Television has apparently decided that making viewers wait years for another season is an excellent substitute for character development. Stranger Things took nearly three years between its third and fourth seasons, while Severance and Euphoria served up similarly lengthy waits. Slow Horses mercifully resisted the trend, though Gary Oldman reveals that keeping those gaps short requires a considerable “struggle and fight.”

Between scheduling headaches, production demands, and competing commitments, faster seasons are notoriously difficult, yet Slow Horses has managed to keep its audience from wandering off.

At the Edinburgh TV Festival, where Gary Oldman received the Global Icon Award, the actor offered a revealing look at the machinery keeping Slow Horses moving. The Apple TV+ spy thriller does not simply sprint from one season to another; its production often keeps multiple instalments moving in close succession, with filming completed well before audiences see them.

“You invest in these people, these fictional people, and then the show ends, and you’ve got to wait two and a half years,” Gary Oldman said. For him, avoiding that dreaded streaming intermission is a “struggle and fight,” requiring the team to persuade viewers to return year after year while keeping the quality firmly intact. The actor made clear that speed alone means little if momentum comes at the expense of the show.

Gary Oldman also revealed at the Edinburgh TV Festival (via Deadline) that the production works remarkably far ahead, with the team preparing Season 7 before Season 6 even premieres. Back-to-back filming helps keep that pipeline humming, while Mick Herron’s Slough House novels provide the writers with a ready-made roadmap. The result is a rare television machine that keeps galloping.

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As Gary Oldman once again has fans buzzing over the Slow Horses season 6 trailer, the show has clearly mastered the art of keeping its audience hungry. Still, its speedy returns are only one ingredient in a recipe that has kept viewers hooked.

Fans have stuck with Slow Horses because it serves up a spy thriller with considerably less polish and considerably more personality. Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb is a greasy, foul-mouthed mess who happens to be a brilliant spymaster, while Slough House turns polished espionage into an office full of glorious misfits. The sharp writing keeps every screwball alive.

Then there is the show’s refusal to waste a minute, with each six-episode season keeping its mysteries taut rather than wandering into streaming-era padding. Its bureaucracy is equally delicious, turning Diana Taverner’s ruthless management into another enemy for the underdogs to outwit. In the end, the shorter waits merely keep the audience close to a series already giving them plenty to love.

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Do you think the shorter wait between seasons helped out Slow Horses? Let us know in the comments!