Image via Apple TV
Published Oct 21, 2026, 3:00 AM EDT
Carly Lane is an Atlanta-based writer and critic who has been with Collider in some form or fashion since 2021. She considers herself a television nerd, diehard romance/sci-fi/fantasy reader, and nascent horror lover. Her fondness of books is only eclipsed by the towering TBR that her shelves can't possibly contain.
She is the author of A REGENCY GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE: 1800s ADVICE ON 21ST CENTURY LOVE, FRIENDS, FUN AND MORE, published through DK Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) and currently available wherever books are sold.
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Editor's note: The below interview contains major spoilers for the Slow Horses Season 6 finale.
On that incredibly surprising note, Slow Horses Season 6 has officially come to a close, with the motley crew of Slough House left to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of Frank Harkness' (Hugo Weaving) assault on Diana Taverner's (Kristin Scott Thomas) country house. There's at least one uncertain fate left dangling ahead of an already confirmed Season 7, which could threaten the potential future that River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and Sid Baker (Olivia Cooke) want to have. Yet the book doesn't officially close on this particular season without a series of devastating farewells.
First, fans said goodbye to the taciturn but endearing Slough House agent J.K. Coe (Tom Brooke), and now, one of the team's newest and most unexpected members has officially fallen. Before the premiere of the Season 6 finale, "Judgment Day," Collider spoke with Slow Horses star Ruth Bradley about her three-season tenure on the Apple TV spy thriller, why knowing about Flyte's fate long before this week's finale gave her the freedom to play many different aspects of the character, the last scene she filmed (and why it allowed her to grieve Flyte in her own way), and more.
COLLIDER: How early did the conversations start about Flyte’s fate in Season 6?
RUTH BRADLEY: From before I shot my first scene in Season 4, I knew what was gonna happen in Season 6. I've known the whole time. But it's in the books, and they're really faithful to the books.
In many ways, Flyte becoming a member of Slough House feels like what her arc was always building to. From the moment she was introduced, there was a reluctant partnership between her and Lamb especially, but I would love to hear your thoughts on her evolution in Slow Horses.
BRADLEY: It is just such a joy for an actor to play because, obviously, I had the books — I had four, five, and six — but we had a chat about what was going to happen. I didn't know about [Season] 6 being an amalgamation of two books until later, but we knew that that was going to happen to her in [Season] 6, and it just gave me real license to push hard on these different aspects of Flyte throughout each season. It meant that I could really go in for not being likable in Season 4, for being haughty and entitled, and know that I would have a chance to show a bit of humility in [Season] 5, and trying to approach it in a new way.
And then [Season] 6, total demise, but actually herself, the real Flyte, without trying to be anything that she's not — at home with too much whiskey and a lot of sadness. I loved that it felt full circle to me that she's initially so judgmental of Lamb for drinking in [Seasons] 4 and 5, and maybe because she also has the capacity to go that way herself, and she's constantly aware of it, which is why she judges him harshly, as we do in reality.
Ruth Bradley Reveals Which Scrapped Book Scene She Wanted To Bring Back for 'Slow Horses' Season 6
"... that didn't materialize in the show, and I really missed that scene."
Image via Apple TVThis is really the first time this season that we've seen Flyte at her most understated — out of her tailored work clothes, hair down. What were you looking forward to most about showing a side of her that maybe fans weren't expecting?
BRADLEY: To be honest, it might sound strange, but I was really gutted in Season 4. There was a scene in the book where she is at the bar, and she's drinking beers with chasers, and she has a phone call with Taverner, and she gives her what-for, and that didn't materialize in the show, and I really missed that scene. I remember early on speaking to [showrunner] Will [Smith] about, “Can we get something like that back in at some stage?”
Really, in Season 6, she's supposed to be drinking Vitamin Water in the script. She's at home in her tracksuit, drinking Vitamin Water and her gin beer, and I just said to [director] Adam [Randall], “Can we bring back some of the drinks, some of the alcohol from Season 4?” Because I really felt like that could change so much for a character and what's going on, and the apartment was so nondescript, and her costume was so... it could be anybody. I just thought, “Maybe she's always on the brink of trying not to drink too much.” And in this season, it's the worst moment of her life. How about she just has all the drinks and just goes into comfort eating on the couch while they're all talking, and she's just, like, “Pass me more Christmas cake,” and gone off biscuits because everything she's planned for her life is gone?
I suppose she would have picked herself up in a week or so and made a new plan, but what's amazing about the season is we really see her in that moment that we all have in our lives when something doesn't work out — a job, breakup, grief — and she's just like, “Oh, I'm just going to sit in this pain.” And then all this mad stuff happens around her. So it was great because it felt like the humanity is still going alongside the action and the story and the plot, which is what's so brilliant about this show. And what an amazing show that I could say to our brilliant director, “Can I have whiskey? Can I open a bottle of wine?” And then he's like, “Yeah! Do it.” Really, it's incredibly collaborative, and that's rare.
