Taboo

**Taboo** is a British-American drama television miniseries about an early 1800s adventurer who returns to Britain from Africa along with fourteen stolen diamonds to seek vengeance after the death of his father.

The scripted series is produced by Scott Free London and Hardy Son & Baker, and is broadcast by BBC One and FX for the UK and US, respectively.

## Premises

*James Delaney has returned home for his father’s funeral, damaged and haunted, after ten mysterious years in Africa. Rumours of his hunt for diamonds that plunged him into hell, and of acts so unnatural even James’s enemies loath to believe them. As heir to the old man’s trading interests, James is eager to claim the inheritance owed him despite the lengths to which his competitors are willing to go to wrestle it away. But James is just as ruthless, and tormented. He has not returned from Africa alone. Darkness has followed, and whatever is haunting James is ushering him into new beginning—one secretive, depraved and inexorably taboo.*

## Cast

* Oona Chaplin as Zilpha Geary
* David Hayman as Brace
* Michael Kelly as Dr. Dumbarton
* Jonathan Pryce as Sir Stuart Strange
* Jessie Buckley as Lorna Bow
* Jefferson Hall as Thorne Geary
* Ed Hogg as Michael Godfrey
* Tom Hollander as George Cholmondeley
* Stephen Graham as Atticus
* Mark Gatiss as Prince Regent
* Jason Watkins as Solomon Coop
* Leo Bill as Benjamin Wilton
* Franka Potente as Helga von Hinten
* Christopher Fairbank as Ibbotson
* Richard Dixon as John Pettifer
* Ruby-May Martinwood as Winter
* Marina Hands as Countess Musgrove
* Lucian Msamati as George Chichester
* Louis Serkis as Robert
* Danny Ligairi as Martinez
* Scroobius Pip as French Bill
* Edward Fox as Horace Delaney
* Tallulah Rose Haddon as Pearl

## Production

Created from a story co-written by actor Tom Hardy and his father, Chips Hardy, who will act as a consulting producer. Directorial duties are shared by Kristoffer Nyholm and Anders Engström, while the score was composed by Max Richter.  According to *Taboo's* writer Steven Knights, two more series are planned.  Series 2 was expected to enter production in 2018.

A new eight-part series was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content and Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama.

### Development

 Three Acts

Steven Knight described the project as comprising "three series and out".

"I can feel the three acts. The first was ‘the escape’. The second will be ‘the journey’ and the third will be ‘the arrival’, and that’ll be it. I don’t think the story will be what viewers are expecting, but hopefully, they’ll enjoy it." The second series, already commissioned, follows the story after James Delaney (Hardy) leaves London, but will remain as dark, and probably violent, as the first. Steven is emphatic that the violence isn’t gratuitous but grounded in the reality of the era."

 Anthology

Tom Hardy teased of time-travelling escapades and twisted family trees. Hardy said he does not know "whether to go orthodox – there is a series already written about a direct sequel of Delaney and his league of the damned – or play with the format. Hardy expressed interest in a "sort of anthology series, fast-forwarding to 1968, the Tet Offensive, the Vietnam War, look at the CIA, the Viet Cong, the French in Saigon. Take the Delaney family tree out in the jungle, and recreate the same family dynamics that were happening in London but with new people, thinking about how history and corruption repeats itself. It’s still Taboo, it’s still period, but it’s the Sixties."

 Supernatural element

Tom Hardy told IGN that the parts of the story that might seem supernatural are more just a way for Taboo's storytellers to play around with the show's tone. "What's interesting is that if a person's third eye is opened up, then their dreams, they dream while they're awake and they're processing it. Those dreams take on the imagery of what he's projecting and mixing together. So they're not specific, they're an amalgamation of imagery that he deciphers – Hardy explained – He's firing images about what he doesn't know and trying to process that. It's not supernatural, it's about processing traumatic stress."

### Filming Locations

Taboo was filmed around London in many historic homes and buildings, making this project remarkably interesting regarding the filming locations. The setting is an important part of the story, and the locations are a journey into the early 19th century Regency London. Taboo was also filming in the harbour of Charlestown in Cornwall, a popular shooting location.

