‘Slow Horses’ Star Saskia Reeves Says She Does All Her Own Stunts as Catherine Standish

Apple TV+’s ‘Slow Horses‘ has built its reputation on an ensemble of misfits and washouts, but it’s the show’s veteran actresses who have quietly become some of its most compelling presences. Behind Gary Oldman’s scene-devouring Jackson Lamb sits a cast of MI5 rejects whose depth only becomes clear the longer you 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 quit. What began as a quietly dowdy, background presence in the show’s earliest episodes has steadily evolved into one of its most formidable figures, culminating in moments where Catherine handles herself with the composure of the veteran spy she once was.

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

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

Reeves isn’t the only cast member using the press cycle to talk openly about ageing on screen. Co-star Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays MI5 power player Diana Taverner, has spoken candidly about what it means to play women who are negotiating with their own power while, as she put it, declaring war on ageism. Scott Thomas has described real resistance toward the idea of older women still having their wits about them, contrasting how men are typically read as gaining authority with age while women are too often dismissed.

That thematic throughline 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 typically portrayed on screen. For a series built largely around washed-up operatives proving they still have something to offer, that framing extends naturally to its cast’s own real-world reflections on ageing in the 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.

Not everyone will make it out of Slough House alive.#SlowHorses Season 6 premieres September 16. pic.twitter.com/uznKQ0VSAE

— Apple TV (@AppleTV) August 18, 2026

Given how much further Reeves has taken the character since her early 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 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 with audiences.

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