‘Slow Horses’ Star Saskia Reeves Just Revealed Her Secret Stunt Skills

Apple TV+’s ‘Slow Horses’ has built its reputation around a colorful ensemble of misfits and washouts, but it’s often the show’s veteran actresses who quietly become some of its most compelling presences. Behind Gary Oldman’s scene-stealing turn as Jackson Lamb sits a cast of MI5 rejects whose real depth only reveals itself the longer viewers spend with them.

Saskia Reeves has spent the show’s entire run building exactly that kind of slow-burn character work as Catherine Standish, the recovering alcoholic personal assistant who keeps Slough House functioning despite constantly threatening to walk away. What began as a quietly reserved, background presence in the show’s earliest episodes has steadily evolved into one of its most formidable figures, with Catherine now handling herself with the composure of the trained operative she once was.

That evolution has become a genuine talking point heading into the show’s new season. In a new interview, Reeves revealed that she performs her own stunts for the physically demanding moments Catherine’s arc has increasingly called for, a detail that underscores just how far the character has traveled from her early days as the show’s most reserved presence.

That physical transformation tracks closely with how the show’s own creative team has described Catherine’s development over time. Director James Hawes has previously described watching Reeves’ character reawaken across earlier seasons, noting how she progresses from a quiet, conservative woman in the premiere to someone visibly comfortable handling a firearm by the show’s later episodes. Hawes credited Reeves’ own research alongside a former MI6 officer for grounding those moments in genuine tradecraft rather than typical action-movie shorthand.

First trailer for ‘SLOW HORSES’ Season 6.

Releasing September 16 on Apple TV. pic.twitter.com/lktVB8KP8v

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) August 18, 2026

Reeves isn’t the only cast member using this press cycle to speak candidly about ageing on screen. Co-star Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays MI5 power player Diana Taverner, has described what it means to portray women negotiating their own power while, in her words, declaring war on ageism within the industry. Scott Thomas has pointed to real resistance toward the idea of older women still being sharp and capable, contrasting how men are typically read as gaining authority with age while women are too often dismissed outright.

That thematic thread appears to run through much of how the show’s older female characters are written and performed, giving both Reeves and Scott Thomas material that pushes back against how women over fifty are traditionally portrayed on screen. For a series fundamentally built around washed-up operatives proving they still have something to offer, that framing extends naturally into the cast’s own real-world reflections on getting older within the entertainment industry.

‘Slow Horses’ has adapted five of Mick Herron’s Slough House novels across its first five seasons, with the sixth season, based on the novel “Joe Country,” set to premiere September 16. A seventh season adapting “Bad Actors” has already been confirmed, ensuring Catherine’s story, and whatever new physical demands come with it, still has plenty of runway left ahead.

Given how much further Reeves has taken the character since her earliest episodes, there’s every reason to expect Catherine’s more capable, battle-tested side to keep expanding as the show heads into its sixth outing. Whether that means even more stunt work for Reeves herself remains to be seen, but her willingness to take those scenes on personally has clearly become part of what makes Catherine Standish resonate so strongly with audiences.

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