Tip Toe Ending: Russell T Davies Talks Us Through Brutal Finale

This article contains major spoilers for the final episode of Tip Toe.

The final instalment of Russell T Davies’ Tip Toe is likely to be the most brutal episode of TV you watch this year.

Starring Alan Cumming and David Morrissey, the five-part drama centres around two neighbours who become embroiled in an all-encompassing feud, exacerbated by the current climate of divisive rhetoric, misinformation and rising bigotry.

While episode one had already made it clear that the show would end with Alan’s character, Leo, hanged from a lamppost outside of his house, the finale focussed on the events leading up to this moment.

Speaking to HuffPost UK in the lead-up to the drama’s release, Russell made it clear that he didn’t view Tip Toe as a cautionary tale about a not-too-distant future, but a reflection on the modern world as he sees it.

“If this was the story of a Jew who’d been hanged from a lamppost, not one person would be doubting the credibility of the story,” he claimed. “In fact, I’d be told that I was out of date, because it’s literally happening out there, in front of us.”

Describing the world depicted in Tip Toe, he continued: “I think it’s here. Again, if I was Jewish, I would be pointing at those victims [of hate crimes] and the violence [directed towards them] and saying, ‘here we are’ right now.”

The difference in the events of the Tip Toe finale, Russell claimed, is the “formality to what happens”.

“If Leo had been beaten to death or stabbed, again, that happened yesterday, in Birmingham, or Manchester, or Edinburgh,” he said. “It happens.

“But the fact that there’s a formality to the death, it’s unusual. That’s why I wanted to give it a historical status. It’s like Mussolini hanging from a lamppost – it has happened within our lifetimes, or certainly within the lifetimes of our parents. This has happened.”

David agreed during a separate interview: “You only need to look at the news now to know that we’re not talking about some vague future events, it’s right here, right now.”

Both Alan and David told HuffPost UK that they knew as soon as they read the script for Tip Toe that it was going to make for a “difficult” shoot thanks to its subject matter.

“We said, ‘oh, we have to look after ourselves’ in the readthrough at the start,” Alan recalled, with David saying that he and his co-star “checked in with each other”, as did other members of the crew.

“That meant that the experience – although it was exhausting and really knackering – you were held,” the former Walking Dead star explained.

“And Lala, my dog was there,” Alan noted. “It’s so funny – in the street, where all the horrible stuff happens, at the end of the street, as you look out of their doors, to the left and round the corner, there’s a little caravan, and that’s where I would go, and Lala would be there.”

He added: “And actually, she’s an extra. In the scene where I go into Clive’s house for the last time – when I say, ‘I’m just popping in’ – she’s an extra, one of the [assistant directors] walks up behind me.”

All five episodes of Tip Toe are now available to watch now on Channel 4’s streaming service. Episodes four and five will also air on Channel 4 on Monday and Tuesday night, respectively.