NY Times: "On ‘Slow Horses,’ She’s in Charge at Last. ‘The Mayhem Is Because of Her.’" . . .
On ‘Slow Horses,’ She’s in Charge at Last. ‘The Mayhem Is Because of Her.’
Kristin Scott Thomas gives a morally gray tinge to “Lady Di” Taverner, who takes over as head of Britain’s MI5 secret service in Season 6.
By Calum Marsh
Sept. 16, 2026
PIC CAPTION Taverner (Thomas) with Claude Whelan (James Callis), whose blundering in Season 5 left the door open for her becoming First Desk.Credit...Apple TV
She’s a ruthless, Machiavellian schemer. In his books, the writer Mick Herron presents her as an underhanded adversary to be watched warily and never to be trusted long.
So why is it that, in “Slow Horses,” the popular Apple TV series whose sixth season premieres on Wednesday, the formidable Diana Taverner is so strangely likable — even as she repeatedly thwarts and undermines the misfit spies who have won over so many viewers?
It’s no doubt partly down to the slightly softer touch that Kristin Scott Thomas brings to the role, playing the ultimate foil to the Slough House spies and their belching leader, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), with warmth and charisma. Her Taverner isn’t entirely sympathetic — and still probably shouldn’t be trusted — but she’s perhaps less outright nefarious than morally gray.
“She is scary — I mean, hello!” Thomas said in a video interview from her home in London. “But you can sympathize with her more. You see the machinations and the way she ticks a bit. There are some moments when you catch yourself thinking, ‘Oh, yeah, poor thing — I see her point.’”
It’s a small but meaningful change to the source material that becomes more evident in the sixth season, where Taverner (aka Lady Di, just not to her face) takes on the job she’s long been pining for: “First Desk,” in charge of the British secret service MI5.
PIC CAPTIO N Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, whose band of misfit spies is constantly undermined by Taverner and MI5. Credit...Apple TV
Since the series’ inception, she’d been the much-feared “Second Desk” — wanting, in Herron’s description, “not so much to change the pieces on the board as throw the board away and design a new one.” Her chance comes after the bumbling previous head of MI5, Claude Whelan (James Callis), is blackmailed into retiring by Lamb’s shrewd maneuvering at the end of Season 5.
In the new season, whose story of betrayal and revenge is derived from Herron’s novels “Slough House” and “Joe Country,” Lady Di finally has the power she’s craved — and it doesn’t take long for her to use it and abuse it, though this being “Slow Horses,” she also quickly learns that wielding such power is harder than it seems.
“She’s slightly more relaxed now, which perhaps is dangerous,” Thomas said. And before long, she’s in over her head. “It’s difficult, it turns out,” Thomas said with a laugh.
The career move isn’t just momentous for Taverner — it also sets in motion the events of the whole season, said the director Adam Randall, who’s also an executive producer on the show. “All of the death, all of the destruction, all of the mayhem is because of her, the decisions she makes,” he said.
This time, Randall said, “we’re putting her in situations where she’s deeply uncomfortable, and actually quite frightened at times,” such as an early scene in which Taverner is coerced into appearing on a right-wing TV news show. “She realizes in that millisecond how wrong everything has just gone, and you can see her crumbling on the inside,” Randall said.
He credits Thomas with giving the character a more likable dimension than she had on the page. “I mean, I’ve stood at the monitor watching her, and I’m thinking, ‘Why am I feeling sorry for her? She’s just done the most horrendous thing!’” he said.
Thomas acknowledged not being deeply familiar with the source material — spy novels aren’t really her thing. “I love romantic fiction,” she said, “and this isn’t it.” But when she first read the script for the series, she was won over by the characters. “They’re all so useless-likeable, or likeable-useless,” Thomas said.
“I was hoping to make my character compelling,” she added, “but you can’t really admit to liking Diana Taverner, or you don’t want to be caught admitting you like Diana Taverner. She’s sort of a guilty pleasure.”
Thomas resists the term “strong female character,” which “is such a cliché, isn’t it?” What she does like, she said, is “that it’s to do with gender, but not to do with sex. I like that. The question of Taverner’s love life never comes into play. It’s never brought up.” The matter of gender is a matter of power: “There are men everywhere. Younger men. Everyone’s younger than her, and everyone’s male.”
One of the show’s most memorable moments, in fact, was a fraught tête-à-tête over a bottle of scotch between Taverner and Ingrid Tearney (Sophie Okonedo), one of Taverner’s First Desk predecessors — and one of the series’ few other women in power.
“I really loved that drink-off, because I felt like she was just in my way, and just because she’s younger than me,” Thomas said. “It’s interesting to see a woman in power like her, where everyone else is younger, but she’s still there, hanging on to the bitter end, so they’ll have to drag her kicking and screaming.”
I asked — hesitantly — whether that resonated personally with Thomas, who’s now 66.
She considered. “No,” she said. “But it did make me think that’s possibly what they all think of me.” She broke into a smile. “But, hey. Too late now.”
