Warning: Contains spoilers on Tip Toe, episode 5 season finale
The series finale of the gripping TV drama Tip Toe aired this week and fans have labelled the “mentally scarring” episode “one of the most horrific things” they’ve ever seen.
“The last 15 minutes of #tiptoe are some of the most harrowing 15 minutes of a TV drama I’ve seen for quite some time (if ever),” one tweeted on X.
“Those final 10 minutes absolutely wrecked me. Even though you knew what was coming, it was horrifying to watch,” another noted.
“Just wow at Tip Toe. Feel very unsettled and numb after that final episode,” yet another commented.
“The ending is up there with the most powerful tv there has been. Takes your breath away,” one concluded.
Indeed, viewers were left utterly stunned as the five-episode series reached a climax this week when gay main character Leo (played by Alan Cumming) was viciously murdered by his homophobic neighbour, Clive (David Morrissey).
In truly shocking scenes, Clive and his gang of football-loving mates assault Leo before fatally hanging him from a lamppost outside his residence.
Stream Tip Toe on BINGE, available on Hubbl.
However, if fans thought that was traumatising, they should spare a thought for the cast who played out the final scenes on the LGBTQIA+ drama. The savage act of violence at the end was so emotionally draining to act out that the cast were given a week off from filming to process and heal from what they’d had to depict on screen.
The British Channel 4 series – which is streaming locally on BINGE – was shot in a nonlinear fashion, with star Cumming revealing that they filmed the confronting outdoor end scene first before filming all the indoor scenes.
“God, they brought their A-game on the day,” Cumming old Tech Radar of the cast. “It was very difficult from a technical point of view. Of course, what happens to Leo, but also keeping that energy, and also keeping yourself open to surprise.”
“We had a week of laughter in a ‘gap week’ afterwards, which was much needed and welcomed,” he added. “A week off is a very expensive thing, but you’ve done so much that’s hanging there. When we came back to the studio we’d shot all the outside bits first, so we’d done the most horrible part and now we’re going to be inside … back to the beginning of the story.”
Cumming revealed he spent his “gap week” in New York, saying it was “such a silly experience to be away from what I was playing in my other life. It was surreal actually.”
The graphic nature of the street scene meant it had to be “heavily policed” with road closures placed on that Manchester neighbourhood, said his co-star Morrissey.
“Where we shot outside, we had to fence off the streets with huge hoardings because the drivers going past could have seen that happening in the street and they could have been distracted,” Morrissey explained.
“There were kids at a nearby school that would leave, and the residents association and council said they couldn’t see anything, which is quite right. So it was a heavily, heavily policed thing.”
The tragic fate of Leo in the finale was teased at the beginning of each episode by series creator and executive producer Russell T Davies. In fact, viewers were shown Leo’s lifeless body within the first 30 seconds of episode 1, and the opening of each subsequent episode showed glimpses of events that led to Clive’s savage act.
This deliberate spoonfeeding was part of Davies’ argument that people often stand by and do nothing when they see bigotry and homophobia happening in society.
“All the way along you’ve got to a point where these people can stop the event,” the creator explained of the characters in the series. “They could actually go, ‘You know what? Let’s not.’”
“But they don’t. I think to that effect, it’s asking the question of when to speak up when you already knew what was coming.”
From the outset, the red flags were there as the series told the story of Leo, a single gay bar owner, and Clive, a married father and electrician, who peacefully lived side-by-side for the past 14 years.
But a simple interaction kicked off a dispute between the two neighbours which unfolded over 10 days, culminating in that deadly scene that left a lasting impact on both viewers and the cast.
Tip Toe is now streaming on BINGE.