, and "offbeat investigations," as new cast members, actors, and guest stars are introduced to the cast list, including the likes of Kristin Scott Thomas, Saskia Reeves, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards.

Viewers and critics praise the show for "darkly humorous" plotting, robust performances (headed by Oldman's Lamb), and the ability to wrap six extremely tightly constructed episodes at the same time.

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Season 5 of Slow Horses is currently premiering on Apple TV+, with the final episode set to release on October 29, 2025. Moreover, filming for Season 6 has already been completed, and production for Season 7 is officially set to begin at the end of October 2025.