Last season we spoke about the interrogation scene where Flyte uses Roddy’s crush on her to push past his bluster and defenses to get more answers out of him. In many ways, he's still crushing on her, but when it counts, like at Taverner’s house when Harkness’s men descend on the place, Flyte tells Roddy to protect Reece, and it feels like she knows she can rely on him in the moment. What did you enjoy about unpacking more of those layers with Chris [Chung] this season?
BRADLEY: What's brilliant about the way Chris plays Roddy is that there is a glimmer of something in him that you’re like, “There’s something not so awful about him.” Even though everything he says is awful, and his behavior can be gross, there is some little nugget of goodness in there — which I think Flyte sees.
She knows she can rely on him to take care of Reece and to listen when she's like, “I'm going to get out of the bird box, and I'm going to sort this out.” She recognizes that in him, which I don't know that other people do, really. So, it would have been interesting to see what would have happened. Maybe they would have gotten married and run off into the sunset. Who knows? [Laughs]
You perform a lot of action-heavy sequences, especially in the finale — not just exchanging gunfire in the house, but running down the beach, which definitely seems like it would take a toll no matter how many times you have to do it.
BRADLEY: By Season 6, Episode 6, I was like, “I'm enjoying this stuff now.” It wasn't, “Gosh, we’re doing it again?” Previously in my career, I’d done limited action sequences, but by Season 6, I had a really comfortable rapport with Paul Kennington, our amazing stunt coordinator, and the armorers, and felt very safe.
Running down the beach, even though it’s hard on the knees — notoriously, sprinting in sand, not an enjoyable thing to do — even that was great because the sun was setting, and it all felt like an old Western or something. We did so many things in that last season, actually, but we were back with Adam, who’s like the king of stunt sequences, and we're all in that house. It was just actually really fun, really good fun.
Ruth Bradley Didn't Overprepare for Her 'Slow Horses' Death Scene
"... it was really helpful not to discuss it too much and just jump in there and play it."
Image via Apple TVNow I even hate to bring up the scene in question, but in rewatching it, I like that Flyte gets a shot off at Harkness, too. She's not going to go down without a fight. What were the conversations like about the action beats of that scene, and what did you want to emphasize about what Flyte's last thoughts were with Harkness standing over her?
BRADLEY: We didn't actually discuss it much. I was like, “When are we going to talk about this?” Just before we shot it, we kind of said, “Which shoulder is she gonna get…?” We just marked it. “It’s going to be the left shoulder.” And then I was like, “Okay, I’m going to spin over this way, and then I’ll just move back.” And then Adam was like, “Maybe throw your gun at him.” I was like, “It's a dummy gun. I'll just go for it.”
In the stage directions, it said she realizes this is her last moment, and that was it. So, we didn't discuss it at all, actually. We just talked about how I was going to do it physically, and we shot it. We didn't do it loads and loads of times, which was brilliant, actually, because sometimes an immediacy can be lost. And for your final moments on earth, which we're all going to experience at some stage, it’s not something I've ever had before, so it was really helpful not to discuss it too much and just jump in there and play it.
Was the last scene you filmed the moment when Roddy finds Flyte, after she's been shot?
BRADLEY: That was kind of brilliant because it was the final week of the shoot. Flyte was shot on the Monday and then the whole season wrapped on the Friday, and for the three days between, I was just lying on that beach. Chris found me watching the sunset. Sometimes in a big wide, Adam would come up and be like, “How are you?” and I would just be sobbing in the sand, like, “It's so moving!” [Laughs] I could hear all these people talking around me.
Because usually as an actor, you finish a job, move on, and grieve the character at home, but I had the ability to do it on the beach in the sand for a few days with all this fake blood on my back. So, it was kind of moving. Yeah, it was perfect.
I don't know if you and Chris spoke about this, but when I asked him about how Roddy is going to be coping with losing Flyte, he brought up the fact that in one of the last moments of the episode, when Standish comes to collect him for the Slow Horses’ wake, and he's playing a video game, it's Roddy basically trying to replay the events of what happened on the beach, where he gets to be the hero and save the girl.
BRADLEY: Oh my God! That’s so cute. Well, I haven't seen Season 7, but I hope he has a shrine to Flyte in the corner of his desk. Somewhere near his condoms drawer. [Laughs]
All six seasons of Slow Horses are available to stream on Apple TV, with Season 7 set to premiere at a date yet to be announced.
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