News

- Will arrive on September 24
- Teaser trailer revealed after season 4 finale
- Main cast set to return
- Plot to follow Mick Herron’s ‘London Rules’ novel
- Already renewed for season 6 and 7
- Potential Slough House spin-off in the works

Slow Horses season 5 will arrive on Apple TV+ on September 24. In true Slow Horses fashion though, the gritty spy thriller hasn't made us wait too long between seasons.

And it appears there's plenty more action-packed scenes, gripping drama, and incredible acting on the way as Jackson Lamb and his Slough House team make their return.

Adapted from the books by Mick Herron, there's a lot more plot to unravel and a lot more seasons to do it over with the renewal of season 6 and 7 already locked in. For now, here’s everything we know about Slow Horses season 5 so far including release date, trailer, plot, confirmed cast and more.

Potential spoilers follow for Slow Horses seasons 1 to 4.

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Apple TV+ has confirmed a release date for Slow Horses season 5 – and it's September 24. Not only that, but the first two episodes will be premiering at the same time with the season consisting of six episodes.

No doubt this news will come as a huge relief for fans of one of the best Apple TV+ shows after Apple TV+ renewed Slow Horses for a fifth season back in January 2024. But, the wait is almost over.

In what appears to be establishing itself as a Slow Horses tradition, there was a season 5 teaser trailer shared at the end of the season 4 finale.

In less than a minute, someone tries to kill Roddy, a terrorist plot threatens London, and once again, the police turn to Lamb to help them predict the next move.

Plus, an unknown killing, although if Slow Horses’ history is anything to go by, it could be anyone – no cast member is safe. We’ll get into more about what the teaser trailer alludes to when it comes to plot below, and we'll update here as soon as we have a full trailer to share.

Full spoilers follow for Slow Horses season 4.

Thanks to an announcement by Apple TV+ combined with the teaser and first look images, here’s the confirmed cast for Slow Horses season 5:

• Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb
• Jack Lowden as River Cartwright
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner
• Saskia Reeves as Catherine Standish
• Christopher Chung as Roddy Ho
• Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley Dander
• Rosalind Eleazar as Louisa Guy
• Ruth Bradley as Emma Flyte
• James Callis as Claude Whelan
• Tom Brooke as J.K. Coe
• Hugo Weaving as Frank Harkness
• Joanna Scanlan as Moira Tergorian
• Jonathan Pryce as David Cartwright
• Nick Mohammed as TBC
• Hiba Bennani as TBC

Though Hugo Weaving's character, Frank Harkness, was not seen in the trailer, Digital Spy confirmed his return back in November 2024, while also suggesting Joanna Scanlan (Moira Tregorian) is expected to reprise her role, too. Though, no official word yet.

With no sign of Naomi Wirthner (Molly Doran) or Samuel West (Peter Judd) in the season 4 finale teaser and the Apple TV+ announcement, it's not clear whether they'll be returning for season 5.

Major spoilers follow for Slow Horses seasons 1 through 4.

Slow Horses season 5 is confirmed to be an adaptation of Mick Herron’s ‘London Rules’ novel, the sequel to ‘Spook Street’ which acted as the basis for season 4.

To get a strong look at the possible plot for season 5 then, here’s the book’s official synopsis: “Regent's Park's First Desk, Claude Whelan, is learning this the hard way.

"Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he's facing attack from all directions himself: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble. Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks, and someone's trying to kill Roddy Ho."

Over at Slough House, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath.

But collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength - that of making a bad situation much, much worse. It's a good job Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren't going to break themselves.”

From the season 5 trailer, we know that much of the show will stay true to the book. We also catch a glimpse of most of the main cast to confirm their return to Slough House, and there's an awkward kiss between River and Louisa that we're keen to unpack.

And in the official Apple TV+ announcement, there's even more insight into what will be unfolding this time round: "In season five of Slow Horses, everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho has a glamorous new girlfriend.

