Tip Toe Review: Alan Cumming’s Psychological Thriller Is Grisly, Relentless & One Of The Best Shows Of The Year

Published Sep 29, 2026, 9:01 AM EDT

Liz Hersey is an Editor and Critic for ScreenRant's TV team, editing, reviewing, writing, and creating content about the iconic shows you love to watch. She began her editing career at ScreenRant in 2019, shortly after joining the site as a Writer that same year.

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The most terrifying show of the year is not in the horror genre. It has nothing to do with an axe-wielding Lizzie Borden or any other Ryan Murphy fright-fest, nor is it the latest interpretation of Stephen King's infamously bullied prom queen, Carrie White. Rather, it's a psychological thriller miniseries about a sinister-turned-tragic feud between two neighbors, and it's called Tip Toe.

Tip Toe is created by Russell T. Davies, who famously rebooted the Doctor Who ​​​​​​series in 2005. Davies is also known for his seminal British LGBTQ+ series It's a Sin, Cucumber, and his breakout hit, Queer as Folk, which follows the lives of three gay men living in Manchester's gay village neighborhood, Canal Street.

In Tip Toe, Davies returns to Canal Street, which is home to the Spit + Polish, a bar owned by protagonist Leo Struthers (Alan Cumming). A man approaching 60, Leo is a long-standing pillar of his community, adored by his regular customers like Melba (Paul Rhys) and his young staffers, Zee Malone (Iz Hesketh) and Judy Khumalo (Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo). Leo's good-natured if hyperbolic personality at his business contrasts sharply with the cautious tiptoer he becomes on his own street, Calico Road, where he's barely tolerated by his next-door neighbor of 14 years, Clive Goss (David Morrissey).

Clive is an alt-right indoctrinated, financially struggling electrician living with his unhappy wife, Marie (Pooky Quesnal), and his two sons, the 25-year-old Saul (Joseph Evans), who secretly makes a living as an OnlyFans performer, and the 16-year-old George, who is gay and closeted. One fateful morning, when an underwear-clad Leo tries and fails to chase down a one-night stand who stole his laptop, he finds himself locked out of his home and forced to ask Clive if he can come inside the Gosses' house and procure the number of his best friend and spare-key holder, Stephanie Dale (Elizabeth Berrington), from Marie.

Though Clive is neighborly in his actions, he doesn't bother to hide his prejudices. Still, that doesn't stop him from asking Leo if he needs electrical work done at his pub. What follows are 10 days of boundary-violating, escalating tension, complicated by George privately coming to Leo for help about his sexuality, building to a stomach-churning climax that Tip Toe reveals in its opening scene. It's a shocking, unconventional move — and the show is all the better for it.

Tip Toe’s Dread-Inducing Ticking Clock Ratchets Up The Tension To A Fever Pitch — Even In The Most Ordinary Scenes

A woman's guttural scream pierces a black screen before Tip Toe opens with bleak, bird's-eye view images of Manchester suburbs. We're then taken to Calico Road, where Marie yells "Monster! You monster!" at a panting yet grimly resolute Clive as George, Zee, and Stephanie look on at one of the most disturbing images ever put on a TV screen. It wouldn't be a spoiler to reveal what it is — it's in the first scene — but to do so would diminish the impact of its sheer, unmitigated horror.

The show then cuts to a bassy sting and a "Ten Days Earlier" card, and we're instantly thrown into Leo's bedroom-farcical morning and the series of unfortunate events that lead to him pantsless on Clive's doorstep. It's almost comedic enough to break the tension from the sobering flash-forward that occurred mere moments ago... until Clive refuses to let Leo wait alone with George because he doesn't trust a gay man alone with his 16-year-old.

Leo and Clive's fraught exchanges — of which there are many, both verbal and physical — are stepping stones to the grisly outcome, while the most mundane moments play out like major scares in a horror movie.

That's when the dread creeps in, and the realization dawns that nothing will break the tension in Tip Toe. Leo and Clive's fraught exchanges — of which there are many, both verbal and physical — are stepping stones to the grisly outcome, while the most mundane moments play out like major scares in a horror movie. When Leo gives Clive his extra spare key as a peace offering and assurance that their embarrassing morning won't happen again, he creates possibly the most suburban Chekhov's gun ever made.

