Contrary to appearances, however, Lamb is tough, clever and highly competent. Herron has said of him that he “must have been a Bond, a Smiley, a hero of some sort, at one point of his life, but has seen through all of that, and reacted against it, to become what he is. He’s not really an opposite. He’s just come through the other side”. His boss, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), the steely deputy head of MI5, is as well-groomed as Lamb is dishevelled, but although repulsed by him, she has a respect for him too.
Lamb torments his staff with acerbic, sarcastic put-downs and thinks them useless idiots – or professes to. “I didn’t mean to kill him,” one of his agents who has accidentally despatched a Slough House intruder tells him. “Of course you didn’t. If you’d meant to kill him, he’d still be alive,” sneers Lamb. But his disdain might be feigned for professional purposes. “God, you really care about them, don’t you?” Taverner says to him at one point.
The stories’ fundamental appeal
Author and journalist Helen Lewis, a staff writer at The Atlantic and a fan of the books and the show says: “Slough House is a twisted kind of family. Jackson Lamb can be rude about his Slow Horses, but he’ll defend them against anyone else.
“Lamb is an appealing character – although he’s a spy, his situation is relatable to lots of viewers: he’s good at what he does, but trapped in a ridiculous bureaucracy that screws everything up. He quietly puts up two fingers at his bosses, which lots of people would love to do.”