"When a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the Slow Horses to work out how everything is connected. After all, Lamb knows that in the world of espionage, the London Rules – cover your back – always apply".

Following suit with the previous seasons, Slow Horses always runs for six episodes with the plot spanning the events of two or three days. It appears with season 5, they’ll be sticking to this tried-and-tested method, as Smith spoke to Collider: “You feel if you stretch it beyond that — I mean, you can invent — I worry it would feel like padding, and it would take you away from what is great about the books. So, six, I think, is the magic number.”

In season 4, River met his biological father, Jack (Hugo Weaving), which only looked to strengthen his relationship with Lamb. But what about more from Frank? Well, the man himself spoke to Forbes, further confirming a reappearance: "You probably know that Frank is in one of the other books, and so the assumption is at the end of this season, and certainly to anyone who had read the books, is that Frank will be coming back.”

He adds: "Frank gets to play his Get Out of Jail Free card, which he has had all along because he knows that MI5 and David Cartwright tried to set him up. He knows he's got that, so he can say that fabulous line, 'I'll get the next train.' He can be that sort of a character because he actually is a survivor and excellently slippery."

Though, in an exclusive chat with Radio Times, showrunner Will Smith said there's one part of the book that won't feature: "In season 5, the challenge we had with that was Mick does a brilliant thing at the beginning where there's an attack, and he writes it, and you think you're somewhere in the Middle East, and then you reveal it’s Derbyshire, and that is brilliant. We cannot do that in the show."

But with confirmation of 'London Rules' and teaser trailer as a starting point, it's fair to say the core plot is etched out. But, for those who haven't read the books, and with the unique additions of the cast & crew, Slow Horses will undoubtedly bring twists and turns that you won't see coming.

Slow Horses has already been renewed for season 6 and 7, so yes there’s most definitely more to come.

As reported by Deadline, season 6 will be based on Mick Herron’s ‘Joe Country’ and ‘Slough House’ which are the sixth and seventh books in the series. Revealing: “In season 6, the spies head out on the run as Diana Taverner embroils them all in a fatally high-stakes game of retaliation and revenge.”

And it appears Gary Oldman has already finished filming his parts in season 6. During an interview with Deadline in February, when asked about the next, next season, he said: "I wrapped about two weeks ago." Though he said some of the other cast were still working.

While season 6 will take its plot from two novels, that leaves only one behind in the series. Well, that is until September, when Herron's ninth book 'Clown Town' is released.

And, according to Deadline, season 7 will "begin shooting in the UK in late September or early October".

In conversation with Gary Oldman, he added: "That is truly the wonderful gift that keeps on giving. I just adore the hell out of it, and the people. It is just such a wonderful thing really to be part of".

Furthermore, Smith adds that there’s interest from his perspective in a spin-off, “I do think, though, there’s a great book he wrote, the last book that came out, which is in the Slough House universe, and Slow Horses do come into it, which is called The Secret Hours. That could be a movie or a more limited number just because of the nature of that story.”

For more Apple TV+ coverage, read our guides on Ted Lasso season 4, Foundation season 3, Presumed Innocent season 2, and Silo season 3.

• More support options for Pixel 6a owners have been revealed
• You can get a $100 payment or $150 in Google Store credit
• Google has set up a website where you can make your claim

The long-running Google Pixel 6a battery saga continues, and Google has now provided details of how owners of the 2022 handset can claim up to $150 (about £110 / AU$230) back from the company – money that could be put towards a new phone.

If you're just getting up to speed with this story, Google is in the process of rolling out a mandatory update for some Pixel 6a phones that could be in danger of overheating. In recent weeks there have been multiple reports of these handsets catching fire, which is obviously something Google doesn't want to see continue.

The update will "reduce battery capacity and charging performance" according to Google, and will show up as part of Android 16. Only some Pixel 6a phones are affected and in danger of overheating though – Google hasn't provided too many details about this, but you can check if your device will be included via Google's website.

