The agents of Slow Horses each have a unique reason for their demotion to Slough House, and one character’s backstory happened in real life. In the show, MI5 spies who are no longer up to snuff end up at Jackson Lamb’s (Gary Oldman) dumping ground, and it’s often a single misstep that results in their expulsion from Britain’s top spy agency. While Slow Horses may not be a perfect depiction of MI5, the series offers a dose of reality to the espionage genre, skillfully portraying the unexpected journeys of these outcast agents.

Not all of Slow Horses‘ Slough House agents share the embarrassing tale that got them kicked out, but some are open about their blunder. Others, like River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and Min Harper (Dustin Demri-Burns), make public errors they cannot escape. It’s these flaws that make the characters far more relatable than those in most other spy thrillers. However, what sets Apple TV+’s adaptation of Mick Herron’s Slough House novel series apart even further is that some of these backstories are based on actual events.

Min Harper’s Slow Horses Backstory Happened In Real Life

Min’s Reason For Joining Slough House Is Similar To A Real-Life Event

In Slow Horses season 1, episode 2, “Work Drinks,” Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) and Min Harper share a drink after a rough day in the office. The casual moment reveals the reason for Harper’s Slough House demotion was a shameful and widely-known incident: he left top-secret documents on a train. The Slow Horses spy expands, sharing he wasn’t aware of what he’d done until he heard in the media that a private citizen had found the sensitive materials. His wife, Clare, provided no support, and Harper implies this led to their divorce.

Herron doesn’t usually draw from real-world events for his stories. However, in a Wall Street Journal interview, he admitted that he does occasionally. Herron revealed that the seventh book in his award-winning novel series was inspired by the 2018 nerve agent poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England. Although the author hasn’t confirmed any connection, it appears that Min Harper’s backstory in the Apple TV+ adaptation of his spy novels is similarly ripped from the headlines.

What Happened In The Real Train Documents Case

An Unknown Spy Made A Blunder Familiar To Slow Horses Viewers

In 2008, a BBC report uncovered a serious national security breach in the UK when they obtained top secret documents. The British news outlet reported that a civil servant left papers containing classified intelligence about the terrorist group al-Qaeda on the seat of a train.

Another passenger noticed the envelope with the top secret files and handed them over to the BBC, who then reported it to the police. Although the forgetful senior civil servant wasn’t named, they were suspended, and UK cabinet members called for an inquiry into the incident. By drawing upon real-life cases and injecting them into the Apple TV+ series, Slow Horses gains a layer of authenticity and relevance that feeds into the show’s gritty style.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, BBC