Slow Horses sombre’ first episode ends with a touching tribute – who was John Usher?

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The fifth season of *Slow Horses* arrives with a sense of weariness, matching the exhaustion even its cynical spymaster, Jackson Lamb (played by Gary Oldman), seems to carry.

Last season was rough, man. Meeting my character River’s dad again – seriously messed up, totally psychotic – led to a lot of destruction and, sadly, Marcus’ death. It’s really shaken up the whole team; we’re all on edge and just trying to cope with everything that happened.

They were on the verge of losing control, about to react impulsively and with anger. However, Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) still had a keen sense of danger, noticing a problem that her discouraged coworkers were ignoring.

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Okay, so things got really weird with Roddy Ho (aka Christopher Chung). First, I thought someone actually *tried* to take him out, which was super concerning. But then, even more surprisingly, he dropped the news he was starting to date someone! It was a total one-two punch of drama.

Viewers of the trailer will recognize that Shirley’s concerns are justified. The trailer shows a series of terror attacks-starting with the mass shooting in the first episode-may be linked to Ho’s new partner.

The first episode beautifully explored the difficult emotions surrounding loss, serving as a heartfelt tribute to a member of the *Slow Horses* team who had died. The episode was also dedicated to his memory, but who exactly was John Usher?

Who was Slow Horses’ John Usher?

The opening credits of the episode included a tribute to John Usher, described as a beloved friend and coworker.

John Usher worked as a costume assistant on the show *Slow Horses* starting with its first season in 2022. However, his listed credits suggest he left the team after the second season.

Besides playing a character on *Slow Horses*, I actually worked behind the scenes on a bunch of really cool projects! I got to be a costume assistant on both *Paddington* and *Paddington 2*, which was awesome. I also helped out on *Wonder Woman* and the Kate Winslet movie *Lee*. And, I even did some costuming work for Charlize Theron in *The Old Guard* on Netflix – it was a pretty diverse range of stuff, honestly!

He started his career working on Ismail Merchant’s 2001 film, *The Mystic Masseur*, and gradually took on larger projects, including the film *The Duchess* starring Keira Knightley. He collaborated with Michael Fassbender on two films, *Jane Eyre* and *Macbeth*, and also worked with his *Slow Horses* co-star Gary Oldman on the biopic *Darkest Hour*.

I was really bummed to hear about this, and while they haven’t said what happened, everyone’s really sad and paying their respects. It’s a tough loss for the whole community.

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2025-09-25 12:19