CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: £11M an episode? Making Gary Oldman look this gloriously grubby isn't cheap! Slow Horses returns with a four-star worthy sixth series

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 18:30 EDT, 16 September 2026 | Updated: 18:54 EDT, 16 September 2026 Slow Horses (Apple TV)Rating: Four starsRating:They shoot horses, don't they? In the case of the failed spies in Apple TV's seedy, cynical espionage thriller Slow Horses, they get burned alive in shipping containers or bopped over the head and drowned in canals.As the serial returned for a sixth series, a pair of efficient but rather bored assassins were working their way through the show's supporting cast. 'They've finally made the hit list,' smirks the show's tagline. Jack Lowden as hapless agent River Cartwright and Gary Oldman as Jackson LambAt the same time, MI5 chief Diana (Kristin Scott Thomas) has apparently sacked the entire department without bothering to tell them, and wiped them off the payroll. Can she really be behind the killings? This show is never that simple.Hapless agent River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) was organising the funeral for his grandfather, played by Jonathan Pryce. But is the veteran spook really in the spirit world now?As River's malodorous boss Jackson Lamb pointed out: 'We've all faked our own death at one time or another.'Slow Horses has always gloried in its grubbiness, and Gary Oldman, as Lamb, is wallowing in the character's grotty, unshaven, sweat-stained rancidness. One scene, where he tries to consume a dish of sloppy pasta and ends up with most of it on his chin and his shirt, is genuinely revolting.It takes a great deal of money to look this shabby. Apple TV's budget per episode is estimated at $15million (£11million), and Oldman is thought to be earning around $3million (£2.2million) for the six-part run. MI5 chief Diana (Kristin Scott Thomas) has apparently sacked the entire department without bothering to tell themNo Big Deal (YouTube) Rating: No stars Rating:Only the giant video-on-demand streamers can dream of paying actors' fees that high. At the other end of the scale, though, AI is threatening to do away with their jobs altogether.No Big Deal, a 25-minute unfunny sitcom made entirely with an AI cast, crashlanded on YouTube this week. Written by a human, all its 'actors' and sets are computer generated.All it proves is that AI cannot capture comic timing. The rhythm of every line is wrong. In close-up, the faces look almost real, but robotic. Their bodies move like broken puppets and the continuity never matches between shots. It's abysmal. No Big Deal, a 25-minute unfunny sitcom made entirely with an AI cast, crashlanded on YouTube this weekThe show's creator, Andrew Dickinson, says he set out to write a comedy about his experiences in venture finance, pumping money into inventions and business schemes in the hope of easy profits. The projected cost of making it with real actors and a film crew was at least £300,000 – but doing it with AI, says his publicist, 'was a fraction of that cost.'So far, audience reaction is savage. 'Like a world where everyone's soul has been sucked out', says one commenter.I believe that will always be true of AI animation. Though it will get better, it will never feel human.But it will get much cheaper and accessible to everyone. Before long, anyone with a smartphone will be able to create AI videos with an app. We're about to be hit with a tsunami of telly dross.