Series tip “Tip Toe”: A brutal drama about the new homohatred

The series caused a stir in the UK when it premiered at the end of May. The beginning is shocking: a man hangs from a lamppost in a suburban neighborhood with a noose around his neck. Everything builds up to this execution through flashbacks in the five parts, each lasting around 45 minutes.

“Tip Toe” tells the story of Leo (played by Cumming) and Clive (Morrissey). They have been living as neighbors in two terraced houses next to each other for almost 15 years – next door to each other, with no sound. One day they clash and the atmosphere between them is toxic, full of mistrust and resentment.

The electrician Clive has radicalized himself quite a bit via the Internet. He considers Brexit to be a fraud that wasn’t carried out properly, the pandemic to be a conspiracy, gays to be invasive and trans people to be dangerous, especially for children and young people.

Young men between struggles with sexuality and exhibitionism

But Leo, who runs a queer bar on Manchester’s legendary Canal Street, also lives in his own world, communicates with his neighbor probably too ironically and with a lot of presuppositions and thus allows for misunderstandings.

Clive has growing reservations about his gay neighbor, especially when it comes to his two handsome sons, the shy George (Jackson Connor) and the affable Saul (Joseph Evans).

The viewers soon find out: Teenager George is secretly gay, struggles with coming out and hangs around on dating apps. Saul, a trained man in his mid-twenties, earns extra money on a porn platform – with explicit content such as masturbation in front of the camera.

Meanwhile, father Clive is having serious marital problems, and things aren’t going well for him at work either.

Once fearless, now reserved

“Tip Toe” author Russell T Davies says the core of his series is actually what the flamboyant character Melba expresses in the first episode.

The ex-drag queen, a man with red lipstick (excellently played by Paul Rhys), explains that he used to appear more fearless as a gay man, but today he prefers to hold back – just in case.

In the original the language is nicer: “I used to walk into a room and just go “Ta-da”! Now I tiptoe, just in case”. This quote also explains the series title “Tip Toe”.

The monologue gets to the heart of the loss of security that many queer people feel due to social prejudices, increasing hostility, online hatred, fear of violence, real violence – as was recently seen in Germany in the Islamist terrorist attack on the sidelines of Berlin’s Christopher Street Day (CSD) on July 25th.

In everyday life, all of this may lead you to act more cautiously and thus become more inconspicuous and less visible.

If he had been asked about 2026 in 1996, he would have imagined glorious times, says Melba. But instead: growing homophobia, viciousness, contempt. “It’s back… it’s a storm, a tidal wave, a massive tsunami, we’re in the middle of it.”

The “Queer as Folk” confidence of 1999 has evaporated in 2026

With “Queer as Folk,” Russell T Davies, now 63, created a groundbreaking series about homosexuals over a quarter of a century ago. The basic attitude was hopeful that everything would become more liberal over time.

The series took place in Manchester – a US remake later took place in Pittsburgh – and dealt with all sorts of problems faced by a clique of young gays. The new drama is also set in Manchester, but the optimism is gone.

The main character of the series, who is executed at the end, believes the current backlash against queer people is only temporary. The pendulum always swings back and forth, Leo says at one point.

Melba, his bar regular and friend, has a different opinion and a few theories: The enemies of the queers have tricked their victims. They just waited. They have all come out so that they are now exposed and can become targets.

Without mentioning his name, the US President also appears. With his policies and rhetoric, the president gave these people permission to attack all non-heteros. “They’ve always hated us, only now they don’t have to pretend otherwise.”