Ruth Wilson and Emma Thompson star in Down Cemetery Road (Image: Matt Towers/Apple TV)
Apple TV is streaming a major British thriller – and this one springs directly from the imagination of bestselling author Mick Herron.
Down Cemetery Road, adapted from Herron’s debut 2003 novel, is being positioned as an essential companion to his enormously popular Slow Horses franchise.
The eight-episode series features Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson in a gripping Oxford-based mystery that delivers explosions, conspiracies, and Herron’s signature dark wit.
The narrative opens in a seemingly tranquil Oxford suburb, where an ordinary evening is torn apart when a house suddenly explodes. On that very same night, a young girl vanishes.
Neighbour Sarah Tucker (Ruth Wilson) rapidly becomes convinced the two incidents are linked.
Ruth Wilson is starring in Down Cemetery Road (Image: Apple TV)
Unable to dismiss her suspicions, she enlists private investigator Zoë Boehm (Emma Thompson), a woman carrying her own emotional scars, to help piece together what truly occurred.
Together, Sarah and Zoë uncover a tangled web of secrets suggesting people long presumed dead are, in fact, alive – while others are meeting violent deaths at a disturbing rate.
Apple TV+ has characterised the drama as bearing “all the hallmarks of Mick Herron’s funny and acerbic writing,” while presenting it as an “unmissable companion piece” for devotees of Slow Horses.
Oscar-winner Emma Thompson leads as Zoë Boehm, a sharp but struggling detective, while Golden Globe-winner Ruth Wilson plays Sarah Tucker, the neighbour whose determination pulls them both into danger.
The cast is a powerhouse ensemble packed with award-winning talent and well-known faces from British film and television.
Emma Thompson in Down Cemetery Road (Image: Apple TV)
Alongside Thompson and Wilson, the line-up features Adeel Akhtar as Hamza, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Downey, Tom Goodman-Hill as Gerard, Darren Boyd as C. and more.
Given Herron’s reputation for razor-sharp spy fiction, comparisons to Apple’s critically acclaimed Slow Horses are hardly surprising. Yet Down Cemetery Road carries an entirely different charge.
Speaking to TV Insider, Ruth Wilson explained: “It gets mad as it goes on and gets more wild and dangerous, and the landscape changes, and in the way it’s shot is all wild and brutal in the last three, and it feels like a sort of action movie thriller by the end.
“That’s why it’s different to Slow Horses. It’s a road movie and it’s an odyssey for these two characters, and through it, they’re finding things out about themselves as they go.
“It is in the same world and the same humour and wit, but actually structurally, it’s quite different.”
The source novel garnered widespread critical acclaim, with Audiofile Magazine noting: “Mick Herron skillfully weaves a complex story with interesting snippets of current events . . . This is the perfect choice for those who like to analyze many layers and false starts as a story unfolds.”
The Guardian added: “A not-to-be-missed treat . . . Herron’s incisive portraits are as pitch perfect as ever, and even if you’ve read this series before, it’s worth reminding yourself of its excellence.”
Down Cemetery Road is streaming on Apple TV now.