Success was hardly guaranteed for Tip Toe. The new drama from the prolific, BAFTA-winning scribe Russell T Davies (Queer as Folk, Doctor Who) ranks among the most visceral, discomfiting and uncompromising watches you’ll see on TV this year. The first episode opens with the literal hanging of an affable gay man named Leo (Alan Cumming) outside of his flat in Manchester. Over the five hours that follow, the series tracks what led to the tragedy — specifically, his complicated relationship with his resentful, bigoted next-door neighbor, Clive (David Morrissey).
The strength of the show is that it operates on levels beyond the polemical — Clive is a three-dimensional man in his own right, a working-class husband and father crushed by modern capitalism and alienated from generational shifts. Leo, who runs a gay bar, is a loving guy who holds his beliefs so closely, he can be as much of a provocateur as an advocate. In that nuance, Morrissey and Cumming — in his richest dramatic role in some time, taking a break from his Emmy-winning Traitors hosting gig — give vivid performances achingly rooted in the here and now. They’re supported by queer and trans performers similarly given the space to go big and dig deep.
Tip Toe
But make no mistake: Tip Toe makes a statement, loud and proud and outraged, about rising levels of bigotry, hate crimes and systemic violence in Britain and around the world over the last decade or so. It imagines, through the lens of a thriller but all too realistically, how these bubbling tensions can spiral out of control. It’s a spirited portrait of queer resilience against the resurgent force of cultural homophobia.
So, again: Not exactly a recipe for a smash hit. And yet that’s exactly what Tip Toe became in its initial U.K. run on Channel 4, reaching just under 6 million viewers (in a country with about a fifth of the U.S. population) in its first month on linear and streaming platforms. The show managed to sell for distribution globally and will premiere Oct. 2 on Starz in the U.S., where a fatal anti-gay hate crime made national headlines just last week.
In their first interviews ahead of the American release, Davies, Cumming and Morrissey joined The Hollywood Reporter to speak candidly about Tip Toe’s impact thus far, why it could never be made here and how they hope it resonates globally. You can also watch the exclusive U.S. trailer below.
This show is obviously a conversation starter, and it’s already been broadcast in its entirety in the U.K. What was that release like?
DAVIES The project was kind of small, niche, queer — not instantly a recipe for success. I very much feared that we’d slip away and disappear. Its success — the noise of it and people talking about it and the lovely, healthy viewing figures — was a real surprise, that material like this can cut through in a world of thrillers and zombies and ghosts and detectives. To my horror, I found a lot of people saying, “Yes, I think you’re right.” A lot of gay friends and queer friends and certainly people from the trans community saying, “Yes, I think this anger that you are detecting in the air, this violence that’s being turned towards us, is real.” And although I chose to make a queer show because I’m a gay writer, I was trying and wanting to tap into an anger that seems to be there on every subject these days. It’s a very strange world.
MORRISSEY I was wondering how it would feel just walking down the street, but people were able to divorce me as the actor from the character. When I was around the West End or whatever, a lot of people would come up to me and say, “That’s a story that really needed telling and thank you for telling it.” People were having conversations about: How did we get here? How far will this go before anyone starts saying this is unacceptable?
CUMMING When I was doing it, I had my head down and was just getting through it — I knew it was going to be intense, I knew it was going to be disturbing. I was like a monk. It was so unlike myself. And so when it came out and everybody reacted so emotionally, it really triggered me. I suddenly was like, “Yes, it was awful.” It was really hard. I hadn’t allowed myself to experience how traumatic it was. When other people were being so moved and traumatized by it, I had sort of a delayed response. So I’m slightly girding my loins for another one when it comes out in America.
Alan Cumming and David Morrissey in Tip Toe.
Alan and David — knowing the difficulty and intensity of the material, what made you want to be a part of it?
CUMMING I’ve loved Russell for so long — we’ve actually tried to work together a few times in the past and it hasn’t worked out — and then they were trying to attach me to this. By the end of the meeting [with Davies], I was like, “I’m totally in, of course.” He’s an incredible writer, probably the most exciting television writer in Britain, easily. Anyway, I was excited to work with him. Then they pitched me the story and I was like, “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” For a man of my age, of my background, of my sexuality, there is no better role to play. It’s so incredibly immersing and taxing and challenging, but also I’m so completely right to play it. This show is also about everything that I believe and I passionately want to advocate for.
Because of things like The Traitors, I’m very visible in a sort of high-camp, fun way. But a lot of my more serious acting work is really intense. I’m drawn to these things. I like challenging myself, and this was a very challenging thing to do. I was so excited to do it. And I’ve never done a role that I was so ready to leave. I loved the experience — it was an incredible thing to do — but it was heavy. I was longing to let him go. I’ve never felt like that before.
MORRISSEY I didn’t have any qualms about doing it. I knew it was an important piece of work. I knew it was something I could disappear into. I knew it was a very different character for me, although I do tend to play quite complex and complicated people who tend to do things that are not great. (Laughs) I felt that he was very accessible around the world right now, certainly around the U.K. I could see him emerging, that anger and that looking to blame, looking to kick out, looking to make sense of their own inadequacies and their own disappointments with the world. He wasn’t just a cartoon baddie.
Iz Hesketh in Tip Toe as Zee, who works at Leo’s bar.
Russell, can you speak about the genesis of the idea?
DAVIES The idea of two neighbors swapping their keys was with me for a long time, more than 10 years. I work away a lot, so I gave my neighbor my front-door key; then I’m a writer, so I started imagining, “What’s he going to do with that key?” He was the loveliest man in the world. Nothing ever went wrong there, but that started to open up a thriller in my mind…. I thought, “Well, what if you take the elements of a thriller and marry that with my fears about where I think we’re heading?”
