sinister

The trailer for the fifth season of Slow Horses has been released by Apple TV+ and sees the return of Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb

The fifth season of Slow Horses is just around the bend, and Apple TV+ has just given us a sneak peek with the release of the trailer for the BAFTA Award-winning spy drama.

This six-episode series is based on London Rules, the subsequent novel in Mick Herron’s popular book series.

The trailer sees Sir Gary Oldman reprising his role as Jackson Lamb, the genius yet grumpy leader of the espionage team.

In this new instalment, eyebrows are raised when resident tech whizz Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) brings a stunning new girlfriend into the picture.

As a string of peculiar incidents unfold across the city, it’s up to the Slow Horses to connect the dots, reports the Express.

READ MORE: ‘Brutal’ Apple TV+ series leaves no stone unturned in ‘eye-opening’ historical dramaREAD MORE: ‘Explosive’ thriller from Slow Horses writer with A-list stars unveils first look

The trailer features Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) detailing how eleven individuals were fatally shot, an incident they suspect Ho might be involved in.

Jackson immediately doubts his new flame as it emerges that “sinister forces” are attempting to destabilise the nation.

With the clock ticking, the Slow Horses have just sixty minutes to prevent the perpetrators from executing their next violent act, potentially endangering over 5,000 lives.

To make matters worse, it seems the Slow Horses have been duped by one of their own following a suspected breach in their system.

Viewers have already rushed to the comments section to express their excitement about the captivating trailer, which features Emmy Award nominee Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Ruth Bradley, James Callis, Tom Brooke, and Academy Award nominee Jonathan Pryce.

One viewer gushed: “One of the best shows ever created,” whilst another enthused: “Oh that’s cheered me up.”

A third remarked: “I have to watch this,” and a fourth declared: “This show made me fall in love with the quality of Apple Tv. Never gonna leave Apple TV.”

The fifth series will also feature Ted Lasso star Nick Mohammed making a special guest appearance.

Reviewers praised it as “undoubtedly the best spy series on television,” describing it as a “truly epic espionage thriller” that is “utterly brilliant”.

Slow Horses launches in September with the opening episode, then continues with weekly instalments until October 29.

The sixth and seventh series of the darkly comic espionage drama have already been confirmed.

Slow Horses season 5 will debut on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, September 24.

TV Columnist Sara Wallis reviews Squid Game 3, as TV’s most stressful show returns to Netflix today for its third and final season…

*Warning: Some plot reveals, no major spoilers*

Surely the most stressful TV experience of all time, dystopian horror-show Squid Game is back today for its third and final flourish – and you won’t want to miss it. The South Korean mega hit, which will send your blood pressure soaring within minutes, somehow manages to become even more messed up and sinister than before. Millions of viewers across the globe have been hooked by the plot so far, which sees desperate, broke ‘losers’ compete in a series of children’s games for quick cash. What they don’t realise until it’s too late is that there’s a violent twist. Win these menacing games, win millions. Lose and get shot in the head by a soldier in a mask and red jumpsuit. The fewer players left, the more money for each one. As you can imagine, they all become completely unhinged and begin to turn on each other. It’s thrilling, popcorn-eating TV.

After season one became a cultural phenomenon, Director Hwang Dong-Hyuk admitted he was stressed out (his teeth fell out) as he faced the difficult Second Album Syndrome, with expectations through the roof. Three years later, season two saw our anti-hero Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), aka winning Player 456, re-enter the game with the intention of bringing down the bad guys.

By the end he was leading a rebellion, hoping to take them down from within. But the evil Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) always seemed to be one step ahead. It ended on a brutal cliffhanger, with Gi-hun witnessing the death of his friend at the hands of the Front Man, who was disguised as Player 001.

We’ve only had to wait six months this time for these final six, nail-biting episodes. Picking up exactly where we left off, the first episode is titled Keys and Knives, which sets us up for the first new game. It’s hide and seek, but no one’s laughing. Some players get keys, some get knives, you can guess the rest. As ever, the gigantic set-pieces, made to make the players feel small like children, are visually stunning and creative. The stage is set, classical music blares out, shrill voices sing-song the instructions, and we watch as the players try to outrun death at every turn.

