Russell T. Davies Confirms Why ‘Tip Toe’ Had To End With That Shocking Moment
Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Tip Toe.
- That shocking death was revealed from the start of ‘Tip Toe’ to set a bleak, inevitable tone throughout the series.
- Clive’s paranoia and online conspiracies spiral into irreversible violence and lifelong consequences.
- Strong performances and a final small grace give the Starz series its last, haunting calm.
From creator Russell T. Davies (Doctor Who, It’s a Sin), the Starz series Tip Toe tells the story of Manchester neighbors Leo Struthers (Alan Cumming) and Clive Goss (David Morrissey), two men who seem as though they could find some common ground among their differences, if only prejudice didn’t get in the way. Leo is gay and runs a bar on Canal Street while Clive is a straight family man with a wife and two sons, and the clashes between them become more frequent when Clive starts doing some electrical work in Leo’s place of business. The more they’re drawn into each other’s lives, the more Clive is driven by misinformation and conspiracies online and suspicions that Leo could be interested in his sons. And even though the beginning of the series tells us that all of this is leading to tragedy and devastation, we continue to watch and hope that somehow, it will turn out differently than the inevitable and are still crushed when the worst ends up being true.
Collider recently got the opportunity to chat with Davies about why this was a story he had to tell and the way he had to tell it. During the interview, he discussed his reasoning for the beginning of the series revealing the finale’s devastation and then never backing away from it, how his friends were convinced there had to be a twist that would undo it, what it was like to shoot that moment in detail, how the very last scene came about, what Clive’s life might be like in prison, the gift of working with actors as talented as Cumming and Morrissey, and the moment that meant the most to him. He also talked about leaving Doctor Who for a second time, and what’s coming next.
COLLIDER: First, let me just say that this series emotionally destroyed me.
RUSSELL T. DAVIES: It’s very tough. I know, I know.
‘Tip Toe’ Was Always Going To Start With the Story’s End To Provide a Warning for Viewers
“Every episode, you get a different version of what happens 10 days in the future.”
Were you always going to start with the reveal of Leo’s fate at the beginning of this series?
DAVIES: Yes. From day one, from my very first discussion with the channel, and from the very first draft of the script, that was part of it. And it’s not a device I normally like. I normally think cheap thrillers start with a bit of a chase, a bit of a shock, and then they say, “Ten days earlier.” I will be frank, this is a masterclass in how to do it properly. I can’t believe I said that, but this is how you do it. Every episode, you get a different version of what happens 10 days in the future, and then as Episode 4 comes, you realize that 10 days have passed and you’re there. This is how to do it.
It was highly debated by my lifelong producer, Nicola [Shindler], who I love, and by the channel. They were like, “Do we need it? What if we didn’t?” We always said, “Let’s see what happens in the edit. If you’re absolutely set against it, then we can drop it and start with scene two.” I’ve got to say, once we shot it, that argument vanished and never came back again. It was the very first edit, and not a single question was ever raised because it works. I knew that. It’s very hard for me to debate things because I just want to sit there going, “I know that this works. I’ve done this job for a very long time. That’s why I wrote it that way. If I didn’t think it worked, it wouldn’t be in there.” And it’s vital, I think.
You have to imagine a version of Tip Toe that didn’t open with that opening scene. If it started with scene two, it would look like it’s a domestic comedy about a man who locked himself out of the house without his pants. It would look impossibly light and impossibly silly, and actually, it would be unfair. You’d then lead the viewer down a path that would be too much of a shock. I think you need warning. You need the agenda. It’s a great framing device. It means, even when they’re laughing, even when they’re taking the piss out of things, there’s a little tolling bell underneath it. Leo and Zee might be having a harmless conversation about trans rights, but it’s got a little tolling bell, warning you all the way through. I think that’s very, very important. It would feel like a bit of a lie if we hadn’t done that.
What was Alan Cumming’s reaction?
DAVIES: To get Alan on board, I had a Zoom with him. I’d met him once or twice in the past and loved him, so me and Nicole had a Zoom with him. We were so determined to get him that we wanted to book him before the script was written. We were also very aware of how busy he is. We said, “We need to book that man nine months in advance because there’s no way he’s free tomorrow. Normally, you write a script, and then you see who’s free, but that’s very annoying because all the huge actors are booked up years in advance. We got cross about that and said, “Let’s do it the way other people do it, for the first time in our careers, and approach someone in advance.” So, we had this great Zoom where he was sitting there and I literally described scene one and he lit up like a firework. I literally thought, “We’ve got him.” For that moment on, I knew we had him because what actor could resist that? He was properly engaged with it. And then, we sent him the scripts, and he held those dates and defended them, so we knew it was safe. He devoted himself to the show. We were very lucky.
Even with that opening and even with knowing what’s coming, I so wanted Clive to pull his head out of his ass for the entire series. I kept wanting him to make better decisions, even though we know how it’s going to end up.
DAVIES: It’s interesting, in Britain, there were still a lot of people, friends of mine, who said, “I bet there’s a twist.” We’re so used to watching thrillers with twists and different timelines and reveals and shocks that friends of mine were saying, “I know what you’re doing. It’s going to head down a different path.” I sat there going, “You can see what I’m doing. It’s absolutely visible on screen. There’s no trick, no reveal, and no reversal. It’s not an alternative timeline. Clive is not going to wake up from his dream. You’re watching exactly what’s going to happen.” I think that’s why people were doubly shocked when they watched the end result, because they never quite believed it would end there, which I love. I’m so delighted that it causes any sort of shock, whatsoever. I’m very pleased.
Russell T. Davies Knew He Had To Add a Final Scene to the ‘Tip Toe’ Finale After That Devasting Moment
“These things have frames around them. It’s the picture frame.”
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/toe1-105-091225-1566-a.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2" />
Image via Starz</figure>
You always knew how you wanted to open this, but did you know how you wanted to end it too? What made you decide to include the scene between Leo and Stephanie at the end?
DAVIES: I think you need a little breathing room. After the death, that caption saying that Leo is remembered as a convicted pedophile, which is the whole point of the entire drama and the world we live in, is even more shocking. George never has a happy life after that and is on drugs and never quite settles down. I think that’s the toughest moment of all, that the kid doesn’t even get a happy ending out of it and doesn’t grow out of it. But I always knew I’d end with that little moment of grace. It’s a Sin ends the same way. With It’s a Sin, it’s a joyous moment. It’s a little memory when they’re all happy. It just needs that little bit of relief at the end, which is still dark. It’s still Leo confirming everything that happened. But seeing a little sight of him when he was alive is not quite as miserable as it would have been if it had just cut to black. It’s an artifice. It’s the story being told. These things have frames around them. It’s the picture frame. I think you see the picture frame. That’s a nice analogy.
I actually really appreciated that both Saul and Zee went on to have lives.
DAVIES: Yes. I couldn’t destroy Saul. I Love Saul so much. I love that actor so much. I like Saul, all the way through. He’s sex positive. He’s happy. He finds a joke in every situation. He is stopped from doing the right thing at the end. I wanted someone to be all right in the end. I thought it was very moving for him that he is okay. And Zee is a teacher. That’s perfect. She’s made of iron, that woman. Those horrific scenes with the mob wanting to kill her, we had a proper conversation after. I phoned her up before and afterwards and said, “Are you okay?” I’d like to think any producer would do that, but they wouldn’t all. All of us – not just me – had a proper duty of care towards her, to make sure she felt safe and happy on set. She laughed and was like, “I’m completely fine. I’m a lead on a Channel 4 drama. I’m happy.” But we really did look after her. She taught us a lot, as well. She’s just an amazing woman. I’m very pleased by that.
Saul seems to be only one that has an issue with what’s happening from the moment that they drag Leo outside and was horrified by it all. What was it like to see that actor’s performance in that moment?
DAVIES: When he was cast, he came to my neighborhood because, in my mind, I based it on my neighborhood. I’ve got a very nice neighborhood. No one’s been hanged in our streets. But geography wise, it was in my mind, so he asked if he could come out and have a look at my neighborhood. I said, “Oh, yeah, come around,” and I gave him my address. I said, “Come and have a cup of tea.” And I loved him. These days, you only ever see actors on video. You never get to meet them before you’ve cast them. So, we’d seen him and cast him, and I was horrified when he walked in the door and he was six foot four and massive. He was delightful, but I thought, “How on earth is he going to be stopped? How is that crowd going to hold him?” So, one of those people holding him back is an actor called Callum Burbidge, who must be six-foot-eight. He’s immensely tall. We cast him just to have someone strong enough to hold Saul back.
