{"id":1964342,"date":"2026-05-30T23:02:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1964342"},"modified":"2026-05-30T23:02:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:02:29","slug":"tip-toe-behind-the-scenes-of-russell-t-davies-twisty-new-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1964342","title":{"rendered":"Tip Toe: Behind the scenes of Russell T Davies’ twisty new thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/a51a\/live\/b1372570-5b3d-11f1-9a6c-c14292377fff.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"ChannelChannel 4<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Alan Cumming says the role involved some difficult, violent scenes<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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On a stereotypically rainy day in Manchester, we’re ushered into a kitchen that at first glance appears to be in a normal terraced house.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There are dishes in the sinks and food in the fridge, but a quick look outside at the blue skies and sunshine gives the game away – this is actually a TV set.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The occupier of the house? Alan Cumming. And sitting at the kitchen table is TV writing legend, Russell T Davies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The BBC has been exclusively invited behind the scenes to meet the cast and crew of Davies’ upcoming thriller, Tip Toe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It tells the story of two neighbours – one gay, one straight – whose ongoing feud gets darker and darker as one of them falls deeper into the world of online disinformation, with disastrous consequences for both.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MandyMandy Ingham \/ BBC News<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The houses featured in the show were recreated in a Manchester film studio – Alan Cumming spoke to the BBC in his character’s kitchen<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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‘I wish television could change the world’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dealing with such serious topics, but still managing to be funny is well-trodden ground for Davies, but while It’s a Sin looked back on the 80s and Years and Years was set in a dystopian future, Tip Toe is dealing with the here-and-now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I see the world getting worse and worse these days to be honest,” Davies says. “I am very worried about the future for my nieces and nephews.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ChannelChannel 4<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Russell T Davies (left) is working with director Peter Hoar (right), who also directed It’s a Sin<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I ask if he hopes the show could have a positive, real-world impact. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It’s A Sin, for example, saw a huge increase in HIV testing rates, Mr Bates vs The Post Office brought the nation’s attention to the Horizon IT scandal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Davies shakes his head.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I wish television could change the world,” he says. “I’d have written more and changed it faster if I could. I do feel bound to comment on the world though.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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‘It’s so relevant, and so needed’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Alan Cumming plays Leo Struthers, a 59-year-old who owns a bar in Manchester’s Gay Village. Casting him is a personal triumph for Davies, who tells me he’s been trying to get Cumming to appear in one of his shows for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The role of Leo was pitched to Cumming before the script was even written, and the actor was “blown away” by the concept because of a twist at the start of episode one: his character is dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“As the series goes on and we all get to like everybody, and worry for them, you almost forget [I’m dead],” Cumming explains. “But we don’t know how it’s happened, or when it’s happened in the story. It’s really clever, it’s suspenseful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s also so relevant and so needed.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ChannelChannel 4<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The series was filmed in and around Greater Manchester, including a residential street in Salford<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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David Morrissey plays Clive Goss, Leo’s next door neighbour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It’s the first time Morrissey and Cumming have worked together, despite being friends (and at at one point, real-life neighbours) for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We have to do some pretty tough stuff, but the great thing about being with an actor who is a friend is that you can really push it,” Morrissey tells me during a break from filming one of the show’s tense, emotional scenes in the Goss family home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We can be in a scene which is very confrontational,” he says, but adds that the minute the director shouts, cut: “We’re hugging each other and making sure each other are alright.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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‘When your dad’s David Morrissey and he’s telling you off’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Alongside a raft of household names on the cast list, Joseph Evans and Jackson Connor – who play brothers Saul and George Goss – are relative newcomers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a quick break between filming a frosty scene with their on-screen dad David Morrissey, they sit down for a chat in what would be their front garden – if their home wasn’t a plywood set in a Manchester film studio.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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You’d be forgiven for thinking they’re actually related – they look very similar and, just like real-life brothers, they’re making fun of each other and finishing each others’ sentences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"AnnAnn Gannon \/ BBC News<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Jackson Connor said it was “really exciting” to be providing on-screen representation for people struggling with their sexual orientation<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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‘Things are souring’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Davies’ break-through drama Queer as Folk, which first aired in 1999, was something of a cultural reset for on-screen representation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In the 26 years since, Davies worries things have started to get worse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“When we were shooting Queer as Folk, if you’d have said to me, ‘In 25 years’ time, what will gay life and queer life be like?’ I would’ve said, ‘We’ll have achieved equality, everything will be fine, and we’ll all be hand-in-hand, skipping down the street’,” he says with a wry smile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We kind of got close to that about 10 years ago, but actually I think things are souring. I feel more hostility in the air, more aggression towards us.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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So what’s next for Davies?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“While the world keeps changing, there will always be something new to write about,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“That’s the plan, I’ll just keep going.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Episode 1 and 2 of Tip Toe are out on Channel 4, Sunday 31 May and Monday 1 June.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c392erkm3d2o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/a51a\/live\/b1372570-5b3d-11f1-9a6c-c14292377fff.jpg”] Channel 4 Alan Cumming says the role involved some difficult, violent scenes On a stereotypically rainy day in Manchester, we’re ushered into a kitchen that at first glance appears to be in a normal terraced house. There are dishes in the sinks and food in the fridge, but a quick look outside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-1964342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1964342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1964342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1964342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1964342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}