* The magnificent interiors of Hatfield House in Hertfordshire served as the headquarters of the East India Company, and some rooms and the facade of the palace of the Prince Regent.
* Several rooms from Hatfield House were used, like the armoury, the library or the Marble Hall, pictured. This opulent state has been the setting for many other productions, from the 1989 Batman to 2016' Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
* Some rooms from 17th century Ham House in the south of Richmond were used for scenes with Sir Stuart Strange (Jonathan Pryce) and some company's Counselors.
* The facade of the East India Company building in the series is the Goldsmiths' Hall in the City of London.
* Some parts of the Danson House in Bexley were used to film the concert from Episode 2.
* The cellar of Danson House was also the setting for a room in St Bartholomew Hospital (Episode 2).
* The funeral from episode one was filmed in St Mary's the Virgin Church and graveyard in Wanstead.
* The Golden Hind berthed in Southwark is the Sir Francis Drake’s ship replica. It was used for scenes of Delaney onboard a boat. By the way, did you spot the mysterious ghosts hidden like Easter eggs in some sequences of Taboo?
* A scene outside a theatre takes place in Trinity Church Square, Southwark.
* Many sequences in the streets of London have been filmed in Tilbury Fort, a 16th-century fortress on the north bank of the River Thames in Essex.
* Some scenes with boats have been filmed in the inner moat of Tilbury Fort (and the wooden bridge pictured at the right, that appears several times). Also the Coalhouse Fort in East Tilbury doubles for Bedlam Hospital.
* The ball from episode 4 was amazingly filmed in the 18th-century country house West Wycombe Park (Buckinghamshire).
* The watermill is located in the state of Mapledurham House in Oxfordshire.
* The historic Charterhouse in Smithfield also appears in the show. Other confirmed locations are St Martin’s building in Camden and the House of Detention on Sans Walk (Islington).
* Countess Musgrove lives in the Tudor Chenies Manor House in Buckinghamshire. The house interiors and other parts of the garden were also used as the mansion where Zilpha and Thorne Geary live.
* James's half-sister house from the outside is part of the Hall Barn Estate in Beaconsfield (Buckinghamshire).
* The church and graveyard from episode 6 are also located in Beaconsfield old town (Saint Mary and All Saints Church).
* The Delaney family house is located on Stepney Green Gardens in East London.

### Release

The scripted series premiered on January 7, 2017 on BBC One in the United Kingdom and on January 10, 2017 on FX in the United States. Since March 4, 2017, the programme was re-run in its entirety in the late evening on BBC Two, with some programming differences in Wales and Northern Ireland. From March 7, 2017, Taboo was released on FXNOW. On March 2022, Taboo was released on Netflix.

## Series

### Series 1

*Main article: Series 1*
Set in 1814, the first season follows James Keziah Delaney (Hardy), a man who has been to the ends of the earth and comes back irrevocably changed. Believed to be long dead, he returns home to London from Africa to inherit what is left of his father’s shipping empire and rebuild a life for himself. But his father’s legacy is a poisoned chalice, and with enemies lurking in every dark corner, James must navigate increasingly complex territories to avoid his own death sentence. Encircled by conspiracy, murder, and betrayal, a dark family mystery unfolds in a combustible tale of love and treachery.

### Series 2

*Main article: Series 2*
After the drawn-out and bloody gunfight in London’s docks, Delaney, and his rag-tag crew manage to sail off towards America on a boat full of gunpowder and dreams.

## Gallery

Template:Season 1 Gallery (Taboo Multimedia)

## References

1. ↑ Taboo Synopsis – BBC Studios
2. ↑ What is Taboo's theme song?
3. ↑  Taboo writer Steven Knight plans at least two more series of the BBC1 drama
4. ↑ ‘Taboo’ will return to FX in 2018
5. ↑ BBC and FX renews The Tom Hardy Gruntfest ‘Taboo’ For A Second Season
6. ↑ Tom Hardy Drama ‘Taboo’ Renewed For Season 2 By BBC One & FX
7. ↑ When does Taboo season 2 start?
8. ↑ HuffingtonPost UK, ‘Taboo’ Writer Plans ‘Two More Series And Out’ Of Tom Hardy Dark Period Drama
9. ↑ 'Taboo' Season 2 May Be on Hold for Now, but Tom Hardy’s Plans for It Sound Wild - Esquire
10. ↑ TABOO: Tom Hardy explains the supernatural side of the period drama
11. ↑  Taboo filming locations on Atlas of Wonders.com