Tip Toe is one of 2026s most talked-about TV shows. Russell T Davies would love to be wrong about it.

The TV show Tip Toe has become one of the most talked-about programs of 2026, with its powerful drama making headlines and dominating conversation in the UK when it premiered on Channel 4 in May. Now, the series is streaming in the U.S. through Starz, allowing American audiences to experience the most intense television of the year.

Set in Manchester, a place close to Russell T Davies' heart from his work on Queer as Folk, Tip Toe tells the story of two neighbors: Alan Cumming's Leo, a proud gay man who owns a bar on Manchester’s famous queer hub, Canal Street, and David Morrissey's Clive, an openly bigoted, straight family man whose radicalization has increased over the years they've lived next to each other.

The series opens with a chilling scene: Leo has been hanged outside their homes, with Clive standing by in their street. From this horrifying scene, the show jumps back 10 days earlier, leaving viewers haunted by what's to come and questioning how such violence could have happened in 2026.

Tip Toe's narrative comes at a time when anti-LGBTQ hate, online disinformation, radicalization, and extreme bigotry are causing very real, violent impacts on queer people in both the UK and the U.S. In the show, Leo remarks, "Every tiny little thing that's happening, one by one, banning a book, removing a name, pulling down a flag. It seems like little things, but there's a sort of violence behind it."

Russell T Davies discusses the public UK response to Tip Toe, expressing surprise at the show's popularity and the strong agreement among viewers, particularly within the queer community. He acknowledges the chilling aspect of the show's message and the realization that the fear of its portrayal of rising violence is not unfounded.