Apple TV+ is now streaming a major British thriller that 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 stars Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson in a gripping Oxford-based mystery packed with explosions, conspiracies, and Herron's trademark dark wit.
The story kicks off in an apparently peaceful Oxford suburb, where an ordinary evening is shattered when a house suddenly blows up. On that very same night, a young girl goes missing. Neighbour Sarah Tucker (Ruth Wilson) quickly becomes convinced the two incidents are connected.
Unable to shake her suspicions, she calls upon private investigator Zoë Boehm (Emma Thompson), a woman haunted by her own emotional baggage, to help unravel what really happened. Together, Sarah and Zoë unpick a complex web of secrets hinting that people long assumed dead are actually alive — while others are being killed off at an alarming rate.
Apple TV+ has described the drama as bearing "all the hallmarks of Mick Herron's funny and acerbic writing," while billing it as an "unmissable companion piece" for fans of Slow Horses.
Oscar-winner Emma Thompson takes the lead as Zoë Boehm, a razor-sharp but troubled detective, while Golden Globe-winner Ruth Wilson portrays Sarah Tucker, the tenacious neighbour whose persistence drags them both into danger. The cast is a powerhouse ensemble brimming with award-winning talent and familiar faces from British film and television. Joining Thompson and Wilson, the line-up includes 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 unexpected. Yet Down Cemetery Road carries an entirely different energy. Ruth Wilson opened up to TV Insider, saying: "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 original novel earned widespread critical praise, with Audiofile Magazine observing: "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 declared: "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 available to stream on Apple TV now.
