Ponies, the eight-part spy thriller set in Moscow in 1977, will debut in the UK and Ireland on Friday 22 May, with Sky carrying the series and NOW streaming it. Emilia Clarke is among the executive producers on the show, which first aired in the US in January 2026.
The series follows two PONIES — persons of no interest — who work as secretaries in the American Embassy before their lives are upended by the deaths of their husbands in the USSR. Bea, an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants, and Twila, a small-town woman who is as abrasive as she is fearless, become CIA operatives and set out to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy while solving the mystery behind their own widowhood.
That premise has already drawn a strong response. Ponies held a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, with critics praising Haley Lu Richardson and Clarke’s fizzy chemistry. ScreenRant called it a fresh and propulsive spy thriller that throws plot twists at the audience at a breakneck pace.
The timing matters because the UK and Ireland release comes months after its January 2026 US run, giving Sky and NOW a series that already arrives with momentum and a built-in critical profile. The cast also includes Adrian Lester, Artjom Gilz, Vic Michaelis, Nicholas Podany and Petro Ninovskyi, while David Iserson and Susanna Fogel co-created the series, wrote it and executive produce it alongside Mike Daniels, Jessica Rhoades and Clarke.
For Richardson, the role clearly landed at the right moment. “I've never felt so much like I was in the right place at the right time, doing exactly what I was supposed to do, more,” she said. She added that when she first read the character, she knew the part would be “important and meaningful,” saying she could not have played Twila six months earlier because it matched what she was going through and ready to face. That is the show’s real draw now: a Cold War spy story that has already won over critics and is about to get a fresh audience on Sky and NOW.