Mick Jagger: How he created 'Strange Game' for the TV show Slow Horses
He spoke to Greatest Hits Radio
Last updated 5th Apr 2022
Sir Mick Jagger released his song 'Strange Game' on 1st April 2022 and joined Simon Mayo at the time to talk about the song. The Rolling Stones frontman spoke about the song and the gripping series it features in called Slow Horses, which released its fifth season in 2025.
'Strange Game' is the theme tune for the Apple TV+ show and Mick worked with Academy-nominated writer Daniel Pemberton to create the track.
The show follows British spies that have been moved to the 'dumping ground department of MI5' for making mistakes in their career, with Gary Oldman playing the role of leader of the dejected agents.
How did the collaboration with Slow Horses happen?
Speaking about how this collaboration came about, Mick said: "Daniel Pemberton who wrote all the music for the series, sent me an email. He's written so much good stuff and he said, 'Would you like to write the theme song for this? And he sent me the track but the track didn't have any melody. It just had a track and no words or anything.
"So, I was sort of intrigued because I'd actually read the books. I like the books very much so I kind of knew what the scenario was. I knew who were the characters, what kind of characters they were. I knew the Gary Oldman character and I knew the milieu that they worked in this horrible, sleazy office and all that. So I kind of was ahead of the game."
Why is the song called 'Strange Game'?
Mick also explained how the song got its name: "I said to him (Daniel), 'I assume you want this to be called Slow Horses, like the theme'. He said, 'No, no, no. I really don't want it to be called that.' So, then I came up with the strange game, you know, that they're in this strange spy game. So, I just came up with that as an alternate title and we just went from there."
As for the name of the show, he revealed: "It's a sort of pun, and Slough House is a pun on Slow Horses, you know. The Slow Horses are these characters that have been in the Secret Service that have made errors early on, most of them, early on in their careers and so they're sort of put out to grass, but they're not fired."
The musician also opened up about how writing a theme song differed from writing other music: "It was quite an enjoyable experience just writing something that was specific, you know, for a certain purpose, rather than just writing a song that you might sit down at home and write whatever you're feeling at the time or your inner emotions or whatever.
"This is about something specific; specific characters and situations and so on. So, it's a different kind of songwriting."
What is Slow Horses?
Slow Horses is an Apple TV+ show that started in 2022, with the most recent season (season five) released in September 2025. The show stars Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden and Kristin Scott Thomas, and follows a team of MI5 agents who have been banished to Slough House, where they go if they have seriously failed a task, but not bad enough to be sacked.
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