Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb in a scene from Slow Horses” 2022. Submitted photo

And none too soon. It’s season four, and the very best of England’s actors are present … and at risk.

TV SERIES REVIEW

Dark Comedy, Spy, Drama, Thriller
Follows a team of British intelligence agents who serve as a dumping ground department of MI5 due to their career-ending mistakes.
Rating: Severe profanity, moderate violence, gore, alcohol, drugs, smoking, frightening and intense scenes, and mild sex and nudity
Stars: Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas

You will be happy, if you are a fan, to know that the dirty old Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) is unchanged, unshaven, irritable and unkempt.

River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) is still in danger and may possibly be dead. Stay tuned, that will change as will everything else since the show you last saw.

Top dog Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), who was about to become the dog top will … never mind, just watch one of our best actor’s work.

I was cautioned by my daughters and editors not to give anything away. In other words, I can only share this: each dark doorway is important, every creaking stairway, every word spoken. Every glance by a stranger on the street is suspect. Everyone is in danger, mortal danger.

But isn’t that why you pay top dollar to watch this show? Of course.

I can only feed you situations like worms on the end of fish hooks to draw you in.

The brilliant Jonathan Pryce (River’s grandfather David) is in the near-final stages of dementia. In a scary and brilliantly filmed scene, he is coming down the long road to his country home, in the beginning of an evening rainstorm, when he senses that someone is following him. Someone is. Wait. This doesn’t end well.

The scene is set: he loads his shotgun and waits in the dark. There is a knock at the door. It’s grandson River. David opens the door and River races past him to the bathroom.

“I’ll draw a bath for you grandfather.” “You look terrible,” he shouts back. Old David waits for him to come back down. As he waits, he fiddles with a framed photo of River and glances up the stairs.

Okay. That’s all I can tell you about that.

This, the first hour of the new season, tells us that just as in ours, a strange new sinister cabal is afoot in the world and they’re scary.

As usual, the music of Daniel Pemberton and Toydrum glides past us in every frame, moment and background to raise our blood pressure and heartbeat. You may not be aware of the background sounds in the mix, but this duo and the perfect touch of the bad guys and the passengers on the street, cast by Nina Gold, is working you over. Watch for them.

Cinematographer Danny Cohen, from 2022 to now, has you sitting on the edge of your chair throughout. You don’t know Danny but he knows us and how to hold our attention even if the scene is set in a lonely, deserted road.

The directors and multiple writers, including the lovely and invisible Morwenna Banks, are many, but they are indispensable.

Yes, “Slow Horses” is back, and as the darkness of our days grows, not a moment too soon.

“Slow Horses” Season 4 is streaming on Apple TV+.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.