Then you have to pivot into a different sort of atmosphere, into the world of Slough House.” “Right from the get-go, I thought that we could use a song in the opening to help us set the tone, particularly with the first show, which has a very dynamic, perhaps more conventional action opening. “It is a resoundingly British show in a very confident British genre, which had to find a flavor of its own,” he says. You don’t want to make it too serious.” He didn’t see any of the series until after he’d finished the song, which included a three-and-a-half minute version slated for release Friday via Polydor Records / Universal Music.ĭirector James Hawes traces the need for an unusual theme song back to the start of discussions about the score in 2020. “It’s also slightly eerie, so it combines those two things. “It’s quite irreverent, but the Gary Oldman character is irreverent,” Jagger explains. Jagger’s lyrics convey something of the dilemma faced by the principals: “Surrounded by losers, misfits and boozers / hanging by your fingernails / you made one mistake, you got burned at the stake / you’re finished, you’re foolish, you’ve failed…” Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, Olivia Cooke and Jonathan Pryce also star in the six-part series. Lamb runs Slough House, the rundown building that is home to all of MI5’s failures, all of whom are eager to redeem themselves and return to the Regent’s Park headquarters as full-fledged agents. And then we had to do a bit of crafting, trying to get a chorus, calling it ‘Strange Game’ and trying to get the verses from the point of view of the main character,” referring to Jackson Lamb, played by Gary Oldman in the series. That was very weird, playing guitar for Mick Jagger on the Zoom line.”Īdds Jagger: “I just recorded it on my iPhone and sent it to him, and he loved it. “I played him the track on guitar,” Pemberton recalls. He and Jagger didn’t meet due to COVID restrictions, but in December of last year began a whirlwind series of Zoom calls, emails and text messages.

Slow Horses by Mick Herron