The writer of It’s A Sin, Russell T. Davies, is bringing a new drama to Channel 4 this year, Tip Toe, starring queer icon Alan Cumming as Leo, a bar owner in Manchester’s gay district of Canal Street, and David Morrissey as Leo’s neighbour, an electrician named Clive, as warring neighbours in Britain’s present-day social divides.
Russell T. Davies has been chronicling the lives of gay men for television for twenty-six years, since Queer As Folk, but describes having to “run home and write this” as fast as he could, in the face of rising radicalisation and a sliding backwards of gay rights that we’re seeing today.
Nonchalant got a sneak peek and a Q&A hosted at the BFI on Monday 18th May, with the cast, writer and director and producer to see what fans could expect. The first look of the series portrays the growing tensions between two neighbours with opposing views on life, as the story navigates their relationship and backstories that lead to a sobering plot point. It reflects the critical state of such polarisation in society today, and how words and vitriol can lead to far more violent and tragic circumstances.
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What’s Tip Toe about?
Named after a crucial line in the show that comes to set the tone, there is no sugar coating this dark thriller, which captures the dangerous essence of the slow shift backwards from the very first scene, albeit with Davies’ signature wit and shine laced into the script and Cumming’s on-camera charm that delights viewers. Culminating in a challenging piece of work with a brilliant supporting cast and young talent, the show carries a hard-hitting message from the get-go.
At the heart of this story is a message of human connection. What we think of as an online rage is now transferring into the real world. In this show, we step into the backstories and motivations of these characters to understand who they are and where they come from, and what happens if we lose sight of what brings people together.
It begs an interesting question of whether the online world is shaping people’s opinions, or whether it’s revealing what people already feel, which is far more sobering.
Leo and Clive have lived next to each other for around a decade, always tolerating one another’s differences, but a major shift causes a rift between them that changes their relationship forever.
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Through the witty and raw script, Davies explores the rise of homophobic and transphobic rhetoric that has proliferated in society, highlighting how fragile the radicalisation of opinions has become via the internet.
While It’s A Sin depicts the rife homophobia of the AIDS crisis from decades past, Tip Toe wakes its viewers up to the harsh realities of the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community right now in 2026, reuniting Davies with It’s a Sin producer Nicola Shindler and director Peter Hoar. The show unveils that homophobia never went away, but has insidiously risen in new ways.
“[Alan and me] lived across the road from each other, and have been friends for a long time,” said David Morrissey in the Q&A, hosted at the BFI preview evening. “That helped very early on before we even got to the read-through. We spoke and said we’d have to look after each other. The production looked after everybody in it, not just Alan and me; the whole community in the show has to go to places that are really, really, tough, dark, and challenging. It’s a testament to everyone here that we all felt very held and loved.”
Watch the trailer
When can we watch it?
The five-part series will officially launch at the end of May 2026, and will broadcast on Channel 4. It will also be available to stream on Channel 4 on demand. The first two episodes will air on Sunday 31st May and Monday 1st June at 9pm on Channel 4, and will be available to stream from then.
The final three episodes will follow on Sunday 7th, Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th June at the same time. For more queer TV recs, visit our latest queer TV guide for May 2026.
Nonchalant x
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Lauren is a writer and editor based in Lewisham, covering all things queer culture, books, travel, arts and lifestyle. She also writes about hospitality and foodservice, sustainability, business and tech, and was previously a features editor for New Statesman Media Group.