Now 9to5Google has uncovered some extra details. Affected Pixel 6a owners will get three options: a free battery replacement for their phone, $100 (about £75 / AU$155) in cash, or $150 (about £110 / AU$230) in Google Store credit.

The battery replacement option presumably means the battery limits put in place by Android 16 will be removed again – though you'll have to do without your phone for a few days while Google takes care of the repair job.

Whatever option you prefer, you can head here to choose it. You'll need to provide your email address and the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number of your phone to prove your eligibility – you can find your handset's IMEI number by heading to About phone from Settings.

I can't work through the steps on Google's site because I don't have a Pixel 6a IMEI number to use, but the screenshots grabbed by 9to5Google show that Payoneer will be used to deliver the cash compensation. If you're outside the US, the $100 or $150 figures will be converted into your local currency.

Interestingly, 9to5Google reports that some users have been sent vouchers for $125 (about £90 / AU$190) to put towards a Google Pixel 9a (retail price $499 / £499 / AU$849), so check your inbox – though these vouchers apparently can't be used with the $150 credit.

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• A new search ability is rolling out for the Copilot app
• It gives Windows 11 and 10 users an AI-powered search, offering natural language queries
• Copilot can also peek inside files and find relevant info you need, saving you the legwork

Windows 11 is getting a new ability for Copilot to help you find files on your PC, and quickly glean info from those files, should you want to.

Windows Latest reports that the extended search powers facilitated by AI, which were previously in testing (a few months ago) with Windows 11, are now rolling out to all users (including those on Windows 10 too).

The folk at Windows Latest have already got the new functionality for the Copilot app and tested it out, being generally impressed by the feature.

It allows the user to fire up a local search of the PC – although there are limitations on the locations covered (I'll come back to that) – within the Copilot app simply by typing a natural language query. For example: "Find my resume for that job application I made last year."

Clearly, it's nice to have the ability to search just by asking a question like this, rather than trying to use Windows search itself and (attempting to) figure out the best query – after all, who can remember exact file names, especially with older files?

Windows Latest observes that this Copilot search is fast, as it's a local search – which also includes any synced files in OneDrive – and leverages Windows search itself. In other words, there's no waiting for the Copilot app to send data to the cloud, or wait for a reply from Microsoft's servers – everything is happening on the device, and so it's pretty nippy.

The search provided is also better than a basic Windows 11 search - even though this is still how the query is ultimately being resolved - as you can use natural language as noted. Indeed, this is a kind of makeshift alternative to the nifty AI-supercharged search in Windows 11 which is offered with Copilot+ PCs - and I'm glad to see it, because most of us don't have one of those devices (I certainly don't).

On top of this, the Copilot app search also lets you surface info from files you're hunting out without even opening them. So, if you're searching for a document file full of recipes, and you want a particular recipe for a curry, say, you can ask for exactly that - and the AI will extract it from the document there and then.

This Copilot-powered search also lets you sidestep some of the bugs with the standard Windows 11 search functionality (even though it still leverages the latter to get results).

Okay, so it all sounds good overall - but not everything is sweet smelling roses. There's a notable thorn in that the scope of the search is limited to commonly used files (meaning obscure file formats may not show up). Furthermore, by default the locations covered by this AI search are limited to your essential personal folders (such as Documents and Downloads). You can, however, expand that reach and grant Copilot access to further folders if you wish.

The thornier issue still for many, though, will be privacy. It's important to note that this search capability is turned off by default, which is good, and frankly necessary, given that there are plenty of people out there who are very much against Copilot 'nosing around in their files'.

It's also worth noting that there's not just a toggle to turn on the local file search ability for Copilot, but also a separate slider to allow the AI to read your files. The latter is obviously needed for Copilot to surface material from within a file (like the aforementioned curry recipe), so if you want to perform that trick, you'll obviously need to let Copilot 'nose around' in your stuff.

If you don't want the AI to have that kind of access, you can still use the feature, but leave this second slider alone and it won't look in your files (but you'll only get the basic search in the Copilot app).