All that crowd were not treated like a crowd. They were all actors who were cast because they’ve all got a little dialog in it. They were the most lovely group of lads. It seems impossible watching it, but they took it so seriously. They took it so to heart and became best friends. They would all go out in a gang, but a lovely, happy gang. It’s really hard to square the transmitted version with what they’re like in real life because they’re so much fun. A lot of them were local Manchester actors. George Miller, that lad playing Roddy, the one with the red hair who is evil personified, had never been on screen before. It’s his first screen appearance. I saw him in two Manchester plays that him and his mates put on themselves. He was completely different in them and I thought he was interesting, so we cast him in his first ever role. Now, he’s been cast in one of our British soap operas, so he’s doing really well, which is really delightful.
They’re a nice crowd, believe it or not, despite what they look like. All the way through, I tried to be very fair to Clive and to show different sides to him. And those lads, they get some funny lines, they’re a bit drunk, and you can kind of understand their behavior. But there are people in society that are completely beyond any sympathy and any redemption, and I thought, “I’ve got to have one of them walk through the door.” At the moment, we have a man in Britain – and I’m not even going to name him because you should never name these terrible people – who’s making the headlines because he’s going out on a boat onto the English Channel with a knife and slashing the dingies of people trying to reach the shore. He was trying to drown people, and he’s finally been arrested. Hopefully, he’ll go to prison. But people like that exist. That’s Roddy.
It was so interesting to watch Clive’s reaction through the ending. There’s a moment when he seems almost proud of himself.
DAVIES: Yeah, he goes through everything. I think he’s proud of himself. I think he’s scared. Inside the house, he’s worried about losing his cool in front of the young man and he looks scared. He has this fantastic moment of looking scared in front of youth. [David Morrissey] is just the most extraordinary actor. I adore him. I’m so lucky to work with these people.
Sadly, ‘Tip Toe’ Creator Russell T. Davies Doesn’t Think Clive Would Learn Anything in Prison
”I don’t think these men go to prison and repent.”
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/toe1-102-101325-0369-a.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2" />
Image via Starz</figure>
What do you think he thought of his prison sentence?
DAVIES: I think he’d be furious. To be quite honest, I’m afraid, in that prison wing, he’d find people who champion him and tell him he did a good thing. The drama I’m not going to write is Clive’s prison sentence. But once he’s done that, he’s lost his wife. I think Saul is nice enough to keep visiting him. I don’t think Saul would ever give up on him. I suppose George visits once in a while. You obviously realize you ruined your life, but I don’t think these men go to prison and repent. Do you? I don’t think so, for a second. I think he’d find himself with like-minded souls, I’m afraid.
I don’t think Clive would repent. I feel like maybe some of the guys in that group might have guilt or shame for what they did.
DAVIES: Yes, I think so too. We were very careful with that. There were two at the back who never joined in. Not everyone was a part of it. There’s a mixture in there.
Clive is such a frustrating and difficult character. Did you have a real reasoning for why he decided to lie and tell his wife he cheated on her when he didn’t?
DAVIES: He explains that he thinks it makes him attractive. He thinks he’s giving himself more of a life than he has. Clive thinks he’s nothing. That’s the problem with Clive. That’s the problem with these men. They think they have nothing, they owe nothing, and they have no power and no responsibility. For a brief sparkling moment, he thinks he had a sexy night, and it’s been his downfall ever since. It’s all spelled out. How good is that scene of the two of them? The lady playing Diane (Denise Welch) is a very big star in Britain. She’s only in that episode in those three big scenes. She is absolutely adored in Britain. She was a soap opera star, 25 years ago, and then she became famous as a presenter. Her son, Matty Healy, is now a big name. She’s never out of the papers and off our television screens, so to have her come in and play those scenes was a really big honor. David was delighted we brought her in like that. It was a gorgeous moment, that scene of the two of them. They could be friends. They could be happy together. Everyone makes the wrong decision all the time, and they’re haunted by their bad decisions.
What was it like to see what Alan Cumming and David Morrissey brought to these characters and that relationship?
