Mikes Film Talk

Down Cemetery Road (2025) is brought to you by the same chap who wrote Slow Horses, it’s not quite as exciting but it’ll do. Mick Herron penned both shows and each are very, very good, for different reasons. Gary Oldman is the shining star of “Horses” (With an ever impressive ensemble cast that shines in every single episode.) in “Road” you have Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson with an ever impressive… You get the idea.

Fan or Not to Fan

I have been a fan of Emma Thompson since the 1989 RomCom The Tall Guy. It took a bit longer to warm to Ruth Wilson. The 2016 film I am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House was not a particularly great role, she played Lily. Later, I found her in the long running series The Affair. Annoyingly, each trailer for the week’s episode had Ms. Wilson looking as though she were chewing a wasp. It was finally Luther, another series, where I became an earnest fan. She is cracking in that one almost overshadowing Idris Elba.

Gary Oldman, is a long time favorite full stop.

Down Cemetery Road Story

Per IMDb.com: Sarah Trafford obsessively searches for a missing neighbour girl after an explosion. Aided by PI Zoë Boehm, they uncover a conspiracy involving the presumed dead still living and living dying, embroiling them in a complex web.

Down Cemetery Road Main Cast

Emma Thompson is Zoë Boehm.

Ruth Wilson is Sarah Trafford.

Adeel Akhtar is Hamza.

Darren Boyd is C.

Nathan Stewart-Jarrett is Downey.

Fehinti Balogun is Amos Crane.

Adam Godley is Joe Silverman.

Let’s Talk Down Cemetery Road

Admittedly, it has taken me some time to write about Down Cemetery Road. There are only two episodes left in this first season. In my defense, it took me a little while to decide if I really liked it. By episode 5 “Slow Dying” everything finally hit just right.

This is a slow burning show, the flats blowing up in episode 1 was pretty eye catching. However, Sarah’s husband Mark is downright unlikeable from minute one. The explosion actually saves this dinner party from Hell.

It is only after the girl “saved by a wardrobe” vanishes and Thompson’s PI teams up with Sarah that my interest was piqued. There are characters who appear and then disappear. Some are interesting but none as much as Joe Silverman.

Everything snapped together once Sarah meets Zoë and Joe. Granted, none of the characters were, at first blush, overly likeable. However, regardless of this fact, The mystery of Dinah, the secretive governmental agency; consisting of a doctor, the somewhat gormless Malik and the sinister, and darned unpleasant, C caught my fancy.

Enter Amos and the curious Downey. The latter is a wild card and Amos is pretty darn terrifying.

It Works

By episode 2 of this Mick Herron tale, I was pretty much hooked. Zoë goes to identify Joe at the morgue and Ruth learns that she has been chasing after the wrong child. The little girl with the butterfly was not Dinah at all. Malik learns that C is a prig and that Amos is the real wild card. Both C and Amos are deadly, but in different ways.

Herron weaves threads of very disparate plot lines into the main, somewhat hidden, story of governmental misbehaviour. A mistimed application of chemical warfare incapacitates the (then) Queen’s troops. The antidote developed by the government fails. C and his minion are now taking out the soldiers who’ve managed to survive.

Ruth and Zoë make a good “chalk and cheese” team. Albeit, they are more effective than Ruth and Downey. Downey only reluctantly accepts Ruth’s presence to an extent.

Binge This One

Down Cemetery Road is binge worthy. Each episode is just under an hour but they fly by. There really is a lot going on here. As I mentioned before, there are only two episodes left. New installments stream on Apple TV every Wednesday. Head on over now to catch up if you’ve not been watching thus far. However you catch this show, catch it you must.

The Verdict

This show, like Herron’s other offering on Apple TV, is a straight 5 stars. Other folks have brought up the differences in the two. Certainly Down Cemetery Road is no Slow Horses, but doggone it, the show is just as brilliant.

The Trailer