For most viewers, Olivia Cooke is Alicent Hightower, the queen at the centre of HBO’s House of the Dragon, four seasons deep in a civil war over a throne. But a few months before that show premiered in 2022, Cooke turned up in something much smaller and much quieter for Apple TV.
She appeared in the role of Sidonie “Sid” Baker in the first season of Slow Horses, a sharp MI5 agent stuck at Slough House, the department where the service dumps its failures. She lasted three episodes. In the second one, she was shot in the head while tailing a journalist, and MI5 declared her dead.
Except that the viewers never saw a body. And Roddy Ho later found that her records had been quietly wiped. Six years on, Apple has finally answered the question. The Season 6 trailer ends with River Cartwright frozen at the bottom of a staircase, staring at Sid at the top.
Olivia Cooke on Her Unexpected Return to Slow Horses Season 6
Olivia Cooke half expected this comeback, which came up during her recent conversation with Elle. Speaking to Elle, she said there had always been “murmurings” around a possible comeback, but nothing solid enough to count on. However, she shared that over the years, producers repeatedly checked whether she was free. She shared:
I didn’t know how faithfully they were going to keep to the books, but there were various availability checks over the years. I was like, “Okay, they’re still hoping to use me at some point.” I was biding my time because I was desperate to work. I’ve been such a fan in the interim.
In the books, Sid comes back in Slough House, the seventh book in Herron’s series. She shared that the shoot itself was compressed. She filmed her scenes at the end of 2024, straight off Prime Video’s The Girlfriend, cramming everything into roughly five weeks of night shoots before the Christmas break.
She shared, “It was really joyful, even though we’re being chased and shot at.” She felt that it felt like adult play after the intense shoot of both The Girlfriend and House of the Dragon. Keeping it quiet was another matter. Cooke has cheerfully admitted she told a lot of people, mostly by accident.
She shared that friends would ask what she was working on, and she would say Slow Horses, and they would point out that her character died. She says she finds it very hard to keep secrets about herself.
What Does Olivia Cooke’s Return Mean for the Show?
Gary Oldman in a still from Slow Horses | Credits: Apple TV
Slow Horses Season 6 adapts Herron’s Joe Country and Slough House, and the premise is brutal. Someone is killing off Slough House staff, past and present. Anyone who has ever passed through the building is a target. It makes Olivia Cooke’s supposedly dead agent either the safest person in London or the next name on the list.
Diana Taverner, now installed as First Desk after the Season 5 finale, is the one dragging the team into it. That matters because Taverner is the person who told everyone Sid had died in the first place. Whatever explanation arrives, it runs straight through her.
Sid’s death has shadowed River since the pilot, and the show has never let him fully close it. Handing him back the person he was told he lost is the most personal move the series has made in years.
What do you think of Olivia Cooke’s return to Slow Horses? Let us know in the comments below!
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