SHARED link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/arts/television/slow-horses-season-6-kristin-scott-thomas.html?unlocked_article_code=1.B1E.CFh-.pJHKVNpSB4pv&smid=url-share
Kristin Scott Thomas gives a morally gray tinge to “Lady Di” Taverner, who takes over as head of Britain’s MI5 secret service in Season 6.
By Calum Marsh
Sept. 16, 2026
PIC CAPTION Taverner (Thomas) with Claude Whelan (James Callis), whose blundering in Season 5 left the door open for her becoming First Desk.Credit...Apple TV
She’s a ruthless, Machiavellian schemer. In his books, the writer Mick Herron presents her as an underhanded adversary to be watched warily and never to be trusted long.
So why is it that, in “Slow Horses,” the popular Apple TV series whose sixth season premieres on Wednesday, the formidable Diana Taverner is so strangely likable — even as she repeatedly thwarts and undermines the misfit spies who have won over so many viewers?
It’s no doubt partly down to the slightly softer touch that Kristin Scott Thomas brings to the role, playing the ultimate foil to the Slough House spies and their belching leader, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), with warmth and charisma. Her Taverner isn’t entirely sympathetic — and still probably shouldn’t be trusted — but she’s perhaps less outright nefarious than morally gray.
“She is scary — I mean, hello!” Thomas said in a video interview from her home in London. “But you can sympathize with her more. You see the machinations and the way she ticks a bit. There are some moments when you catch yourself thinking, ‘Oh, yeah, poor thing — I see her point.’”
It’s a small but meaningful change to the source material that becomes more evident in the sixth season, where Taverner (aka Lady Di, just not to her face) takes on the job she’s long been pining for: “First Desk,” in charge of the British secret service MI5.
PIC CAPTIO N Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, whose band of misfit spies is constantly undermined by Taverner and MI5. Credit...Apple TV
Since the series’ inception, she’d been the much-feared “Second Desk” — wanting, in Herron’s description, “not so much to change the pieces on the board as throw the board away and design a new one.” Her chance comes after the bumbling previous head of MI5, Claude Whelan (James Callis), is blackmailed into retiring by Lamb’s shrewd maneuvering at the end of Season 5.
In the new season, whose story of betrayal and revenge is derived from Herron’s novels “Slough House” and “Joe Country,” Lady Di finally has the power she’s craved — and it doesn’t take long for her to use it and abuse it, though this being “Slow Horses,” she also quickly learns that wielding such power is harder than it seems.
“She’s slightly more relaxed now, which perhaps is dangerous,” Thomas said. And before long, she’s in over her head. “It’s difficult, it turns out,” Thomas said with a laugh.
The career move isn’t just momentous for Taverner — it also sets in motion the events of the whole season, said the director Adam Randall, who’s also an executive producer on the show. “All of the death, all of the destruction, all of the mayhem is because of her, the decisions she makes,” he said.
This time, Randall said, “we’re putting her in situations where she’s deeply uncomfortable, and actually quite frightened at times,” such as an early scene in which Taverner is coerced into appearing on a right-wing TV news show. “She realizes in that millisecond how wrong everything has just gone, and you can see her crumbling on the inside,” Randall said.
He credits Thomas with giving the character a more likable dimension than she had on the page. “I mean, I’ve stood at the monitor watching her, and I’m thinking, ‘Why am I feeling sorry for her? She’s just done the most horrendous thing!’” he said.
Thomas acknowledged not being deeply familiar with the source material — spy novels aren’t really her thing. “I love romantic fiction,” she said, “and this isn’t it.” But when she first read the script for the series, she was won over by the characters. “They’re all so useless-likeable, or likeable-useless,” Thomas said.
“I was hoping to make my character compelling,” she added, “but you can’t really admit to liking Diana Taverner, or you don’t want to be caught admitting you like Diana Taverner. She’s sort of a guilty pleasure.”
Thomas resists the term “strong female character,” which “is such a cliché, isn’t it?” What she does like, she said, is “that it’s to do with gender, but not to do with sex. I like that. The question of Taverner’s love life never comes into play. It’s never brought up.” The matter of gender is a matter of power: “There are men everywhere. Younger men. Everyone’s younger than her, and everyone’s male.”
One of the show’s most memorable moments, in fact, was a fraught tête-à-tête over a bottle of scotch between Taverner and Ingrid Tearney (Sophie Okonedo), one of Taverner’s First Desk predecessors — and one of the series’ few other women in power.
“I really loved that drink-off, because I felt like she was just in my way, and just because she’s younger than me,” Thomas said. “It’s interesting to see a woman in power like her, where everyone else is younger, but she’s still there, hanging on to the bitter end, so they’ll have to drag her kicking and screaming.”
I asked — hesitantly — whether that resonated personally with Thomas, who’s now 66.
She considered. “No,” she said. “But it did make me think that’s possibly what they all think of me.” She broke into a smile. “But, hey. Too late now.”
SHARED link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/arts/television/slow-horses-season-6-kristin-scott-thomas.html?unlocked_article_code=1.B1E.CFh-.pJHKVNpSB4pv&smid=url-share