The last time we saw the character of Sid Baker in Slow Horses she was most decidedly dead.
asserted
she → see → Horses
To paraphrase another British TV hit, Monty Python’s famous dead parrot sketch, Sid had ceased to be.
asserted
Sid → paraphrase → hit
A bullet in the head will do that to you.
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bullet → do → you
The bullet hit her early in season one, broadcast in 2022, when she was on a case with her Slough House partner River Cartwright (Jack Lowden).
asserted
she → hit → partner
Was that some sexual tension we sensed between them?
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we → sense → them
Why yes, it most definitely was, which made it all the more tragic when Sid got got.
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Sid → make → ?
And so off Olivia Cooke went to make House of the Dragon, achieve global fame and look back on Slow Horses as the streaming TV mega-hit that got away.
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that → go → hit
Yet viewers of the second episode of season six of Apple’s British spy show were not mistaken: that very much was Sid Baker cropping up at the end, luring River to a safe house like the past four years had never happened.
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years → crop → house
Readers of Mick Herron’s source novels knew this was coming, but Olivia Cooke did not, at least not at first: when she was cast in early 2021, Cooke assumed that Slow Horses would be a one and done.
“I was devastated because I really got invested with River and Sid, but I knew that I was always going to get shot in the head and disappear.
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I → know → head
Which is a funny thing to know,” she says.
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she → know → ?
Sid, it emerged, wasn’t dead, she had just been put in an induced coma.
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she → emerge → coma
Towards the end of series one it was revealed that MI5 had no record of anyone called “Sidonie Baker” ever existing.
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anyone → reveal → record
In backstory, in Cooke’s mind at least, “there was an intense rehabilitation process where she had to learn to talk and walk again.
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she → be → mind
She made a miraculous recovery!”
asserted
She → make → recovery
Further episodes of Slow Horses revealed that Sid had been a plant from MI5 boss Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) to keep an eye on River.
asserted
Sid → reveal → River
“The years in the interim have been incredibly lonely for Sid, with a lack of autonomy as well,” says Cooke, “because she’s been in this holding pattern with Taverner, not really knowing when she’s going to be used, if she’s going to be used again, or why she’s being held in this certain location.
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she → say → location
Until she feels like someone is after her.
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someone → feel → her
And then the only person she can think of who she felt relatively safe with is River.
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she → think → who
That’s why she goes hunting him down.”
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she → ’ → him
Between Sid 1.0 and 2.0 Slow Horses has galloped from strength to strength, even without one of its best characters.
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Horses → gallop → characters
(In fairness, it seems to kill off a fan favourite almost every season).
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it → seem → favourite
In the last three years the spy thriller has racked up 23 Emmy nominations, including three wins, and is regularly cited as one of the best shows on TV.
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thriller → rack → TV
Cooke, meanwhile, has had to watch and wait.
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Cooke → have → ?
“There were various availability checks over the years and then I was also badgering my agent because I remained such a massive fan of the show,” she says.
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she → be → show
“The call came at the end of 2024 — ‘They want to shoot with you and here’s the story breakdown.’
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breakdown → come → you
Sid reappears just as the slow horses – a group of washed-up MI5 agents sent to a backwater office to see out supposedly mothballed careers — find themselves being gunned down, one by one, by a pair of ruthless Russians (MyAnna Buring and Kyle Soller).
asserted
themselves → reappear → Russians
Sid finds River before the Russians do, and together they head out on the run together.
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they → find → run
“We did it within five weeks,” Cooke says.
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Cooke → do → weeks
Adam [Randall, the show’s Emmy award-winning director] would have to tell me on many occasions, ‘Olivia! You’re being chased … stop looking like you’re enjoying it!’”
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you → win → it
First, writer Mick Herron had to resurrect Sid in his stories (which he duly did in the 2021 book Slough House).
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he → have → book
Second, the TV series had to catch up with Herron’s books – this sixth season is based on his sixth and seventh books, Joe Country and Slough House).
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season → have → books
And finally, Cooke had to find time to film it – a lead role in HBO’s swords and sorcery behemoth House of the Dragon as Queen Alicent Hightower meant she was already a little busy.
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she → have → Hightower
“I remember seeing Jack [Lowden] or Saskia [Reeves, who plays Catherine Standish] over the years, and they’d be like, ‘When are you coming back?
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you → remember → years
You know, you are coming back, right … you’re in the books!
asserted
you → know → books
We’re waiting for you – don’t let dragons get in the way!
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dragons → wait → way
That was never going to happen.
asserted
That → go → ?
Cooke is about as down to earth a screen star as you could wish to meet (she even asks for permission to take her shoes off and put her feet on her own sofa during our Zoom call).
“I just said, ‘Are you joking me?
uncertain
you → wish → me
I’m absolutely desperate to come back.’
asserted
I → ’m → ?
I’ve been what the kids would call ‘bread crumbed’ for the past four years [giving someone sporadic, low-effort attention to keep them interested without ever intending to commit] – while also watching as a fan and being green with envy that everyone’s having such a good time.”
asserted
everyone → call → time
Cooke likes the role for the same reason.
asserted
Cooke → like → reason
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia
