Since its first episode aired at the end of May, Channel 4’s new drama Tip Toe has depicted the UK as a sociopolitical powder keg – with homophobia simmering just under the surface of everyday life.
This week, things came to a boil with the series’ harrowing, violent conclusion, which might go down as the most disturbing TV scene of the year.
Created by Russell T Davies (Doctor Who; It’s a Sin), the series stars Alan Cumming as a gay man in suburban Manchester confronted with poisonous bigotry.
Spoilers follow for the finale of Tip Toe...
From the opening sequence of the series, viewers knew how it was going to end: with Cumming’s character Leo hanging lifeless from a lamppost.
The lengthy final scene is set around the house of Leo’s homophobic neighbour Clive (David Morrissey) – filled with lads gathered to watch a football game. The house becomes a hotbed of toxic masculinity: tensions escalate rapidly, as family secrets are exposed, and Leo is caught in the crosshairs.
Spearheaded by the aggressive Roddy (George Miller), the lads grow belligerent as they turn on Clive’s youngest son George (Jackson Connor), a closeted gay teenager, who had just experienced an exuberant first taste of queer nightlife.
Flo (Iz Hesketh), a trans woman who had taken George under her wing, attempts to intervene, but faces abuse from the men; George sends her away, prompting Leo to go into his neighbour’s house to protect him.
The atmosphere grows more fraught, as the group learns that Clive’s eldest son Saul (Joseph Evans) has a side-hustle as an online sex worker. His videos are played on the living room TV while a mortified Clive watches on.
The pack finally turns on Clive himself, after learning that he recently offered help to a drag queen in trouble. Redirecting the mob’s hatred onto Leo, Clive eventually attacks him.
Slowly and brutally, we watch as the group drag the innocent man out into the street. We watch as they string him up from the lamppost. It’s a scene of pure distress, as the life leaves Leo’s body: his friends on the street below, helpless and screaming; Clive looking up, horrified by his own evil.
Reflecting on the ending to the Radio Times, Cumming said: “It completely could happen. This is a wake-up call. I don’t think it’s at all fantastical. I don’t think it’s at all in the future... this is happening right now.”
Morrissey said that despite a “theatrical” element to the finale, the scenes were reflective of the fact that “mob violence is very much happening now”, citing the UK riots of summer 2024.
The ending has provoked shock from many viewers, with one person writing on X/Twitter: “That was more horrific than any horror. I’m [heartbroken].”
“Tip Toe is probably one of the most disturbing things I have ever ever watched,” claimed another.
Broadcaster India Willoughby wrote: “Just watched the final episode of Tip Toe – please watch. So important. The ending is up there with the most powerful TV there has been. Takes your breath away.”
Davies’ work has long focused on the LGBTQ+ community, with the showrunner having previously created series such as 1990s sensation Queer as Folk, and the recent 1980s-set drama It’s a Sin.
Speaking to HuffPost, Davies explained that Tip Toe was partly inspired by the bigotry he had personally experienced.
“Things happened 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’,” he said.
“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.”
Tip Toe is available to stream now on Channel 4.
