Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under “Barbican Station”.
This week we are back to talk all things Bad Actors! I’m pleased to welcome Slate Book and Culture critic Laura Miller.
In the first half of the show we stay spoiler free of Bad Actors as we talk about the ins and outs of reading, the Slough House audiobooks and Jackson Lamb’s secrets. In the second half we discuss all the crazy action the slow horses get up to with evil politicians, soccer hooligans, and shady Russians. Plus … River! All that and more in this episode!
Laura’s piece on the Slough House series – https://slate.com/culture/2022/04/slough-house-books-slow-horses-mick-herron-review.html
Laura’s book – The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001M2FTEW
Laura’s work on Slate – https://slate.com/author/laura-miller-2
Follow Laura on Twitter – https://twitter.com/magiciansbook?s=21&t=EKh03gKmlnjjWoD4lYoQDA
Other things discussed-
C.S. Lewis’ Experiments in Criticism – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Experiment_in_Criticism#:~:text=An%20Experiment%20in%20Criticism%20is,the%20other%20the%20%22literary%22.
Laura’s interview with John le Carré- https://www.salon.com/2004/01/05/le_carre/
Slate’s HIS DARK MATERIALS podcast – The Authority – https://slate.com/podcasts/his-dark-materials
Follow the latest news about the upcoming AppleTV adaption here.
For more on the slow horses, click here.
Track down the real Slough House here.
Hurrah! Really enjoyed the podcast thanks Jeff and Laura. Liked Laura’s perceptive review too on the Slough House books. In the time since Bad Actors was published I’ve been trying to tune in to other authors of supposedly “Spy/M15 books”, (it would be inimical of me to name their writers, famous for other work on news, politics and tv etc), but honestly – just reportage, episodic, this-happened-then-that-happened without the brilliant imagery, characterisation and insight of Mick Herron – oh – AND without the humour!!
Looking forward to Apple+ series 2 of Slow Horses, but with one small demur about casting. The Louise in my head is more like the person who seems to be playing Shirley from the Dead Lions trailer. I wish the casting could have been swapped round at the planning stage – Rosalind would have made a marvellous Shirley (unless she’s too tall?) and vice versa.
Anyway, many thanks Jeff, looking forward to the next podcast, maybe a bit more about the John Batchelor/Claude Whelan/Oliver Nash thing? I slid over those parts at first, but repeated readings have given me a total appreciation of them. I loved Diana’s midnight visit to Nash during her “hiatus” and Mick’s description of Nash ferrying strawberry jam toast to his mouth.is a sheer joy. .That guy can WRITE!
Thanks for listening and glad you enjoyed it! I know you were restless to hear this one. Keep your eyes peeled, I’ll be back in a couple weeks with another episode with more Bad Actors talk before we jump into Standing By The Wall. The jump right into recapping season two of the tv show.
Great! Thanks Jeff… 🙂 Sorry to have pushed (in my eagerness!) and sorry you were not well – the dreaded Covid perhaps? Hope all is resolved now and I look forward to the next offerings.
Ha, I deserved the push! And with the new season we’ll have a nice run of new episodes!