#jackson lamb x catherine standish

[lovetgr76]

Jackson Lamb and / or Catherine Standish caught smiling...

[263adder]

Someone, anyone out there. Please tell me I'm not the only one who ships it.

Jackson Lamb is the unfeeling, spiteful boss.

Catherine Standish is the den mother and voice of reason.

But scratch beneath the surface and Lamb is feeling, he goes out of his way to solve the murder of someone he didn't even like. Standish is more than an administrator, she's cleverer than people give her credit for.

They're on the same level. Not just in age (a rarity for onscreen older m/f couples) and at Slough House (sharing a floor just like River/Sid and Min/Louisa shared an office), but they've gone through very similar experiences just from different sides.

Lamb was a field agent and that's where his skills lay - murder, tracking, observation. Standish was an administrator and that's given her a keen insight into the service and how to disarm people with politeness. Both know the MI5 but it's given them different skills which work well together.

Now I know how you'll respond - but he constantly tries to make her start drinking again even though she's an alcoholic. Yet Lamb has also gone out on a limb repeatedly to protect her, from treason accusations, dismissal from MI5 and more (spoilers for the next season if it follows the book). When he knew the dogs were going after his horses, who did he go to retrieve... Standish. And even when she had no reason to take his side, Standish pulled a gun to get them out of a jam.

So I repeat again - IS THERE ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE?????? I'm losing my mind here!!

Also I love older ships, they're usually wholesome but this wouldn't be and I think that would be really interesting.

[florart98]

Catherine is actually very good at lying, she completely fools Flyte, she even seems to have fun with it

look at her proud smile

She just can't lie to Jackson. She can't even look at him because she can't hide anything from him.

Except when they look at each other, then she blurts everything out and she tells him the truth.

[shipthecarsons]

OMG I think he bought her the jaffa cakes 😂😂🤦🏻‍♀️

[eliaca]

A collection of ten one-shots about love, heartbreak, loss and self-destruction, with a scarf as the common thread.

It turns out that after seeing the promotional photos of Slow Horses 4x04, especially a photo where Catherine and Jackson appear; we were at the point of raving, talking about the multiple ways the blue scarf (which we assume is Jackson's) ended up around Catherine's neck; so as more and more ideas came out this conversation happened...

@florart98: che, we could do something with this, like short, super short stories and we'll be co-authors. @eliaca: a scarf and 1000 fantasies @florart98: One photo and we went crazy @eliaca: Yes, friend, let's do it, I don't know how to do it but yes to everything, I'm very new to AO3, but geekdom can do everything xD

Relationships: Jackson Lamb/Catherine Standish, Jackson Lamb & Catherine Standish

[aladio-milhomes]

I would like some answers, please now.

#scarfgate

[sidbaker]

just gonna leave this here real quick...

[wordacrosstime]

Bad Actors

[Bad Actors, by Mick Herron. 10 May 2022. Publisher - Soho Crime. 360 pages. ISBN-10: ‎1641293373. ISBN-13 - 978-1641293372. Weight - 1.18 pounds. Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.17 x 8.52 inches. (publishing details thanks to Soho Crime)]

In 2010, writer Mick Herron published the first of his 8-book series centered on Slough House, an MI5 property that houses the discarded refuse of the British intelligence apparatus.  The slow horses (a play on the name of the facility) are embittered, disillusioned, and disgraced, but evidently not quite to the level of termination.  Instead, they labor on pointless, soul-crushing assignments for the Mother Ship of MI5, located at Regent’s Park in London (and prosaically dubbed The Park).

Heading up the slow horses is Jackson Lamb, himself a disgraced and hyper-cynical spy who, for reasons that are never made entirely clear, relishes his command position in this Purgatory of the intelligence community.  Lamb is ugly, foul-mouthed, misogynistic, anti-social in the extreme, and has repulsive personal and professional hygiene.  He claims to have total disregard (or possibly no regard whatsoever) for the people in his charge, whom he refers to as his joes.  But underneath the crass and off-putting demeanor lies a profound and singular intellect and an exceptionally keen understanding of the ways of the world, especially that part of the world dominated by intrigue, deception, treachery and violence.  And though he would never, ever admit it, he actually cares about his joes.  If anything is to happen to them, it had better be by his hand, or woe be unto the person or persons who got in the way.

