Taboo: First look at unrecognisable Mark Gatiss in Tom Hardy's BBC show

The Sherlock actor plays the infamous Prince Regent, later crowned as George IV

Tom Hardy's gritty BBC One series is bringing on one of the channel's own stalwarts, in the form of Sherlock star, writer, and co-creator Mark Gatiss.

Gatiss is set to play the infamous Prince Regent (later George IV) in Taboo's second episode; with our first look at the character seeing Gatiss look entirely urecognisable under a heavy layer of prosthetics, fitted to imitate the monarch's jowly visage.

Set in 1814 London, Taboo centres on the blunt-talking James Delany, played by Hardy, who returns to England from Africa following his father’s mysterious death.

Delany, however, was believed to be dead, his appearance at the funeral disrupting plans made by his half-sister Zilpha (Oona Chaplin) and husband Thorne Geary (Jefferson Hall) to sell an inherited plot of land to the East India Trading Company.

Based on a story devised by Hardy with his father Chips, the show was created by the pair in collaboration with Steven Knight, the man behind the BBC's Peaky Blinders.

Gatiss continues his role as Mycroft Holmes in season 4 of Sherlock; which recently shocked fans with series' biggest twist yet in the season's second episode, The Lying Detective.

You can read our review of the first episode of Taboo here.