Tom Hardy is getting back in business with his Locke collaborator Steven Knight, joining forces with the writer for a new BBC period drama titled Taboo.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hardy will headline Taboo, an eight-episode season about "a rogue adventurer who returns to England from Africa with 14 ill-gotten diamonds to seek vengeance after the death of his father. Refusing to sell the family business to the East India Company, he sets out to build his own trade and shipping empire and finds himself playing a dangerous game with two warring nations, Britain and America." Ridley Scott is on board as an executive producer.

"This is a period in British history where the rising power of the Empire seeped into every dark corner," Scott said of the series' early 19th-century setting.

"We’re creating a flagship British drama for this generation," added Hardy, who describes the show as a "hybrid of orthodox and unconventional story telling, packed with darkness and spirited characters."

Taboo begins shooting in January in the United Kingdom.