Regency Rogue

Tough guy Tom Hardy on his grittiest drama yet.

- Rebecca Mahoney

Tom Hardy has to be one of the most dedicated actors in the business. Not only did he bulk up for roles in Warrior, Bronson and The Dark Knight Rises, but he insisted on playing both Kray brothers in crime thriller Legend. And it was Hardy, not a stuntman, who dangled upside down from a speeding rig in Mad Max: Fury Road.

But while he does admit that shooting frontier movie The Revenant – for which he earned his first Oscar nomination – in Canada’s frozen wilds was ‘a stretch’, the 39-year-old actor says his gritty new period drama Taboo, which begins on BBC1 this week, has pushed him like never before.

A HARD UNDERTAKING

‘I found filming this harder than The Revenant,’ Hardy tells TV&Satellite Week when we meet him along with his father, Chips Hardy, and Labrador-cross Woody.

‘The Revenant was about having to endure the cold and look after my part as an actor, but I had a lot of responsibility with