Tip Toe is described as a “powerfully resonant” new original drama from the multi award-winning screenwriter and television producer Russell T Davies.
Russell’s most recent Channel 4 drama was the extraordinary and critically acclaimed It’s A Sin, which examined the devastating human story behind the 1980s AIDS crisis.
Tip Toe will explore the “most corrosive forces facing the LGBTQ+ community today”, analysing “the danger as prejudice creeps back into our lives”.
Starring in the show is Gabriel Clark, a British-Sardinian actor, writer and director from Bolton.
He is known for playing Ollie Morgan on Channel 4’s Hollyoaks, and co-wrote and directed the OFFIE award-winning The Other Side in October 2022.
Gabriel Clark in rehearsal for Spring and Port Wine at the Octagon in 2023 (Image: Ray Jefferson)
He grew up in Harwood and says his first memory of the theatre is of coming to see James and the Giant Peach at the Octagon and being “totally transfixed”.
With an opera-singing mother and a guitarist father, it was almost inevitable that Gabriel would flourish artistically.
Early in his life, he attended the Octagon’s young company, Avtiv8, before becoming an usher for about five years and “just wishing” it could be him on stage.
In 2023, Gabriel returned to Bolton and starred in the Octagon Theatre’s celebrated revival of Bill Naughton’s Spring and Port Wine.
Fast forward to 2026, and he’s now swapped the stage for the screen again, playing Mikey in Tip Toe.
Twenty-five years later, the team behind the ground-breaking Queer as Folk are returning to Manchester and Canal Street.
The five-part series will follow characters Leo and Clive, who live next door to each other in Manchester.
Leo runs a bar on Canal Street and Clive is an electrician with two teenage sons. But just as life should be settling down, the world around them is growing more tense.
Gradually, the two neighbours become deadly enemies in the tense suburban thriller which “challenges everything we consider to be safe”.
Alan Cumming and David Morrissey in Russell T Davies’ eagerly awaited drama (Image: Channel 4)
The series, populated with a cast of vibrant characters and underscored with Russell’s trademark “wit and deft humour”, is an urgent yet gripping tale.
Photo of Russell T Davies attends the Attitude 101 Awards at the Rosewood Hotel, central London. (Image: Ian West/PA Wire)
Writer and creator Russell T Davies said: “It’s my honour to combine my old home, Channel 4, with my second home, Canal Street.
“This is a show I had to write because the world is getting stranger, tougher and darker, and frankly, the fight is on.”
Nicola Shindler, executive producer, said: “I am so pleased to be back working with Russell at Channel 4, and to be given the chance to tell such an important story.
“Tip Toe is not just a timely drama, but a captivating story shot through with Russell’s brilliant wit, warmth and devastating poignancy.”
The five-part drama stars Alan Cumming and David Morrissey as Leo, the witty owner of a bar in Manchester’s Gay Village, and Clive, his troubled next-door neighbour.
Tip Toe debuts on Sunday 31 May on Channel 4.