'Best spy series on television' renewed for sixth season - and the fifth hasn't even aired

Apple TV+ has confirmed that its popular series, Slow Horses, will be returning for a sixth season.

The darkly comedic spy drama has been given the go-ahead following its fourth season finale and before the fifth season has even hit screens. Slow Horses is a darkly humorous espionage drama that follows a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 known un-affectionately as Slough House.

The synopsis reads: "Oldman stars as Jackson Lamb, the brilliant but cantankerous leader of the spies, who end up in Slough House due to their career-ending mistakes as they frequently find themselves blundering around the smoke and mirrors of the espionage ."

In the upcoming sixth season, viewers can anticipate seeing "see the Slow Horses on the run as Diana Taverner embroils them all in a fatally high-stakes game of retaliation and revenge", reports .

Jay Hunt, creative director for Apple TV+ in Europe, expressed his excitement in a statement: "Audiences around the world have fallen in love with the Slow Horses, and I'm delighted that Gary Oldman will be leading this star-studded cast on another acerbic and action-packed adventure."

The Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning series features Academy Award winner Gary Oldman, who will be reprising his role in the new season.

The star-studded cast of the show includes big names like Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, Christopher Chung, Samuel West, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Ruth Bradley, Tom Brooke, Joanna Scanlan and Jonathan Pryce, although it remains uncertain if they will all return for the sixth season.

In a departure from previous seasons, which were adapted for the small screen by showrunner Will Smith, the upcoming season is being brought to life by co-executive producer Gaby Chiappe. Adam Randall, who helmed the fourth season, is set to return to direct the sixth instalment.

The series has been a resounding success with audiences, with all four seasons boasting a Certified Fresh score. Two seasons even achieved the rare feat of a perfect 100% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, as the series continues to garner worldwide praise from critics and fans alike. Viewers have hailed it as "undoubtedly the best spy series on television," and a "truly epic espionage thriller".

Described as "darkly humorous and tighter than the buttons on Lamb's sauce-stained shirt," the series boasts "a fully realised world, superb script, a stellar cast all at the top of their game and a lot of great action," that "gets better and better."

The fifth season of the show has already been filmed, and is slated for release next year.