Tip Toe Comes to Starz After Channel 4 Run

Tip Toe, a five-episode limited series from writer and creator Russell T Davies, is coming to Starz after an initial run on Channel 4 in the U.K. earlier this year, according to Variety. A limited series means it tells one complete story in a fixed number of episodes. All five episodes are streaming as a full series on Starz.

The story is set in a Manchester suburb, Channel 4 lists. At the centre are two next-door neighbours. Leo and Clive have lived side by side for 14 years, according to Starz.

Alan Cumming plays Leo, the owner of a gay bar on Canal Street. David Morrissey plays Clive, a Manchester electrician also named as Clive Goss. The two men lead the cast. Leo gives Clive his spare key and later employs him, and that closeness curdles. An earlier trade description called it a tense, suburban thriller in which two neighbours become deadly enemies.

The opening does not hide the stakes. The first scene is a flash-forward showing Leo's corpse hanging from a lamppost. The series then works back through how Leo and Clive reached that point. Starz describes the run as an examination of identity, fear and polarisation.

The households around them fill out quickly. Elizabeth Barrington plays Stephanie, Leo's best friend. Paul Rhys plays Melba, a retired drag queen whose line "Now I tiptoe, just in case" gives the series its title. Iz Hesketh plays Zee, a trans woman bartender at Leo's bar.

On Clive's side, Jackson Connor plays George, Clive's 16-year-old son. Pooky Quesnel plays Marie, Clive's wife and a fast food worker.

For viewers catching up, this means no prior knowledge is needed. Five episodes. One street. Two families.

Early U.S. coverage has framed the series around its themes rather than its plot twists. TIME described it as a British melodrama about queer liberation and masculinity in crisis. The Boston Globe, which published its review on Oct. 1, 2026, described it as a drama about a new age of homophobia.