The volume under review here, Bad Actors, is the eighth and final (?) book in the Slow Horses series.  In addition to Jackson Lamb, many of the usual suspects remain from the preceding seven installments:  Diana Taverner, the ruthless and rapacious First Desk at MI5; Roddy Ho, Slough House’s tech genius, a legend in his own mind only; Claude Whelan, who used to head up MI5; Catherine Standish, Lamb’s gal Friday and the bulwark standing between him and the chaos beneath him; and many more.

In this episode, a Downing Street superforecaster – someone who can predict, with startling accuracy, how policies will influence the electorate and advises the Prime Minister on same – has disappeared.  Claude Whelan has been assigned the job of finding her.  The trail leads back to The Park and Diana Taverner.  Just what is she up to?  Are her labyrinthine schemes for control of the Intelligence Service coming to a boil?  Or is something else at work?  Simultaneous to this domestic intrigue is the sudden arrival of Taverner’s opposite number in the Russian intelligence machine, who enters Britain under a false name and promptly loses his MI5 handlers.

Amid the tumult, the Slow Horses become involved in these machinations, for two reasons:  One, because they are terminally bored and eager to do something to set their personal records straight and perhaps – just perhaps – inveigle their way back into The Park, even though the history of Slough House suggests that this cannot happen; and Two, because Jackson Lamb hates Diana Taverner and The Park and loves to poke the hornet’s nest whenever and however he can.

Throughout this and the other seven Slough House novels, Mick Herron seamlessly interweaves caustic rhetoric with surprisingly poignant moments.  He plays off the Slow Horses against one another to varying degrees while Jackson Lamb lurks like a spider in his darkened corner of proceedings.  But when Lamb strikes, they all know to get out of his way (well, all but Roddy Ho who can’t seem to get out of his own way, much less anyone else’s) and let him do what he does best – whatever that is.  Lamb, both figuratively and literally, knows where the bodies are buried, and knows this not only within his own agency but with other intelligence services around the globe – including the Moscow directorate.  And though Slough House will never get their contributions acknowledged, even Lamb knows that sometimes the only solution to a sticky situation is a few Slow Horses – his joes.

Unlike many of his peers, Herron brings a decidedly literary quality to his writing.  Fans of John le Carré will find these novels great fun; they certainly move ahead more swiftly than, say, his Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or Len Deighton's Funeral In Berlin.  There is a modern sensibility to these novels that will catch the interest of most readers of spy fiction and thrillers.  And if one can ignore Jackson Lamb’s foulness, one will be rewarding with some of the most sardonic humor to be found in modern fiction.  Herron’s writing pairs nicely with a chewy red wine and some spicy crisps of an evening.

Image credits from top : Cover with thanks to © publisher. Portrait of Mick Herron with thanks to photographer © Mikael Buck and Hachette

Kevin Gillette

Words Across Time

19 January 2024

wordsacrosstime

[lovetgr76]

Lamb & Standish... my lil attempt at fanart ♥️😍😁 look at these smiles 😃

...I ship it. 😍

[lovetgr76]

Slow Horses Showrunner on Adapting Books, Will All Nine Be Explored?

I know Gary wants to keep going for as long as he’s asked. He loves playing the character.

[lovetgr76]

What do you enjoy most about Standish and Jackson’s dynamic? It is so rich.

He can be so rude, and that means that you can be rude back, but in your own way. That’s always good fun. To hold those two things of actual very deep respect and real disdain is an interesting contradiction, and it’s lovely to have contradictions to play as an actor. To have something to push against is really enjoyable (Saskia Reeves)

[lovetgr76]

[lovetgr76]

Gary Oldman On 'Slow Horses' Emmy Nominations & New Seasons

Me, knowing season 4 is only weeks away!!!!

[lovetgr76]

Posting for the brief mention of updates on BOOK 9!!! 🫶🙌❤️

[lovetgr76]

Above it all, we have Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb, the disheveled puppet-master himself, comfortably stealing every scene he’s in either with acidic sardonics or acid indigestion.

At six lean, filler-free episodes, this magnificent ride is over far, far too soon. But while it lasts, this is likely the most fun you’ll have in front of the box all year.