Slow Horses Season 6 EP discusses Sid’s return; breaks down another key book change

Slow Horses Season 6 has taken the show down a path full of risks for Jackson Lamb's team. At the same time, Olivia Cooke's Sid has also made a comeback. However, her return comes with a twist that readers of Mick Herron’s novels might not have expected.

It was in Season 1 that she was shot and presumed dead. It looked like it was the end of Sid, until she returned in that latest chapter of Season 6. And as mentioned earlier, there are changes that the series has made regarding her comeback.

In the novels, Sid appears while River is still living his everyday life. But in the series, she appears when the Slough House team is already having enough and trying to stay out of sight. They realize that former members have been killed, and they could be next.

The show's co-executive producer, Gaby Chiappe, talked about this change and explained that it was needed because Season 6 is a combination of Joe Country and Slough House. So, the writers had to create a story that combines the two books, even if it means leaving a few plots behind.

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Slow Horses Season 6 changes how Sid returns

Sid Baker’s return is a big moment in Slow Horses Season 6, especially because she was believed to be dead after being shot in the head in Season 1. Still, there had always been some reason to think she might have survived, and Olivia Cooke is now back in the role.

The show also changes the way Sid comes back compared with Slough House. In the book, she appears while River is still living his usual life. The series instead brings her into the story when the Slough House team is keeping a low profile after two former members are killed.

River believes the missed calls he is receiving could be from his father, Frank Harkness. Roddy Ho tracks the calls to River’s grandfather’s house, so River heads there expecting to confront whoever is behind them.

In Slow Horses Season 6, he gets something very different. Sid is there waiting for him, making her return a genuine shock. River had suspected she could still be alive, but years without any sign of her had slowly made that possibility seem less real.

Gaby Chiappe said the change helped connect Joe Country with Slough House, the two books used for the season. She said that it was (via TV Insider):

"A way of being able to splice together or overlay things that happened in Joe Country and things that happen in Slough House."

Chiappe continued:

"I mean, there are some beautiful scenes that we had to lose because you had to find a new pathway through to get those two books to cohere together and to take elements of one and elements of another and create a proper spine."

Some scenes from the novels had to be dropped while the writers built one storyline from both, and Sid’s new entrance helped make that work. The show will also explain, at least partly, why she has been away for so long.

Slow Horses Season 6 makes another key book change with Reece

The change in Slow Horses Season 6 isn't limited to Sid's return. Reece also gets a very different storyline on the show than he does in Mick Herron's book.

In the novel, Reece is dealing with the death of his partner and goes to Jackson Lamb and the Slough House team because he wants to understand what happened. The series takes a different route by making Reece a teenager whose father is killed.

His father is one of the Park's “Dogs,” which gives Reece a direct connection to the events surrounding the intelligence agency. The decision to make him younger came from discussions in the writers' room about bringing Lenny Rush into the cast.

According to Gaby Chiappe, the team liked the idea because the series had not previously featured such a young character. The casting also opened up interesting possibilities, particularly with Rush sharing scenes with Ho and Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb.

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Watch Slow Horses Season 6 on Apple TV now!

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