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To paraphrase some of the very first words grumbled out of the mouth of crotchety leader of rejects, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), “another series has dawned of MI fucking useless”, also known as Slow Horses. Yes, the funny, fast-paced spy thriller is back and the ragtag crew of undistinguished spies has more on its plate than ever.
The Apple+ series has been a bit of a sleeper hit. The streaming platform doesn’t do a lot of marketing – an odd business move in this day and age. Its best shows become popular through fans evangelising about them. (If you’ve not watched Severance, what have you been doing?).
The person who evangelised Slow Horses to me was my dad. So great is his love for the show that when he found out the fourth season was being filmed in his local area, Crystal Palace, he attempted to track down Oldman through tip-offs he found in neighbourhood groups. His intel was correct, to be fair, and I have the grainy pictures of Oldman wearily walking up a hill to prove it. While my dad might not be an expert in intelligence, our reviewer is and he loves the show too.
Robert Dover is a professor of intelligence and national security and he says Slow Horses is one of the best things on TV right now. While he wouldn’t wish any of the characters on the real MI5, he believes they are sharply observed and complex and he enjoys the show’s antipathy to government intelligence agencies – and those who run them. As someone who has consumed a lot of spy drama, he said: “Balancing complex drama and clever comedy is difficult but perfectly executed here.”
Read more: Slow Horses: high drama and comedy abound in this gripping spy thriller about reject spooks
Reunions and revolts
The biggest and most exciting return recently has been that of Oasis. The feuding brothers have got it together to go on tour next year, something that fans never thought would happen. They are doing 19 nights across the UK and Ireland in 2025 and getting tickets has been a complicated and anger-inducing experience. The discourse around their return has also been infuriating with old and new fans clashing over who deserves to see the band more.
While it’s been hard to get away from this ugliness, we want to focus on the music. Oasis’s songs bring people together. They are catchy, easy to play and oh so singable. I can’t tell you how many times I have belted the worlds to Wonderwall or Don’t Look Back in Anger with strangers.
Oasis’s debut album Definitely, Maybe turned 30 this year and Glen Fosbrey, an expert in song lyrics, writes about what has made it such a modern classic.
Read more: Oasis reunion: five things that made Definitely Maybe a modern classic
If you’re looking for easier tickets to get, we recommend heading to Women in Revolt! at National Galleries of Scotland’s Modern Two in Edinburgh. Art meets social history as the show, which is organised chronologically, examines the feminist waves of the 1970s and 1980s. From film and painting to sculpture and printmaking, it is a colossal exhibition featuring more than 100 artists that sought to interrupt the status quo in art and society at the time.
As our reviewer Katarzyna Kosmala, an expert in visual arts says: “In Women in Revolt!, the private is political, everyday life is political, and the art of women’s struggle is political.” This is an exhibition to take your time at, it is detailed, diverse and meticulous. It deserves your attention and you’ll be glad for giving it.
Read more: Women in Revolt! Exhibition showcases the feminist activist artists who used art to change lives
Maternal ties
If you’d rather stay home, why not curl up with a book? Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker is a tale of trauma and motherhood. Clove has an adoring husband, two healthy, happy children and a comfortable home in Portland, US. However, this carefully maintained veneer is a pretty dam against her abusive childhood, a past she is keeping (along with her real name) secret. Unsurprisingly, the dam is not made of hardy stuff. When she receives a letter from her mother, who is in a women’s prison in California, leaks quickly start to form and no amount of expensive vitamins or sustainable clothing can stop it.
Clove is forced to confront her feelings about the mother who couldn’t protect her or leave her violent father. Most of all she must confront what happened on the fateful night that landed her mother in prison. With small shocks and many turns, the story moves to and fro between her past with her mother and her present intense relationship with a charismatic woman called Jane.
Our reviewer, Sally O’Reilly, found it a breathless examination of madness and the ties between women, and a raw depiction of the reverberations of domestic violence in survivors’ lives. While there are some improbable twists, the pacing and writing will have you gripped until the end.
Read more: Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker: a tumultuous examination of the impact of domestic abuse on motherhood
If you’d rather watch something, our summer of sport is coming to an end this Sunday with the Paralympic closing ceremony. It’s been an intense summer with so many highs (and many lows). These Paralympic games have been thrilling. I couldn’t stop watching the viral clip of India’s 17-year-old Sheetal Devi getting a bullseye, in particular.
In this piece, media academic Andy Miah writes about the history of the games and the spirit Paris’s have hoped to embody, as outlined in an exhibition that is on at the Panetheon until the end of the month. As he writes, these games have highlighted that “difference doesn’t require us to make comparisons in order to evaluate worth, but to recognise that it is an inherent feature of a progressive, equitable and well-rounded society.” The closing ceremony is sure to project this further.
That’s it from us this week, let us know if you end up watching, visiting or reading any of our recommendations.
Read more: ‘Differently abled’: new Paris exhibition reveals how attitudes to paralympic sport have changed
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