Murder and madness, incest, slavery, and witchcrafta It wasn’t just the presence of Tom Hardy that made Taboo a dark, disturbing, break with tradition, by Jim Shelley Taboo lived up its name and proved nothing is sacred – not even the most comforting conventions of that great British tradition: Saturday night television. The legions of caterwauling karaoke contestants had been silenced and there was not a Doctor or Dalek in sight.