However, what's saddest of all are Tip Toe's scenes of empathy and kindness, in which characters take incredible risks to help those who are suffering. This is most heartbreakingly seen when George, who has yet to tell a soul that he's gay, reaches out to Leo, desperately seeking guidance on how to navigate his situation. In an exchange entirely over text, the comfort of a lost teenage boy finally finding someone to talk to is sullied with dread, as you want to scream, "Don't do it!" to Leo, knowing full well what the consequences will be.

At five episodes, Tip Toe is the perfect length. Any more, and the series would either risk slackening its expertly built-up tension or creating so much dread that it would become impossible to watch. With so few episodes, it's inevitable that some characters will get the short shrift, and that's unfortunately Zee, a young transgender woman who flees her home after death threats from her roommates. Though she remains integral to the story, too much of hers goes untold.

The show will inevitably have accusations of preachiness leveled against it. Still, with Davies' tightrope-taut storytelling, alongside haunting, note-perfect direction and scoring from his longtime collaborators, Peter Hoar and Sam Watts, respectively, Tip Toe's impassioned monologues are hardly didactic diatribes; they're a Greek chorus about how dangerous online misinformation has made the world for the LGBTQ+ community.

"I used to walk into rooms and go ta-daa! Now I tip toe. Just in case," Melba says to Leo. Davies unflinchingly shows what the alternative to tip toeing has become.

Alan Cumming & David Morrissey’s Masterful Performances Give Tip Toe Adolescence-Level Urgency

Unsurprisingly, Tip Toe's best moments are the tumultuous two-handers between Cumming and Morrissey. Leo and Clive run the gamut from terse neighbors to employer-employee to bully and victim to two men finding common ground, all often in the same scene. The actors, who were actually one-time neighbors, have been best friends for over 40 years, and their chemistry in Tip Toe radiates off the screen — often scorching the audience with its intensity.

Leo Struthers is a dramatic departure from the theatrical roles Cumming is known for, whether it's his Traitors persona or, for millennial cult classic lovers, his campy Josie and the Pussycats or Spice World characters. In contrast, Leo is lonely, depressed, and vulnerable, and it's particularly upsetting when he shows glimpses of that mugging rascaliness, like when he exaggerates the events of his morning with Clive to his Spit + Polish employees — in Leo's version, he's stark naked. This is the person Leo is when he's safe and happy, but society has made it unsafe for him to be loud and proud.

It's a career-high performance for Cumming — and that's saying something — but Morrissey is an absolute revelation. It's hard to argue with the opening scene's "Monster!" label, but Morrissey expertly shows Clive's humanity without ever making him too sympathetic. The floundering Clive is easy prey to the radical algorithm, whose sensational videos he gobbles up like candy every night before sleeping on the couch, Marie having long since kicked him out of their bed.

Tip Toe is every bit as relevant and necessary as Adolescence.

However, Clive is a hair's breadth away from being a lost cause. When he puts down his phone and actually interacts with the world, he temporarily allows his mind to be opened, and what's revealed is a glimmer of what could be a kind man. His internet feed might tell him that immigrants are taking his jobs, but when he witnesses a rideshare driver have a tender exchange with his girlfriend, Clive is visibly moved.

Tragically, though, Clive is brainwashed to the point that he ultimately trusts the internet over his own real-life experiences. Based on Tip Toe's subject matter and state-of-the-union-level urgency, the show will draw fair comparisons to Netflix's Adolescence. However, whereas the "monster" in that series, Owen Cooper's Jamie, is a 13-year-old boy, Clive is a fully grown man, and that's the scary part. Many of us have had a Clive as a neighbor, or had a Clive do work on our homes, and his road to radicalization is frighteningly believable.

Tip Toe is every bit as relevant and necessary as Adolescence. It certainly deserves the Netflix show's level of acclaim and myriad awards, but most importantly, it deserves viewers and lots of them. Tip Toe is one of the most unsettling TV shows of the 21st century — and you absolutely must watch it.

The first episode of Tip Toe premieres Friday, October 2, on STARZ, followed by weekly episode releases through October 30.

Cast

• 

  Alan Cumming

  Leo Struthers

• 

  David Morrissey

  Clive Goss

Pros & Cons

• A masterclass in tension-filled, dread-inducing storytelling
• Haunting score
• Career-best performances from Alan Cumming, and especially David Morrissey