Spy author Mick Herron has revealed more about his Oxford-based novel which is being made into a new TV series starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson.

The screen stars have been cast in a new Apple TV+ thriller called Down Cemetery Road set in an Oxford suburb, which will act as a “companion piece” to the successful MI5 drama series Slow Horses.

Down Cemetery Road was Mr Herron's first novel, and his Slough House novels have been adapted into the Apple TV+ thriller about a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents, starring Gary Oldman and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas.

READ MORE: Jail for arsonist who set his own boat on fire

Now Apple TV has commissioned a new series based on Down Cemetery Road.

Love Actually star Ms Thompson, 65, will play struggling private detective Zoe Boehm and star opposite His Dark Materials actress Ms Wilson as Sarah Tucker, a woman who becomes obsessed with the whereabouts of a child she believes to be missing.

Mr Herron said Down Cemetery Road was not a "stellar success" when it was first published.

(Image: PA) He told the Guardian: "It did get a review in the Daily Telegraph. And that was the last time I was reviewed in a national newspaper for something like 13 years, I think.

"And then when the Slow Horses series started picking up, around about the third novel, that was the next time that I was reviewed in the nationals. So it was a long, long time, which didn't worry me."

The author said he was reluctant to take too much credit for the success of the Slow Horses TV series.

He added: "I've been hugely lucky with the casting of it all, but I think a lot of it does hang on Gary. Once Gary took the role then everybody wanted to play. 

"Who wouldn't? It made so many things possible."

Jay Hunt, creative director, Europe, Apple TV+, said earlier: “Down Cemetery Road has all the hallmarks of Mick Herron’s funny and acerbic writing, and I’m delighted we will be bringing it to life for Apple TV+ with such a stellar cast.

(Image: PA) “Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson will make it an unmissable companion piece for Slow Horses on our service.”

In the series Ms Wilson’s character Sarah becomes obsessed after a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a girl disappears, which leads her to enlist the help of private investigator Zoe.

British actress and comedian Morwenna Banks, who was a writer on Slow Horses, serves as lead writer on the project.

The series’ executive producers include Banks, Dame Emma, Mr Herron and Slow Horses executive producers Jamie Laurenson and Hakan Kousetta from 60Forty Films.

The novel Down Cemetery Road is being reissued by John Murray and the Apple TV series is currently set for an early 2025 release.

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Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

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