There will still be plenty of doubters around this kind of feature, mind, but as long as it's off by default, it isn't going to be a problem - you can take it or leave it. If this functionality sounds useful to you, then you can go ahead and enable it - with the rollout now apparently underway, it should hopefully be turning up on all Windows 11 and 10 PCs before too long.

• No, Windows 11 PCs aren't 'up to 2.3x faster' than Windows 10 devices, as Microsoft suggests – here's why that's an outlandish claim
• macOS Tahoe 26: here's everything you need to know about all the new features
• Can’t upgrade to Windows 11? This Linux project wants to save your old PC from the scrapheap when Windows 10 support ends

• Microsoft will end operations in Pakistan 25 years after it moved there
• Political and financial instability join tech barriers as motivations to pull out of Pakistan
• Neighboring India is set to receive $3 billion in Microsoft investments over the next two years

After reducing its headcount and operations to the bare minimum, Microsoft has now fully pulled out of Pakistan, 25 years after it opened up in the country.

The news was revealed via a LinkedIn post by Jawwad Rehman, the founding head of Microsoft Pakistan, without a formal public announcement from the company itself.

However the move was all but confirmed already, with full operations shut down in Pakistan and only a liaison office with around five employees remaining.

Although it's believed service and customer agreements will remain unaffected through partners and regional offices, Microsoft ultimately had to pul out over economic instability, political volatility and tech barriers.

"This is more than a corporate exit. It’s a sobering signal of the environment our country has created.. one where even global giants like Microsoft find it unsustainable to stay," Rehman wrote on LinkedIn.

Unstable currency, barriers to importing tech hardware, frequent political regime changes, unstable governance, internet shutdowns, content blocks and difficulty moving funds and tools across borders are among the long list of factors likely to have influenced Microsoft's decision.

In a separate post, Rehman asked the Honourable Minister of IT and the Government of Pakistan to "actively engage Microsoft’s regional and global leadership" so that the company can maintain a presence within Pakistan.

Neighboring India has emerged as a key destination for tech investment in South Asia, with Microsoft announcing plans to invest $3 billion into the country over a two-year span earlier this year.

"India is rapidly becoming a leader in AI innovation, unlocking new opportunity across the country," CEO Satya Nadella wrote.

The news comes just a few months after Microsoft also revealed plans to end its joint-venture operations in China.

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• Microsoft is struggling to sell Copilot to corporations - because their employees want ChatGPT instead

After last week's TV show-heavy streaming list, it's time for their big-screen cousins to take the spotlight.

Four big new movies have graced some of the world's best streaming services ahead of this weekend (July 4 to 6), so it'll be an Independence Day to remember for film fans in the UD. We've rounded out this week's streaming recommendations list with a couple of TV series and a sports event – yep, we cover those from time to time! – so there's plenty to watch at home over the next few days. – Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter

One of the best Netflix movies from an action viewpoint finally has a follow-up. The long-awaited The Old Guard 2 has arrived on Netflix to take us on a brand new high-octane mission.

In our review of The Old Guard, we noted that its hokey-but-entertaining premise about a team of immortal warriors who've protected the world for centuries made for great page-turning comics, but didn't exactly translate to the small screen. This was made up for by an incredible lead performance from Charlize Theron, who has returned for the sequel alongside some new characters to fight a mysterious threat.

Despite the original movie becoming an instant hit, early reviews don't look as favorable for the sequel – although it seems everyone agrees that Theron's action sequences are a highlight of one of July's new Netflix movies. – Amelia Schwanke, senior entertainment editor

• Watch The Old Guard 2 on Netflix

Good news, the incredible Sinners is now streaming on Max. Sorry, though, UK fans, you'll have to wait a bit longer for its streaming debut.

