By Anna May @AnnaMayMight

Now, I’m not really a fan of dreary dramas set in the past. Mostly because I’m old enough to have seen loads already. That might seem like I’m putting ALL historical dramas into one lump and pointing at them. I’m not.

However, it does mean I’m a little more choosy as to which ones I give time to…and they have to have a little more than just a story set in a dank town, with dank streets, dank pubs and dank houses…packed with dank villains and dank whores (note to self – must catch up on Eastenders).

So, when I read that Taboo is written around a character named James Keziah Delaney who suddenly returns to his home town from Africa to attend his father’s funeral, complete with sinister supernatural powers, I was in.

One thing’s for sure, Tom Hardy’s portrayal of menacing mumbler, Delaney, lets us know he is not one for idle chit-chat and his many years spent away have done little for his social skills…if indeed he ever had any.

More to the point, everyone thought he was dead, which poses just a few problems. Firstly for his half-sister, Zilpha, who’s married to the most arrogant dickhead imaginable. It doesn’t take long for the story to hint at a spot of past incest here and it’s clear the sultry siblings still have a connection that hubby, Thorne, has no intention of turning a blind eye to.

Secondly, and most importantly for the series, Delaney’s sudden return has scuppered the plans of none other than the London-based East India Company. Why? Because Delaney’s father, Horace, owned a strip of coastline that incorporates a valuable inlet called Nootka Sound, which allows for easier trade between Vancouver and China…and which the East India Company had decided they would be acquiring for their own purposes after Horace’s death. Zilpha had already agreed to sign the land over as his last living descendant, but now she and greedy husband, Thorne, have lost out financially right at the last minute. Delaney is son and heir. No contest.

To put it plainly, the East India Company were great for bringing trade to England from the East Indies and elsewhere, but they did NOT like anyone else branching out on their own and benefiting from the same. Therefore, if you didn’t have a licence from them to do it, you’d have to hand over your ships and everything you’d gained. Half would go to them and half to the Crown. Then you’d be put in prison.

So it’s no surprise that the company executives are not happy about Delaney’s point-blank refusal to part with the land…and they just cannot deal with his rejection of their offer to buy it from him. Already we’ve seen them rub him up the wrong way by demanding he accept it…and later imply privately that he’s to suffer at their hands for his insolence.

Very quickly we meet Horace’s faithful manservant, Brace, who also appears to have been handed down to Delaney. Brace, played by David Hayman, is convinced he’s the only one who knows his late master’s secrets. So, you can imagine his shock when Delaney proceeds to tell him the exact same secrets, proving his father was able to communicate with him before he died…even though he was all the way in Africa!

One of these secrets is that his father not only bought Nootka Sound all those years ago, he bought Delaney’s mother, Salish, from a local tribe too!

So…what’s going on with Delaney? Where’s he been and why’s he been gone for so long without a single word sent to his family? Basically, what’s his bloody problem!

Well, the beginning of the first episode sees Delaney standing over his dead father’s body, as it awaits preparation for burial. Two pennies, which have been placed on his eyes, are removed by Delaney and pocketed.

Bear in mind Delaney later put those pennies in what I gather was the donation box in the church, before walking down the aisle to take his seat at the funeral…much to everyone’s apparent horror. So, this was not an act of theft.

This is interesting for a few reasons. Firstly, because it’s often believed that two pennies on a dead person’s eyes pay a mythological Greek ferryman called Charon to take deceased souls across the River Acheron to the underworld and to Hades, where they’re judged and distributed accordingly. If we’re to believe all that, then without those pennies Delaney’s father is destined to wander aimlessly in limbo.

I know pennies were also placed on a dead person’s eyes to keep them shut…and a coin under the tongue was more in keeping with the myth. However, for the purpose of this series, let’s go with the eyes…and the fact Delaney’s actions could give us some idea as to his perception of death and what happens afterwards. Either he doesn’t want his father’s soul to travel safely to the underworld, or he knows it’s not exactly as described in the brochure…and has already written a review on Trip Advisor, warning corpses everywhere to avoid at all cost…namely two pennies.

