‘The most distressing TV show I’ve ever seen’

Tip Toe, Russell T. Davies incendiary, state-of-the-national suburban thriller, is year-defining television. It’s also the most gut-wrenching TV show he’s ever made; seriously, brace yourself.

Doctor Who has fallen into pop-cultural disrepair. The War Between the Land and the Sea was a televisual shrug; well-meaning, but disposable. However, Tip Toe deserves to incite a mass renewal of faith in Davies’ powers.

Lest we forget the trauma of It’s a Sin, his devastating ’80s drama about the AIDS crisis, or Years and Years, his all-too-possible vision of British dystopia; like a pitch-Black Mirror.

Is Tip Toe the best thing he’s ever written? Maybe. It’s certainly the angriest, and an emotional nuke aimed straight at the inane culture wars that have infected (im)polite society.
Tip Toe is based on real-world issues (Credit: Channel 4)

What is Tip Toe about?

Leo (Alan Cumming) and Clive (David Morrissey) live next door to each other. Leo is a shameless queer man, and the manager of a bar in Manchester’s Gay Village, where he employs all sorts of members of the LGBTQ+ community. He’s a little outspoken, but self-assured and friendly.

Clive is his polar opposite: a prejudiced, bitter, right-wing conspiracy theorist, resentful of how the world has evolved.

In his eyes, he’s done everything right: he voted for changes that didn’t happen, he learned a trade, and he has a wife and kids. But he’s lonely, and Leo’s light-footed joy wears on him.

The circumstances of their feud and how far it goes shouldn’t be divulged. However, I can say that they end up in each other’s orbit more than either would like, leading to strange, sometimes amusing, and god-awful altercations.

David Morrissey is terrifying in Tip Toe

Let it be clear: Morrissey’s Clive is absolutely the villain of Tip Toe (alongside the online apparatus that moulded him).

Leo isn’t infallible. As his pal Stephanie (Elizabeth Berrington) warns, him and his colleagues could do with treading a little more delicately; they deserve freedom, but their blasé sense of liberation isn’t one-to-one with everyone else.

That’s a credit to both Davies’ writing and Peter Hoar’s direction. Leo’s imperfections drive the plot, but they also magnify and interrogate Clive’s disproportionate rage.

He’s not cartoonishly sketched, though. We all know someone like Clive: a bigot (both the slur-slingers and muted scowlers) whose woe-me personalities lead them to the far-right. Someone who doubts everything and believes any preposterous “fact” online, as long as it’s to the contrary of the powers that be. In one of the show’s best lines, Leo even asks him: “You believe anything online. Why don’t you believe me?”

It’s a phenomenal performance from both actors. Cumming infuses Leo with his natural, Scottish charm and cheekiness, which makes for crackling chemistry with Morrissey’s hang-dog, brooding, yet occasionally vulnerable Clive.
David Morrissey plays one of his scariest characters yet (Credit: Channel 4)

Tip Toe should make you angry

Craft-wise, Tip Toe is terrific. It makes excellent use of licensed tracks (including two elite needle-drops from The Social Network OST), its score is unexpectedly jaunty, and the use of Manchester’s Northern Quarter is immersive and effervescent.

Hoar, Davies, and co. also know exactly when to pare back the flare and let a scene – even a silent one – speak.

Tip Toe may be an extreme example of how frenzied that intolerance can become. Its dialogue, with long, culturally-charged monologues, can also be a little tiring. But it should be all of these things.

Davies said in an interview that he thinks we’re “sliding into hell” (a sentiment Tip Toe definitely illustrates). Why should it mince its words or dilute the truth of the animosity that’s been sewn into the fabric of Britain and the wider world?

A word of warning, though, from someone who literally watches TV for a living: by the end, this is the most distressing series I’ve ever seen. It’s not rewatchable, but it’s unforgettable; to borrow Leo’s words, “something big’s gonna happen”.

Read more: The best movies you can watch for free on Channel 4 now

Tip Toe episodes 1-2 are available to stream on Channel 4 now.