Slow Horses

Slough House is where intelligence officers are sent when their careers have gone badly wrong. Slow Horses makes that unpromising office the centre of a spy thriller, under a boss who has no interest in making anyone feel better about being there.

Gary Oldman's Jackson Lamb is the immediate attraction: grubby, insulting and difficult to dismiss. The humour comes from professional disappointment as much as from the insults, while the main service supplies another set of people protecting their own position.

The combination of espionage and office resentment is distinctive, but it did not hold me enough to keep going. That makes this a qualified suggestion for viewers drawn to Oldman or Mick Herron's premise rather than one of my strongest personal recommendations.

For a more sustained investment in undercover relationships, The Americans is the alternative I would prioritise. Slow Horses offers a shorter, more abrasive rhythm, with the uncomfortable possibility that the discarded staff may still be useful to somebody.