Russell T Davies is furious, and his new drama shows why

Russell T Davies is angry. Not in a subtle way. His latest series for Channel 4, Tip Toe, is a raw, unflinching look at how online hatred and political poison can turn neighbours into enemies—and it's set in the one place you'd least expect: Manchester's Canal Street, the heart of the city's gay scene.

The premise sounds simple enough. A gay bar manager named Leo (Alan Cumming) and his uptight, judgmental neighbour Clive (David Morrissey) are locked in an escalating feud. Leo's loud enough that his yelling echoes down the canal. Clive's had enough. But here's the thing: it's not really about noise complaints. It's about how misinformation, toxic online bullying, and the kind of political rhetoric you hear in Westminster can seep into everyday life and turn ordinary people vicious.

The location is no accident. Davies, who created It's a Sin, clearly knows what he's doing. Canal Street used to be the backdrop for Queer as Folk, that 1999 classic that made being gay look cool and suggested—really suggested—that tolerance was the future. Viewers back then felt hopeful. The trajectory seemed clear.

Now? It's different. In an interview about the series, Davies doesn't pull punches. He talks about the sheer volume of hate he encounters online. "How often I'm called a paedophile online is shocking," he says. It's brutal stuff, but it's the world Tip Toe is trying to capture. Not some abstract culture war, but the actual mechanics of how fear and anger spread through a community.

Cumming and Morrissey are excellent in their roles—Leo's exuberance versus Clive's rigid disapproval creates real tension. But what makes the show work is that it doesn't treat either character as a cartoon villain. The camera pulls back. You see drag queens still doing their thing in the background, an ambulance rolling by with its lights on, members of the public who have no idea what the fuss is about. The world keeps spinning while two people destroy each other over something that started small and metastasized into something unrecognizable.

Davies has said the series is also about joy as a form of protest. That's the thing that sits underneath everything—the idea that living openly, loudly, and proudly is itself an act of resistance. Whether that's enough to counter the hatred, though? That's what Tip Toe is asking.