Catherine Standish

**Catherine Standish** is a recurring character played by Saskia Reeves in Season 1 and Season 2 of Apple TV+'s *Slow Horses*.

## History

Jackson Lamb is awoken by his own fart and he lights up a cigarette as a woman makes it into her office. Jackson calls Catherine Standish into his office and complains about "MI-useless".

River looks through trash bags, saying he is looking for a reason to not blow his brains out. Catherine asks him if he believes Sid would be happy with him dumping the trash on the floor. She gives men old reports as she goes to another men and gives them more reports, which one finds unchallenging.

Lamb is woken up by Catherine and he pours them both a drink, which she does not take. The employees walk out of the Slough House and go about their lives, not wanting to get a drink.

At a group therapy circle, Catherine has flashbacks to when she got home and found Charles had killed himself.

Lamb opens his window and is approached by Catherine, who tells him that Cartwright was not answering his phone. Lamb tells her that when Cartwright comes back, he wants him tied to his desk doing nothing.

Catherine goes and sees River with Roddy, telling him that Lamb wants everybody back at their desks. River wants Roddy to help him get into Hobden's emails, but Roddy says there is little point to that because the Park would not give them bonuses or medals for helping out, so River tries bribing him. River tells Roddy that he knows why he is in MI5, which scares him. Roddy says that he could not get into his emails because Hobden has no email presence.

Lamb lights up a cigarette as Catherine wonders if he is not only worried about River, to which he replies that it was not a coincidence that Diana Taverner ran a special op on a right-wing reject just as some nationalists kidnapped "a brown kid".

Lamb asks Catherine to get him Taverner on the phone, however, Diana does not pickup. He tells her that he wants to tell her about the results to her test. He asks when Cartwright had left and is told that about two hours ago. He invites Catherine for a drink, but she does not want it.

Catherine walks into Lamb's office and puts out his cigarette. He asks for Ho, but she says that he is gone. Lamb asks her to get him back then.

Min and Louisa climb over a fence and walk through a cemetery, while Catherine and Lamb walk in as well. Catherine asks about Charles' death, but Lamb tells her that it was not the best time to talk about it. Louisa tells Lamb that the Dogs got to Loy before they did. Ho reaches the group and tells them that Cartwright had tried to see Sid. Lamb tells them that they need to leave, since Taverner and Black had a plan and now that it had failed, she would try to play it as Slough House gone rogue. Louisa asks about Hassan, who Lamb says would be dead soon. River makes it to where the group is and tells Ho that he is a dickhead.

River tells Lamb that he remembers where he saw Black and Taverner together, saying that he had seen them talking at her gym café when he followed Taverner secretly. He says that he was following her for surveillance training, so he took a photograph. He says that he might have a copy, but Min says that that is hopeless. Lamb tells the group that he usually does not do speeches, but recognizes that it is a big moment and might not see them again. He tells them that they are useless and that working with them has been the lowest point in a disappointing career, telling River to follow him. Louisa says that they could try to save Hassan in the meantime, but Lamb says that that would be a sure way to get him killed, so he instructs them to hide in a toilet somewhere.

At a café, Catherine, Ho, Min, and Louisa sit as Ho eats. Min wonders how he even has an appetite, to which Ho responds that he should relax since the Dogs were nowhere near them, having hacked their comms. He tells them that the Dogs were outside their homes and waiting for them. Min realizes they are screwed, but Ho says that he is not because he is a digital ghost. Catherine tells them to remember Lamb, but Min tells her that Lamb does not care about them, and as soon as whatever he has planned goes south, he would forget about them. However, Catherine tells them that Charles always told her that if somebody hurt Lambs' joes he would never stop going for them and he would not want to lose against Taverner.

Catherine asks how they knew Alan Black, and Ho says that he was taken to Slough House for sleeping with the Venezuelan ambassador's wife while undercover. Min adds that Black always moaned a lot and never brought biscuits, Louisa says that he was lazy and Catherine says that he was undercover with the Sons of Albion so there would have been a birth certificate, passport and credit cards. Catherine says that he could have used an old ID, so they ask Ho to look information on what that could have been. After a few minutes, Ho finds Dermont Radcliffe, who was Alan Black's undercover name. He reads all the info available on him to his workmates.

Ho tells the group all the information he has on Black. Catherine leaves and goes to a telephone booth, while Min and Louisa ask him how long it would take to gather Black's registration number. Since Min keeps bothering Ho, he tells him that he could quickly tell him what porn he looks at. While he does that, however, Catherine comes back with the registration number. She tells them that they need to let the Park know that they need to focus on that specific vehicle. Min wants to know how they could do that without the Park knowing it was them, so Catherine wonders if they could track it themselves.

At the café, Ho tells Louisa, Min and Catherine that he cannot hack the satnav because one was not hired. He tells them that what he has done is hack into the van's theft recovery transmitter, but you only get signal of where the vehicle is every ten minutes. Catherine says that they should ring it in to the Park, but Min refuses, so she says that they should get it to someone else.

Catherine tells the group that the woman on the phone probably would not help much since she was not able to say who was calling. Min says that he is going to the A12, so Louisa says that she would go with him as Catherine says that she and Ho would go to Lamb's apartment However, Ho says that Lamb is not at his flat.

Ho and Catherine reach Lamb and River, saying that they must have the photographs, which River confirms. Catherine tells them that Ho had worked out a way to track the kidnappers, so Min and Louisa had gone to look for them, which Lamb does not agree with, saying that he hopes they only get themselves killed and do not set an orphanage on fire. When Diana leaves Peter's house, Lamb tells her that they are headed to Harwich, knowing this thanks to Ho. He tells Diana that he would be going to bed and leaves Ho and Catherine behind. Ho hands Diana the van's plate number and the theft locator's ID. Catherine refuses to work with Diana unless she tells him about Partner's death, but she tells her that the ship had sailed when she pulled a gun on the Dogs.

Back at Slough House, River, Lamb, Min and Louisa see Ho and Ingrid watching the news. Catherine congratulates the Slow Horses and herself as Min says that he has a bottle of wine if anyone wanted to celebrate. Lamb asks why they would celebrate if they were useless. However, Ho says that he tracked the van, while River says that he had actually saved him, but Lamb replies that the kid had saved himself with a rock. River sarcastically says that he loves their team talks and Lamb tells them to get back to work, only to tell them to piss off instead when he learns it is Saturday.

Lamb walks back into Slough House and walks into his office, opening Charles Partner's file, which had both Catherine and himself inside it. He puts it in a drawer and smokes as Catherine joins him. She asks him about Charles again and he reveals that he had given him the gun because he had asked for one and he was his friend. Lamb says that it had been after the wall came down and Charles had told him that he had seen some unfriendly faces. Lamb thought he was being paranoid, but it threw him off and put a dent in his armor. Lamb admits that he did not want to be in the field and wanted to be a civilian even less, which is why he asked for Slough House, where he could just run out the clock and nothing mattered and nobody got hurt.