The bigger part is my daily growing fear of how the online world is crossing into the real world, which happened with the Manchester Synagogue murders. The tiptoe went out. We had rioting in the streets. We’ve had examples of people on X here advocating for immigrants who live in hotels to be burned. Now that’s crossing into the real world. I think that’s terrifying. And you absolutely see that happening in the trans community. If they’re coming for the trans people, they’re coming for us. I’ve noticed it in the streets more — being called “queer,” being called a “poof.” It feels like the 1980s-scared. It’s creeping back in.
Alan and David, you’re playing adversaries here, and it obviously gets incredibly violent and disturbing between you. How did you find going to that place together?
CUMMING I’ve known David since the late 80s. We used to be neighbors. On the day that Tip Toe came out in Britain, he was living in my house in New York while I was not there. He’s been so there for me over the years — and with old friends, you don’t see each other for ages, but you always keep in touch. That’s the good thing about getting older: You realize you haven’t seen someone for years, maybe, and then you see them and it’s like you’d seen them yesterday. That was one of the most beautiful things about making this. We had to do such brutal things, so at the start, we just said, “We’ve got to look after each other.” We constantly checked in about stuff. Inevitably, things happen: I was sore, I got hurt. I had a sore chest for months because he was constantly grabbing it and pushing me around him. But I trusted him. I did suggest him for the part. I was manifesting my own safety and my own fun, but it was tough.
MORRISSEY I’ve known Alan for 40 years. Alan is the godfather of my daughter. So the minute they shouted “cut,” we would be hugging each other. I also think what Russell writes — and this has to do with Alan and I’s friendship as well — you feel that these two guys could be friends in another circumstance. Clive tells Leo things that he would never tell anyone else. And there are times when Leo can’t resist poking the bear. Alan and I have been in each other’s lives for such a long time, seeing the twists and turns, both the highs and lows. He has a capacity for real joy and love and he’s such a brilliant, happy person to be around. He doesn’t step back. He’s vocal and he uses his platform, but also, we have a real laugh. He’s a great friend and that’s important for me. It really helped, because this is very dark material, to be with someone who I had real history with.
Jackson Connor as George, Clive’s 16-year-old son coming into his sexuality, with Hesketh.
Russell, to your point about the climate changing for the worse — the very thesis of the show — I’m curious what it was like to actually find Tip Toe a home? Was it difficult?
DAVIES If you’ve got me in the room, you know what you’re going to get. And they were very wonderful at Channel 4 — in its charter, it’s meant to be controversial and to give voices to people that other channels might not necessarily give. They literally said, “Well, the door is still open here because of Queer as Folk.” That was 27 years ago — no one actually works there who worked there 27 years ago — but they still carry that legacy forward. I really appreciated that. I have to say, it was the easiest commission of my life. I wrote the script and they commissioned it in seven days flat.
Was it as easy to actually finance and produce it beyond the network?
DAVIES It’s the one show we didn’t expect to go around the world. I’ll tell you what we did, Nicola [Shindler] and I — we were utterly convinced that this wouldn’t get sold anywhere. Whether people would be hostile towards it or whether indifferent towards it or simply didn’t agree with it. So it’s just about the first British drama I could name in living history that’s been made with no American money and no co-production money from anywhere. We didn’t even try in pre-production because we didn’t want to open the door to people saying, “You can’t say that.” I’ve worked with HBO. I do know the pressures out there are vast, and I know that channels out there have bosses who can change the ethos of the channel on a whim or with a phone call from a person overnight. I know how dangerous it is out there and how jobs could be lost so easily. So it’s a very, very cheap show. It’s frighteningly cheap because we had hardly any money at all.
Morrissey.
For the rest of you, then: Do you think Tip Toe could’ve ever been made by Americans? How do you expect the show to land over here?
CUMMING No, absolutely not. I mean, not now. Russell’s previous things, HBO put money into, but the whole anti-DEI crusade has meant that a subject matter like this has made American companies scared to invest in it. Everyone’s like, “Oh, isn’t it great that we’ve got all these gay shows, Heated Rivalry and blah blah.” I said, “Yeah, but Heated Rivalry was made in Canada and bought in America.” There’s no investment. People are worried they’re going to get fined or blackballed or sued by the government for making these kinds of shows. So no, I don’t think it could possibly have been made there. There’s nothing happening in America that takes on these subjects and is as honest and raw and brutal as this is. I doubt anything like this will be made in America for some time, sadly. But that’s why I’m really grateful to Starz. Some people are going to absolutely love it and some people are going to be furious, but that’s what great art is supposed to do.
MORRISSEY I’m confident that this show asks big questions. I’m confident that it holds up a mirror to a societal problem that’s happening right here, right now — it’s certainly happening in our country and it’s happening in yours very much. The capacity of an audience to take that in, I don’t know about that. I have no control over that. Of course, you want your work to be successful and for a wide audience to see it, and I really hope a wide audience sees this, but I have no control over what they will make of it.
It’s not a heightened slasher-movie world we’re presenting. It’s a horror story, but it’s a horror story that’s very, very real, and sometimes people can be a bit freaked out by that. But in America, Alan really has enough interest in him and eyes on him for people to be really excited by what he does here. When I first knew Alan, he was a stage actor — and phenomenal. Now we know him as the presenter, the beloved host, but this is a great, great performance from a great, great actor. I think that is what will really land for people: “Wow, Alan Cumming is an amazing actor.”