Russell T. Davies’ dystopian drama Years & Years was required by the BBC to have a happy ending.
But this is not the same for Channel 4’s Tip Toe, his next series, which he described today as his “angriest and darkest show yet.”
“I love Years & Years but it was only made on the assistance of the BBC, which kind of meant it had to have a happy ending,” he said. “The world has proved me right [on the need for a sad ending] since, things are just getting worse. I loved that ending but it was a condition that you can’t be that bleak. That condition does not apply to [Tip Toe].”
The Series Mania audience was given a sneak peek of Channel 4’s Tip Toe this afternoon during a masterclass. The show stars Alan Cumming and David Morrissey as a bar owner in Manchester and his long-standing neighbor, who become embroiled in a feud.
The aim of the show is to prove that “simply being gay in 2026 is political,” Davies said.
“People will hate it,” he added. “My word this show is going to get called woke on a colossal scale, but I’m happy to be called woke.”
Having watched clips of the show with the Series Mania audience in Lille, Davies said they prove “every good deed goes punished, everything goes wrong and every text creates a nightmare” in the queer community today.
That feeling led Doctor Who showrunner Davies to approach his long-time producing partner Nicola Shindler with the idea for the show. “I felt the queer discourse was becoming so hostile and dangerous in a way I never thought would happen again, so I came to Nicola and said, ‘Hello, let’s do this’.”
Davies and Shindler have made a wealth of shows together including It’s a Sin, Years & Years and Queer as Folk.
Today, they said their secret sauce lies in constantly having ideas and in never trying to make shows that return.
“There are no long runners in there,” Davies added. “Apart from Doctor Who I don’t really do returning things. They are always four or six episodes and that keeps us on our toes.”
He is about to submit his next idea to Shindler, which will follow their standard approach – involving Shindler receiving scripts with little prior warning over what the idea is about. “You are literally the viewer in that moment,” said Davies.
Davies and Shindler were speaking at Series Mania on the same bill as Hugo Blick and content chiefs at Disney, HBO and Prime Video.