Also, let’s talk about the happy little fellow, who very kindly arranges for Delaney’s dad to be dug up for a drugs test…and the fact he seems a little too friendly with the local grave-robbers to be in any way entrusted with a dead body. Not surprisingly, and in true Delaney style, he’s grabbed by the collar and ordered threateningly to bury Horace properly and deeper than before…and not even think about using his body for anything else.

Looking very much like he’s peed his pants, the whimpering wanna-be Frankenstein asks weakly if Delaney would like any ‘words’ said over the grave…to which he chillingly replies, “No-one is listening.” Again, a tell-tale sign that he knows what life after death really means.

Okay…try to forget for a minute that I’m a sane, sensible, no nonsense kinda person…but here’s how it looks…

Delaney has come back after leaving for Africa ten years ago and cheating death when the slave ship he was on sank.

Also, he stood over his father’s body and whispered to him, “Forgive me, Father, for I have indeed sinned.” More could-be clues are his admissions of, “I have sworn to do very foolish things.” and “I know things about the dead.”

So, where would a guy like Delaney swear an oath that he doesn’t feel he can get out of? Plus, where do you find lots of dead souls wandering about aimlessly, having been told they can’t get in the boat to the underworld because they don’t have two pennies on their eyes?

The River Styx, maybe? I wonder. Because, if anyone swears an oath on the River Styx and then messes up, they’re sentenced to one whole year of pretty much nothingness by the gods…and might as well be dead. Then it’s another nine years of being shunned by all and sundry. That’s putting it simply. It’s a bit more complicated, but that’s the gist.

How many years has Delaney been gone? Oh yeah…ten. Do the maths.

He’s plagued by the souls of dead people, who must be the slaves who drowned, because no way would they have had time to save up two pennies each, in time for their ferry ride across the Acheron. Delaney wouldn’t have had his pennies ready either, but then, he survived…didn’t he?

Did Delaney have a bit of time to kill after his oath-swearing and have a cheeky bathe in that River Styx? Did he? Because, you know, that can make a person invincible. I reckon he stopped off in Greece to take advantage of a couple of their myths and, by the time he got on that slave ship to Africa, he’d become immortal, so didn’t drown along with everyone else.

Add to this, Delaney’s constant stream of threats to anyone who dares challenge him. The guy can hardly string a single sentence together that doesn’t involve a threat to kill someone…or at least remove their testicles. Surely, he’d expect to be dragged into a dark alley and either brutally killed, or smacked about a bit until he said sorry. He doesn’t care.

Considering his connection with India as a cadet in the employ of the East India Company…and considering it IS the 1800s, he’s likely to have encountered the Thuggees. These guys were basically a lynch mob that killed in the name of a goddess called Kali, whose own mission was originally to try to kill a rogue demon after the gods unwittingly granted him invincibility. Duh. Again, it’s complicated…Google it.

For some reason, this wasn’t really kept in check by the British Indian Army, which was governed by the East India Company. Oh really? So it makes you wonder if Delaney decided to go on an ancient mythical bender all those years ago and ended up bingeing so hard, the Goddess Kali won’t leave him alone, now, either!

So, if he HAS been off the radar because of a ten-year punishment from the gods, or whatever, is he now even more determined to follow through with his oath to avoid being ostracized for yet another decade?

Okay, normal service is resumed…except to say…what's with this little half-brother, whose past, present and future upkeep Delaney has paid for upfront and never wants to see again? Is he really his half-brother? Brace would surely know…and Zilpha has written to Delaney asking that he bury their secrets in a ‘deeper’ grave. Come on now…is that boy their lovechild, or what? If he is, does Zilpha want Brace buried ‘deeper’…or the boy himself?

Finally…even the friends and family of Goddess Kali’s Thuggees didn’t know of their involvement. Nobody could speak about their service to Kali. It was Taboo. Oh yeah.