Slow Horses Season 5 Premiere Stuns With Emotional Tribute To John Usher — Who Was He?
As the screen faded to black, the end credits opened with a stark tribute to Usher.
Slow Horses is back on Apple TV+, and the season 5 premiere wastes zero time. Slough House is poking at a very odd situation tied to Roddy Ho — yes, Roddy — who suddenly has a glamorous new girlfriend. That alone sets off every alarm bell. The familiar faces are back too: Gary Oldman growling his way through Jackson Lamb, Jack Lowden still throwing himself at the job as River Cartwright, and more of them to come in the next few weeks.
About that title card at the end
"In Memory of John Usher, a much loved friend and colleague."
If you caught that closing tribute and wondered who John Usher was, here is the short version: Usher was a long-time costumer and costume assistant who had been working in film and TV since 2001. On Slow Horses, he was credited as Costume Standby and Costume Assistant across seasons 1, 2, and 5.
Quick bit of inside baseball: a costume standby is the on-set wardrobe pro who keeps continuity tight and fixes anything that goes wrong between takes — the kind of below-the-line work you only notice when it is missing. In other words, the person quietly saving scenes all day long.
His career, at a glance
Usher’s film credits are stacked, and they include work with some serious heavy hitters (Kate Winslet, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Keira Knightley, Charlize Theron). He also crossed paths with Oldman before Slow Horses on Darkest Hour, meaning they worked together at least twice.
- The Duchess
- Jane Eyre
- Jack the Giant Slayer
- Paddington
- Macbeth
- Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
- The BFG
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- Allied
- Wonder Woman
- Darkest Hour
- Paddington 2
- A Private War
- All is True
- The Personal History of David Copperfield
- The Old Guard
- Lee
- ...and more
What is (and is not) known
Beyond his credits and the love from colleagues, few personal details about Usher have been made public, and the cause of his death has not been shared.
What’s next for the season
Slow Horses season 5 continues on Apple TV+ on Wednesday 1 October. If you are catching up, seasons 1-4 are streaming now.