DAVIES: From my point of view, I just relaxed. I was there on set a lot, I watched the rushes every day, and we had rehearsals. Basically, my job is to worry. That’s all a producer’s and a director’s job is, to worry if you’re getting it right. It’s funny, the more serious the subject matter, the better time you tend to have. You have a really hard time with shows when they’re comedies. That’s really hard to get right. With this, we just relaxed because we had two experts in a master class. There were tiny little notes here and there like, “Make that line funnier. Take that line out.” Even that feels like I’m exaggerating. We simply left them to it. We’d sit and watch the rushes the next day and I’d just think, “What a lucky man I am. So lucky.” I was really sad that it was only five episodes long because I could write those two forever. I loved working with them. I absolutely loved it.
A Small Moment Involving Croissants Became an Important Scene for ‘Tip Toe’ Creator Russell T. Davies
“It’s the last moment of calm in the whole series.”
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Image via Starz</figure>
Did you have a moment in this that meant the most to you?
DAVIES: I love Melba. We all love Melba. We love Paul Rhys. We adored him and adored working with him. Once we started filming with him, we all fell in love with him completely. I realized, in the last episode, he didn’t have much to do. You can’t fake that. Sometimes you’ve got to have the nerve to say, “This character had nothing to do this episode.” That’s a bold decision. But I loved him so much that I went and wrote that speech about croissants and inserted that at the last minute. Having done that, I thought, “We’ll get to the edit and cut that speech. It’s not relevant to the episode.” And then, we sat in the very first edit and it was so good.
It’s the last moment of calm in the whole series. Everything goes wrong after that. And I’ve had so many people quote that speech to me, which is brilliant. People come up to me and say, “I love that croissant speech,” and they talk to me about Melba eating croissants. That means a lot to me. It was a little bit of filler that was my own thoughts about how the world of croissants is just going mad at the moment. The rise of the artisan bakery in British society is insane, although you do get some very nice cakes out of it. The fact that that speech worked is just a very personal delight to me. It’s the last moment of light and grace and fun and joy. Then, it all goes insane. Weirdly, it was meant to be there.
Was it hard for you to leave Doctor Who behind a second time?
DAVIES: No. As much as I love it, Tip Toe was burning in my head. It would have been a very interesting situation if there’d been a third series Doctor Who plus Tip Toe. This show was so important to me and so important to get made. The fact that Tip Toe is getting shown by Starz in the States is really quite astonishing to us. I’m not being rude there. Compared to something like Doctor Who, which was a big international deal, Tip Toe is the first drama made entirely with British money that I have seen in about two decades. Everything is a co-production these days. No one can afford to make anything on their own these days. Drama is so expensive, and so almost every British drama has American money in it. Tip Toe was the first one I’ve seen in decades that doesn’t because we were convinced that it wouldn’t sell anywhere.
We were very happy to make it with British money. The fact that Starz stepped forward and did the promotion that they did, they’re really backing the show with publicity and marketing and interviews and trailers. It’s really appreciated. We thought Tip Toe would be unshowable in this country, but here we are. I worked for Starz many years ago when we made Torchwood, which was a Doctor Who spin-off. I loved that show. I love Miracle Day. There are one or two members of staff who are still here from those days. I thought everyone would have moved on, but I went to a dinner in Los Angeles and there were people I knew. It was delightful. We had a good old catchup. Television is funny sometimes. It takes you by surprise.
Up Next for Russell T. Davies Is the ‘It’s a Sin’ Dance Show
“It’s entirely modern dance. That is premiering in February, and I’m so excited by that.”
<<img src="https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/its-a-sin-poster.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2" />
Image via HBO Max</figure>
Do you know what you’re going to do next?
DAVIES: I kind of do. I’m waiting on a couple of things. I’m getting older, so I’m not rushing. The moment I talk about them, I then get asked about them for the next 10 years, and sometimes they don’t happen. What we’ve got coming up in Britain is the It’s a Sin dance show, which is very exciting. There’s a company called Ballet Rambert that’s producing the show. That’s going to tour everywhere. It’s going to London and Manchester. They also did a magnificent dance version of Peaky Blinders. It’s entirely modern dance. That is premiering in February, and I’m so excited by that. That’s on its way. I don’t know if it will come to America. They do tour in Europe, but I’m not sure if they go to America. It’s just made my world bigger and richer. That’s already selling out. It’s a Sin was so popular in Britain that tickets are selling out like wildfire. It’s very exciting.
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