Most Americans probably know Russell T. Davies from his work onwards Doctor Whobeing the man responsible for the 2005 reboot that put the show back on the map. But what could you do No Davies is also known to be behind some of the most groundbreaking LGBTQ programming in television history. From the beginning Queer as Folk in the late 1990s to the gut-wrenching AIDS drama 2021 It is Sinetelling stories about all aspects of queer life has been one of his main priorities.
But while It is Sine focusing on a strange history, and Davies’ uncomfortable 2019 drama Years and Years fight the threat of a dangerous dystopian future, Tip Toe it is firmly grounded in the here and now, and is all the more brutal and terrifying for it. It seems that many people complain that this series is too melodramatic, too loud, too preachy. And to be fair, in some cases, it can be. But taken as a whole, it’s one of the most urgent TV shows of the yeara rallying cry against the decline of LGBTQ rights in Britain and a warning that some of the ugliest aspects of history are about to be repeated.
What is ‘Tip Toe’ about?
The show’s devastating opening sequence sets the tone for what’s to come: A dead body hangs from a lamp shop as a woman in distress screams. Neighbors look through their curtains at the scene on the street, but don’t involve themselves. A man stares, dead-eyed, into the middle distance, before a title card flashes us back ten days earlier, apparently to explain the horrors we’re witnessing.
The story is mainly based on two neighbors. There’s Leo (Allan Cummins), a gay man in his sixties who owns a bar on Canal Street – the heart of Manchester’s gay community – and has recently broken up with a long-term partner. And there’s Clive (David Morrisony), who lives next door, a working-class electrician with two sons and an unhappy marriage. The men are not friends in any sense of the word, but things are starting to get more complicated when Leo is locked out of his house on the run after a hooker who stole his laptop. Embarrassed and clad only in his underwear, Leo asks Clive for help, a choice that brings the two more directly into each other’s lives when Clive shares a spare key to his flat to prevent such trouble in the future.
As their lives continue to diverge – Clive also has financial problems and they do some handyman work around Leo’s home and his bar –the couple hits on everythingfrom Clive’s understanding of what he sees as “the gay lifestyle” to trans issues, Brexit, and even Donald Trump. He has almost peered into the lives of his children – one is gay but not out and the other makes a living as a crooked boy on OnlyFans – anti-immigrant and vaguely racist. One of Tip ToeThe big unanswered questions are why Leo is so relentlessly tolerant of this guy. (My man, just change your locks!) But without his seemingly bottomless well of patience (or aggressive naïveté, your choice), we wouldn’t have a story.
Alan Cumming and David Morrissey Give Best Career Performances in ‘Tip Toe’
To be fair, Leo has a soft spot for lost causes. His Canal Street club, Spit & Polish, is a home for the marginalized, welcoming gay, straight, trans and non-sexual characters of all ages and backgrounds, even as he occasionally struggles with remembering the details of agents and gender assignments. Tip Toe at its warmest and most attractive when it enters the family found these particular people – and the gay community in general – have created, as they exchange exaggerated stories of conquests and nights out or appear for each other when needed. (A segment in which Leo and several other employees help Zee’s transgender manager (From Hesketh) escape from an abusive rental situation is both funny and moving.)
Cummins, who is best known these days for being the host of the reality series NBC The Spies, providing an incredibly rich and linear performance like a gay man who thinks he’s already fought his wars. In his mind, the hard progress he and his generation mates won for him, the struggles they endured through the AIDS crisis and the fight for marriage rights, that was his contribution. Complaining is now a younger man’s game. Unfortunately, as his longtime friend Melba (Paul Rhys) points out that just because Leo has made a decision with politics, it does not mean that politics is done with him. And the steady increase in homophobia and anti-trans bigotry, cyberbullying, doxxing, and harassment in recent years means that everyone needs to be much more careful than they once were. (Or, as Melba says: “I used to walk into rooms and go: ‘Ta-da!’ Now I walk on tiptoe, just in case.”).
Morrissey’s performance is more painful and uncomfortablewith a posture that causes discomfort and tension whenever he is against any of the many things he considers wrong in the world at the moment. (That’s almost everything.) Surrounded by a seemingly bottomless well of bitterness and anger fed by violent YouTube videos and online debauchery, he looks at Leo with a strange mixture of contempt and fascination. One minute, he’s pretty much accusing his neighbor of luring underage boys. Next, he works down at Spit & Polish, introducing the series of drag queens and trans girls who visit the place as their home.
Part of the tragedy of this story—and make no mistake, it is a tragedy– is the best way Davies’s writing occasionally suggests that there is another way. In another version of reality, learning more about the gay neighbors with whom he shares his city might make Clive more open, rather than less. In another, Leo’s anger—or at least his sense of self-preservation—sets in while there’s still time for him to make different choices about how (or if) he interacts with those who have openly and repeatedly expressed their bigotry. to him. But, like any good tragedy, there are things that are simply unavoidable.
‘Tip Toe’ Delivers a Timely (If Sometimes Serious) Message
As Tip Toe barrels toward a harrowing end that we already know is coming, Davies’ writing pulls no punches. The dialogue is often blunt and sometimes preachy, with at least half a dozen monologues that feel like an after-school special for adults, underlining his message with a glitter gel pen. This is not a show that is remotely interested in subtlety, and Davies’ scripts give its urgent subject matter, which touches on everything from homophobia and misinformation to violence over panic and crowds, a deliberate, angry emphasis.
Gone are the days when dramas enjoyed drawing subtle parallels or hoping that their audience would tune into the larger social messages at the heart of their stories. Instead, Tip Toe makes you look away from what the ugliest and most radical elements of our society are doing to the least among us and pretending we don’t know where such ideas lead in the end. It’s not perfect television, by any stretch, but, goodness, it does Tip Toe there is something to be said.
Tip Toe premieres October 2 on Starz.
- Release date
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2026 – 2026-00-00
- Network
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Channel 4
- Supervisors
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Peter Hoar
- Writers
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Russell T Davies
- The show’s unwavering willingness to tackle difficult social issues such as the rise of online radicalization, homophobia, trans shock, and mob violence is both critical and daring.
- Alan Cummins and David Morrissey give their best performances as two very different men whose lives are unfortunately intertwined.
- Despite the uncomfortable nature of much of its subject matter, the show warmly reveals the ways in which families have been found to be an essential support system for each other.
- Some of the dialogue is very serious, spelling out his message without much frivolity.