Taboo Renewed For A 2nd Season
BBC One and US network FX will be teaming up again with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free London and Tom Hardy’s Hardy Son & Baker for a second series of Taboo they have announced today.
Created by Steven Knight with Tom Hardy and Chips Hardy, Taboo has been one of the most successful dramas ever on BBC iPlayer and apparently a huge hit with younger audiences. “Taboo has been a phenomenal success and proves overnight ratings are not the only measure of success, as the series even now continues to grow beyond live viewing,” commented Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content. “Launching in a new Saturday night slot on BBC One provided us with an opportunity to take risks and showcase distinctive drama, and the growing talkability of Taboo has engaged younger audiences, seeing record numbers coming to BBC iPlayer, with the availability of the box set maximising audiences even further.”
Set in 1814, series one 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.
“I’m thrilled that a work which pushes boundaries has been so well received and found such a large and enthusiastic audience in the US and Britain,” added creator Steven Knight. “We have tried to take an impressionistic, rather than figurative, approach to a narrative which we hope more accurately portrays the spirit of an extraordinary time in history. James Delaney will continue to explore many realities as he takes his band of misfits to a new world, thanks to FX and the BBC, partners who could not be more suited to collaborating in ground breaking work.”
The new, 8 episode, 2nd series of Taboo has been commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content and Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama. No news on an air date yet, but presumably it with be in 2018.
