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We can always count on Russell T Davis (Queer as Folk, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Cucumber, It’s A Sin) to serve up ground-breaking queer drama, even during his long tenure as the show runner/writer for Doctor Who. He has a knack for including eye-opening action and dialogue into scenes that quickly move on so that it’s only later that you realise how innovative he has been. Who can forget the famous headline-grabbing rimming scene between Aidan Gillen and Charlie Hunnam in 1999´s Queer as Folk? This was way ahead of its time back then – 27 years ago – and changed the path of sex scenes on screen forever.

Now Davis is back – with Tip Toe – and a return to Canal Street, Manchester, the original heart of its queer scene. A five-part mini-series airing on Channel Four in the UK, Tip Toe introduces us to ten days in the life of Leo (Alan Cumming – Cabaret, Eyes Wide Shut, The Traitors), a Canal Street bar owner, who lives in the Manchester suburbs next door to Clive (David Morrissey – The Deal, Walking Dead, Sherwood), a handsome electrician. Clive lives with his long-suffering wife Marie (Pookie Quesnel – Zombies, Pride & Prejudice) and two good-looking sons, Saul (Joseph Evans) aged 25, and George (Jackson Connor), 16. Leo is approaching 60 and is fit, feisty, driven, and very busy with his popular bar, Spit & Polish, managing 45 colourful queer staff and the odd hook-up. He’s single, his long-term partner, Curtis (Charlie Condou), having left him a couple of years ago for a woman. He has no patience with fools, and this includes his various encounters with Clive.

Clive is highly strung, intense, a conspiracy theory believer, homophobic in an old-fashioned, uneducated manner, and has both relationship and financial troubles. The Brexiteer has been left behind by life. There´s also a worrying dark side to him. He has a disdain for Leo’s queerness and seeks to minimise Leo’s contact with his sons. At the same time, he’s short of cash, so when Leo offers him some work at the bar, he accepts it, reluctantly entwining himself in Leo´s very homo environment. Meanwhile, both of Clive’s sons have a lot going on behind his back, much to Leo’s initial amusement.

Davis has come up trumps again with Tip Toe. He, together with director Peter Hoar, has combined a very strong, quintessentially British drama with a set of great characters. The queers span the spectrum of queer life today. Old-school gay men, trans youth, drag queens, non-binary folk, big ole lesbians and average all-sorts – all shapes, sizes, colours and ages – meld together under Leo’s watchful eye. The other characters are also forceful. Clive’s wife was strong once but weary and broken now – Quesnel is perfect in the role. Elizabeth Berrington is also terrific as Stephanie, Leo´s pragmatic best friend with an unconscious homophobic bias. Brit legend Denise Welch has an amusing cameo. Both sons are excellent scene stealers. There´s an epic attention to detail. Everyone is on their own journey, muddling through 2026´s fraught political, social, and economic environments.

Tip Toe is essentially about the divisions in society and how and why we’ve grown apart, even sometimes within our own minority communities. Unchecked pack mentality and online behaviour are examined in this regard. We’re growing away from focusing on what unites us to drawing on what divides us. Davis doesn’t hold back in his commentary on the current corrosive climate for trans people, the attempts to dismantle queer rights, Trump’s behaviour, issues with the UK´s current government, HIV, queer suicide, OnlyFans, the difficulties of operating a hospitality business and the work ethic of some of his staff. The increasing solitude of human life is also examined, and how this raises vulnerability. This makes Tip Toe very relevant for now and a historical time capsule for the future. It´s tense, funny, dark, very dark – maybe too dystopian in parts – awkward, scary, somewhat pessimistic, and unapologetically queer. It´s generally pretty realistic, although it does veer off into territory that may divide its audience. Overall, however, it’s very good, high-voltage entertainment – blood, fire and retribution!

Fasten your seatbelts, babies, because you’re about to be taken on a very unpredictable ride. 

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