For Slow Horses fans, discovering Down Cemetery Road feels like a strange kind of relief — and a delicious irony. The new Apple TV+ series carries all the elements we love from Mick Herron’s world: espionage, dry humor, bureaucratic failure, and characters so painfully human they linger long after the credits roll. The twist? This time the story is led by Zoë Boehm, portrayed with magnetic depth by Emma Thompson — a woman who existed long before Jackson Lamb, yet shares his soul, wit, and weariness.

Yes, before Slough House, there was Oxford. Before Lamb’s chaos, there was Zoë’s solitude. And she came years earlier.

From Page to Screen

Published in 2003, Down Cemetery Road marked Mick Herron’s literary debut — the first of four novels centered on private investigator Zoë Boehm (The Last Voice You Hear, Why We Die, Smoke and Whispers followed).

In its original form, the story blends domestic mystery with political thriller. Sarah Tucker, a seemingly ordinary woman, witnesses an explosion in Oxford. When she discovers a missing child tied to the event, she becomes entangled in a web of secrets. Enter Zoë Boehm — a sharp-tongued, world-weary private detective with a strict moral code and zero patience for hypocrisy. Together, they dig into a case that grows darker and more dangerous with every revelation — exactly the kind of morally tangled web Herron would later perfect in Slow Horses.

Who Is Zoë Boehm?

Zoë Boehm is, in many ways, the prototype of Jackson Lamb. Cynical, solitary, and driven by a fractured sense of justice, she operates in the gray zones between what’s right and what’s real. Where Lamb is the wreckage left after decades inside the system, Zoë is the version still fighting — reluctantly, quietly, but fighting nonetheless.

On screen, Emma Thompson captures Zoë’s contradictions beautifully. Her performance carries that unmistakable British balance of acerbic wit and quiet melancholy. The weariness in her eyes, the sardonic humor, the way she turns restraint into rebellion — it’s a masterclass. Like Gary Oldman did with Lamb, Emma finds humanity in cynicism.

Emma Thompson at Her Finest

Casting Emma Thompson is nothing short of inspired. An Oscar-winner for both acting (Howards End) and writing (Sense and Sensibility), she moves between comedy and tragedy with ease — the perfect match for Herron’s tone. As Zoë, Thompson is effortless: sharp, funny, and achingly human. It feels almost predestined, as if Herron had written her two decades ago without realizing it.

Just as Oldman elevated Lamb into an icon, Thompson anchors Zoë with grace and gravity. She turns a character defined by disillusionment into something magnetic — a woman too smart to be fooled, too bruised to care, yet still too human to give up.

Oxford, Secrets, and Survival

Set in the quiet sprawl of Oxford, the series hides its tension beneath calm surfaces. In the first two episodes, Zoë crosses paths with Sarah Tucker, played by Ruth Wilson, whose mix of fragility and determination makes her an ideal counterbalance. The chemistry between Thompson and Wilson is electric — one world-weary, the other restless — and it becomes the emotional core of the show.

Their dynamic is as much about truth as it is about redemption. Sarah forces Zoë to care again, to feel, to risk empathy in a world that punishes it. That tension gives Down Cemetery Road its heart — a slow-burn story where every revelation hurts a little more than the last.

With six episodes and sleek direction, Down Cemetery Road is not just another British thriller — it’s a rediscovered origin story. And now, with Emma Thompson at the helm, what once felt like a forgotten prelude becomes a brilliant, standalone symphony.

Because, in the end, the irony is perfect: Zoë Boehm got there first. The world just took its time catching up.