9 Things We Learned From The Tip Toe Cast About The Hard-Hitting New Channel 4 Drama

Alan Cumming, David Morrissey and Russell T Davies have opened up about what to expect from the It's A Sin and Doctor Who writer's new series.

Tip Toe is undoubtedly about to become one of 2026’s most talked-about new shows.

Created by Russell T Davies, the man behind It’s A Sin, Years And Years and Doctor Who, the hard-hitting Channel 4 drama takes an unflinching look at today’s divided world, by introducing us to two neighbours who have co-existed peacefully for years, but suddenly find themselves at war with one another due to their opposing views.

Starring Alan Cumming and David Morrissey, Tip Toe pulls no punches in its exploration of timely themes like online radicalisation, the so-called “manosphere”, the rise of far-right rhetoric and transphobia, and is sure to spark a range of opinions as a result.

Ahead of Tip Toe’s premiere, HuffPost UK caught up with cast members Alan and David, as well as its writer, to discuss what went into the creation of one of the year’s most hotly-anticipated shows…

Tip Toe was inspired as much by events from Russell T Davies’ own life as it was from the general news cycle

The shift in society that inspired Tip Toe was something that Russell says had been “rising up and rising up until I had to write it”.

He explains: “There were various things in my life both at work and at home – in ways that I’m not going to go into because it’ll only encourage them to happen again, genuinely – that made me think ‘that’s enough’.

“If this anger, this violence and these lies are getting close to my life – I’m in a very privileged, lucky and well off position, so for those who are not so well off, then this must be really bad. These times must be getting worse and worse and worse.”

Russell continues: “As well as witnessing and listening to every friend I’ve got – especially my queer friends, who are feeling more and more pressure, and more and more attacks upon them – I have a disabled friend, a wheelchair user, who had someone turn up at her door, ring the doorbell, and when she opened the door, there was a man saying, ‘you’re lying, you can walk, you’re claiming this on benefits’. To her face!”

“The anger that I always thought was online is now visibly stepping into the modern world,” he laments, which is what inspired the events of Tip Toe.

It’s important to note that Tip Toe is not set in a not-to-distant future dystopia, this is Russell T Davies’ reflection on the modern world as it is

“You only need to look at the news now to know that we’re not talking........

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