Alan Cumming unveiled as Attitude Uncut’s latest cover star as he talks Russell T Davies’ dystopian queer drama Tip Toe (EXCLUSIVE)

Russell T Davies’ new TV show Tip Toe opens with the murder of a gay character, immediately setting the tone for his latest unapologetic exploration of queer life in modern Britain.

It’s a deliberate gut-punch from the Queer as Folk and It’s a Sin creator, designed to grab the audience by the throat from the very first scene and force a conversation about the violence still faced by LGBTQ+ people today.

“Tip Toe is the most gruelling and intense thing I’ve ever done,” Alan Cumming tells Attitude Uncut about the new Channel 4 series he stars in. Set in Manchester, it reflects our troubled times as the political right gains momentum and the threat to LGBTQ+ rights builds. Here, we speak to Cumming, Davies and cast members about why this is the moment to tell this vital story and to issue a “call to arms” to our community.

The streets of Lower Broughton in Salford, home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in Europe, buzz with a curious energy as they watch a film crew at work. Children with kippahs and sidelocks gather at the edges of the cordoned-off pavement, their eyes wide as they fire questions at the crew in thick Mancunian accents. Over the course of the shoot, two very different worlds brush against each other – the tightly knit religious community and Tip Toe, the raw, queer, politically charged five-part Channel 4 series being filmed in their midst.

Inside the trailer of Tip Toe’s lead actor, Alan Cumming, he and I work our way through some late-night dinner during a break (mine, trout from the set’s catering crew, and his, a vegan option I can’t quite make out). The 61-year-old Scotsman – Tony and Olivier Award winner, four-time Emmy recipient, and one of the most fearless voices in queer storytelling – is here for no ordinary job. Cumming’s role has been written specifically for him by Davies, in a collaboration the pair have been chasing for more than 20 years.

“We first met around 2003,” Cumming tells me. “He’s asked me to do things before, and I’ve always been so bitter when I couldn’t. This time, he came to me before it was even written and pitched the story. I was just delighted.”

“The story takes place over 10 days and so much happens in those 10 days” – Alan Cumming on Tip Toe

That delight is visible in every frame he inhabits as Leo – a charismatic, gay bar owner on Manchester’s Canal Street who serves as both community pillar and emotional heart of the drama. Leo is warm, supportive, funny and fiercely protective of his chosen family. But over 10 intense days documented in Tip Toe, his world begins to fracture under the weight of rising political radicalisation. 

Cumming first stunned audiences with his defining Hamlet in the 1990s, before going on to earn a Tony in 1998 for his groundbreaking, androgynous Emcee in the Broadway revival of Cabaret, and later brought sly charisma to roles ranging from cyber villain Boris in GoldenEye and the spiritual Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United to the scene-stealing Eli Gold on The Good Wife. For him, Leo feels like a deeply personal homecoming.

“He’s such a sort of positive character,” says Cumming. “The story takes place over 10 days and so much happens in those 10 days. In a funny way, it’s actually great playing against it – leaning into the bits that maybe might have contributed to what happens to him. It’s a great freedom in a way.”

“Every trans argument, every queer argument, the march of the right and Reform taking away our rights: that is what this is” – Russell T Davies on the premise of Tip Toe

The action begins with a jolt, before rewinding to chart the rising tensions that lead to that point. At their centre is Leo, who lives next door to David Morrissey’s straight family man, Clive. 

Davies explains, “Leo’s newly divorced. Clive’s got a family. He’s got two kids – one son who’s a teenager and closeted, and one son in his twenties who’s straight but on OnlyFans. Once you start to mix up those two households… a lot of trouble.” 

Explaining the premise of Tip Toe, Davies tells me, “Everything that we’re worried about. Every trans argument, every queer argument, the march of the right and Reform taking away our rights: that is what this is. I’m worried about what’s on its way and, so angry, I came home from Cardiff to Manchester and I wrote it very fast.” The ideas had been building in his mind for two or three years as he watched the trans debate intensify and rights slowly being eroded. “It’s fear for the future. Worry about where we’re heading.”

Cumming reveals why finally working with Davies is profoundly satisfying

This is why Tip Toe is set in the immediate near future, so close that Davies says you could simply caption the opening episode “next year”. It holds up an unflinching mirror to the moment we are living through – the resurgence of the right, Reform UK leading in the polls, attacks on trans rights, online hatred spilling into real violence, and the creeping complacency that can settle even among those who fought hardest for progress.

The drama also explores modern queer life through Leo’s exes, now in their late fifties, one of whom has moved on with a woman, leaving Leo feeling increasingly isolated and left behind.

A strong trans storyline also runs through the series, portraying casual transphobia in everyday life and Leo’s longstanding friendship with Elizabeth Berrington’s Stephanie, who holds some gender-critical views. “They don’t have to agree,” Davies notes. “It can flare between them sometimes.”

Cumming says finally working with Davies – a writer who has contributed so much to queer culture and someone he has admired for so long – is profoundly satisfying. “When you think about young kids now who are walking down Canal Street who watched Queer as Folk on TV, he’s done so much for visibility.” 

Read the full Attitude Uncut feature on Apple News+ and via the Attitude app.