Channel 4 has released a first-look teaser for Tip Toe, the upcoming five-part drama from Russell T Davies starring Alan Cumming and David Morrissey. Shared with the ominous line “Blood and fire and retribution”, the teaser gives audiences a first moving glimpse at the Manchester-set thriller, which follows two long-time neighbours whose years of uneasy familiarity begin to unravel into suspicion and danger.
Cumming plays Leo, the vivid and funny owner of Spit & Polish, a bar in Manchester’s Gay Village, while Morrissey stars as Clive, Leo’s guarded and troubled next-door neighbour. The pair have lived beside each other for almost 15 years, but as the world around them becomes more tense, words become weapons, opinions harden, and the two men are gradually pushed towards open hostility.
The series is described as a tense suburban thriller about prejudice, radicalised views and fear creeping back into everyday life. For Davies, whose work has long moved between the political and the personal while keeping queer lives firmly at the centre, Tip Toe feels like a natural but darker extension of stories he has told before. From Queer as Folk to It’s A Sin, and through the emotional scope of Doctor Who, Davies has often used genre and humour alongside big-hearted character to confront fear and the cruelties of the world around us. Here, though, Tip Toe looks set to push that anger into something more immediate and confrontational.
The cast includes Pooky Quesnel as Clive’s wife Marie, Jackson Connor and Joseph Evans as Clive’s sons George and Saul, and Elizabeth Berrington as Leo’s best friend Stephanie. Iz Hesketh and Shakeel Kimotho star as Zee and Hanna at Spit & Polish, with Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as bar manager Judy, Paul Rhys as Canal Street fixture Melba, Charlie Condou as Leo’s ex-husband Curtis, and Denise Welch as Diane.
Davies previously described the series as a show he “had to write”, saying the world is becoming “stranger, tougher and darker”. He also said he was excited for audiences to see the cast’s work, calling it “some of the finest acting” he has ever seen.
The teaser opens with Leo locked out of his house in nothing but his pants and shirt, knocking on Clive’s door and meeting his son George, a moment that seems to plant the first seeds of the confrontation to come. Later, George appears to enter Spit & Polish, pulling the neighbourly tension into a much more personal and political space. Over flashes of warning-card text reading “love thy neighbour”, “touch thy neighbour”, “fear thy neighbour”, “lust thy neighbour” and “bait thy neighbour”, a voiceover from Paul Rhys’ character Melba delivers the teaser’s most chilling line: “If history tells us one thing, it’s that blood, and fire and retribution always happen. And now it’s coming for us.”
Behind the scenes, Tip Toe is produced by Quay Street Productions, part of ITV Studios, with Nicola Shindler, Russell T Davies, Peter Hoar and Alan Cumming serving as executive producers. Phil Collinson produces the series, with Hoar directing and Andy Pryor casting. Gemma Boswell is the commissioning editor for Channel 4, while ITV Studios will distribute the drama internationally.
For CultureCues, Tip Toe already feels like one of Channel 4’s most urgent upcoming dramas. This is clearly a queer story with real darkness and political weight behind it, and the teaser has us firmly on the edge of our seats. With Cumming and Morrissey at the centre, Davies behind the writing, and Manchester’s Canal Street woven directly into the story, the series seems to pull its threat from the everyday, where a neighbour, a doorway or a passing comment can start to feel dangerous. Basically, nobody is popping round next door for a friendly cup of tea. We will, obviously, be watching from a safe distance.
Tip Toe is coming soon to Channel 4.
Watch the first-look teaser below.
Nikki Murray is a UK-based writer, screenwriter and founder & editor of CultureCues, covering film, television, music and pop culture. Her work focuses on storytelling and the moments shaping modern entertainment.