A shoo-in for our best Max movies list, Sinners not only holds an impressive 97% Rotten Tomatoes critical score, but it's been celebrated worldwide by everyday audiences, too. Ryan Coogler, known for his work on the two Black Panther movies and Ironheart for Marvel, has created something really special here.

The supernatural horror period piece follows twin criminal twin brothers (both played brilliantly by Michael B. Jordan) who return to their hometown and are confronted by a supernatural evil. It's an absolute must watch and is a real contender for horror movie of the year. – Lucy Buglass, senior entertainment writer

• Watch Sinners on Max

If Idris Elba isn’t going to be in a James Bond movie, at least he can be UK Prime Minister. He’s quite literally going head-to-head with John Cena’s US president Will Derringer in one of July's new Prime Video movies in Heads of State, too. Well, until they're forced to work together when Air Force One is shot down in enemy territory.

Based on Amazon’s previous track record with Prime Video Movie Originals, expectations for Heads of State were so low that we didn't expect it to be a shoo-in for our best Prime Video movies list, but it’s blown them away. It’s stupid, but fun stupid, and there’s a natural chemistry between our leading men that’s sorely lacking in other 2025 releases. Clearly everyone involved is having a lovely time, so why shouldn’t we? – Jasmine Valentine, streaming staff writer

• Watch Heads of State on Prime Video

I was really looking forward to season 2 of The Sandman until numerous allegations were made against Neil Gaiman, aka the author behind the original graphic novel series it's based on.

Considering how good The Sandman season 1 was, it's a crying shame that the high-fantasy series' reputation has been tarnished by the man who created its literary namesake. It might have booked a spot in this week's streaming guide, but I I won't be tuning in to watch The Sandman season 2 and I suspect many others won't on principle, either.

Still, if you plan on watching the final season of one of the best Netflix shows (well, it was until Gaiman-gate, anyway), its first six episodes are out now. Five more chapters will arrive on July 24 to bring Netflix's live-action adaptation to a close. – TP

• Watch The Sandman season 2 on Netflix

A24 has a habit of releasing bangers that fly under the radar, including Earth Mama and All Dirt Road Taste of Salt. Tipped as one to watch at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, one of three new A24 movies landing on Max in July, is next in line. Set in Zambia, the black comedy follows Shula, who finds her uncle’s dead body in the middle of the road late at night.

Finding the funny in something deadly serious, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl explores timely social issues in an expressive and meaningful way. The classic predator versus prey analogy is at its core, framed through impeccable visuals and an astute story. If you’re wanting to watch global cinema that still feels accessible, one of July's new Max movies is the perfect choice. – JV

• Watch On Becoming a Guinea Fowl on Max

Netflix has shone a light on numerous tragic incidents recently, including the surprisingly well made OceanGate documentary and the eye opening Grenfell Uncovered. Now, they're focusing on the 7/7 bombings, which occurred almost 20 years ago.

Told from multiple perspectives, this docuseries relives the moment four bombs exploded in London killing 52 people and injuring more than 700, and the weeks-long search for those responsible. Viewers will see archive footage and exclusive interviews with survivors, family members, investigators, intelligence services, and those closest to the events. A harrowing behind-the-scenes glimpse into one of the deadliest moments in recent British history. – Lucy Buglass, senior entertainment writer

• Watch Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers on Netflix

It's time to crack out the Pimms, strawberries, and cream! The Wimbledon Championships 2025 is officially underway, marking the 138th anniversary of the sporting tournament.

If you didn't manage to get a ticket to the prestigious sporting event, don't worry because you'll be able to stream all the matches from The All England Lawn Tennis Club between now and July 13.

The best part about streaming the matches is that you'll also get to see in-depth coverage of the tournament, including live commentary and player interviews. Sure, you've missed five days worth of matches, but there are still many more to watch! – AS

• Watch Wimbledon 2025 on ESPN (USA), BBC iPlayer (UK), and 9Now (Australia)

For more streaming suggestions, read our guides on the best Netflix shows, best Disney+ movies, best Prime Video shows, and best Hulu movies.