This season gives the actual games more airtime, meaning the edge-of-seat moments are longer, making everything more disturbing. Episode two, The Starry Night, is entirely one game played out, where bonds are tested, dynamics shift and you can expect plenty of shock-horror moments. Next another frantic childhood game results in a bloodbath, before ultimately the remaining players reach the grand finale, called Sky Squid Game.

Watching the whole thing on screens are the VIPs, a group of wealthy, masked foreigners (American and British accents among them), who all place bets, moving little numbered chess pieces, while smoking and drinking. Though this part is no doubt supposed to be a caricature of a corrupt society, it’s all so cartoony with terrible acting that it jars with the excellence of the main scenes.

If you can get over groaning at these hammed-up villains, you will at least appreciate the social commentary on class, capitalism and immorality. While they enjoy this gladiator-style bloodsport as entertainment, as the players themselves become more deranged by greed, it holds up a mirror to the worst of humanity. By the time we reach the final episode, titled Humans Are…, we have also become numb to the violence. Seasons two and three could never have quite the same impact as season one. However, with the new games designed to cause even more division among the players than before, and a callous, unguessable twist early on that changes the whole dynamic, Squid Game becomes monstrous in a different way.

Watch out for drama outside of the main arena, as police officer Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) mounts a desperate search for the island, knowing his brother is the Front Man. What he doesn’t realise is that his plan is being sabotaged from within. Organs are still being harvested, and one soldier defects and tries to escape, while there are plenty of players, such as a mother and son and pregnant girl, to get emotionally attached to – and plenty to hate. Some of the side plots feel a bit muddled and some player hallucinations are confusing, but for the central characters there is a lot of heart to be found amid the trauma. Ignoring rumours of spin-offs and more seasons (and a glorious final wink), it feels right to end this show now. Squid Game has been an brilliant television hammer-blow, but surely no one has the stomach for more…

*Squid Game 3 is now streaming on Netflix

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Douglas McCarthy, the singer of the pioneering U.K. proto-industrial band Nitzer Ebb, has died. He was 58.

The band confirmed the news on its social media accounts. It did not list a cause of death.

“It is with a heavy heart that we regret to inform that Douglas McCarthy passed away this morning of June 11th, 2025,” Nitzer Ebb wrote. “We ask everyone to please be respectful of Douglas, his wife, and family in this difficult time. We appreciate your understanding and will share more information soon.”

McCarthy founded the group Nitzer Ebb in Essex, with David Gooday and Bon Harris. The band released its first single, “Isn’t It Funny How Your Body Works,” in 1985, on its own independent Power of Voice Communications label.

The band drew aesthetics from the experiments of post-punk and the nascent goth movement of the time, with admiration for sinister yet seductive acts like the Birthday Party, Bauhaus and Malaria.

McCarthy and his bandmates paired that sensibility with the new potential of electronic music, crafting a harsh and antagonistic style that moved like club music but hit like punk. The style came to be known as EBM (electronic body music), and their 1987 Geffen debut LP, “That Total Age,” played a formative role in the industrial wave to come, anticipating the rise of acts like Nine Inch Nails and Rammstein and, later, Cold Cave and Gesaffelstein.

With howled, deadpan lyrics like on “Join in the Chant,” McCarthy set a template for how punk’s urgency could lock into dance music’s meticulousness. Other cuts, like “Let Your Body Learn,” became fixtures in acid house and techno DJ sets.

The band followed it up with 1989’s “Belief,” with famed producer Flood, and released three more LP’s before dissolving in 1995. McCarthy worked with former tour mate Depeche Mode’s Alan Wilder on the side project Recoil, and collaborated with techno producer Terence Fixmer.

McCarthy revived Nitzer Ebb in 2007 and released the return-to-form LP “Industrial Complex” in 2010. McCarthy also released “Kill Your Friends,” a solo album, in 2012.

While Nitzer Ebb toured regularly into the present day, McCarthy faced health issues late in life, dropping off a 2024 European tour citing liver cirrhosis.

“After years of alcohol abuse, I was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver,” McCarthy said on Instagram last year. “For more than two years I haven’t been drinking, but recovery is a long process that can at times be extremely hard to predict.”