The Independent is marking the biggest TV moments of the year so far, from the ones that got the nation talking to the scenes that moved us or made us laugh. In a series of articles running this summer, insiders share the part they played in making them happen.
From the very first scene of the Channel 4 drama Tip Toe, viewers knew the story was hurtling towards one awful, inevitable conclusion: the brutal killing of Leo, a gay bar owner played by Alan Cumming.
The horrifying image of Leo’s lifeless body hanging from a lamppost on his suburban Manchester street was shown via flash-forward at the start of all five episodes of the series, with audiences eventually learning, in the finale, that Leo had been lynched by his homophobic neighbour Clive (David Morrissey) and a group of football hooligans.
It made for one of the most shocking TV moments of the year, the camera unflinching as it captured the group, led by Clive, hauling their victim out onto the street and stringing him up while Leo’s friends watched on, unable to save him.
Russell T Davies, who wanted to send a powerful message about the rise of hatred and bigotry in the UK, reflects on the complications of bringing the scene to life.
How the scene was filmed
“It took about three days to film as we had to be very careful with it. There was a school nearby that broke up at 3.30pm, so we had to stop at that point every single day. We were next to quite a major A road, so we had to erect huge screens to block off the set, otherwise cars driving along would have seen a man hanging, and we could have caused an accident.
“It was all very complicated and meticulously planned – we had to build that lamppost. We had Alan Cumming, a stuntman, and a dummy. When the crew first hoisted the dummy up into the air, absolute silence fell over the entire street. Everyone stopped what they were doing and just stood there, as the enormity of it hit us.”
What the football lads were really like
“The 15 football lads were local Manchester theatre lads – they look like a bunch of hooligans, but actually they were the loveliest boys. They were so serious in rehearsing it and not hurting anyone, and getting the energy right. They’ve all formed a little WhatsApp group and they’re all still mates to this day. It was a lovely shoot; although that’s a strange thing to say about such a terrible thing, there was a lot of care and dedication.”
How the cast were protected
“Our producer Phil Collinson did one of the cleverest things I’ve ever seen, which is that he arranged for the hanging to be done just before the shoot’s one-week break, so that everyone could let go of it and shake it off. It gave people time to recover from something that was genuinely traumatic.
“For Alan, filming it, he had to be at the centre of a lot of hostility. Even though it’s acting, you still have to be held back and have a rope put around your neck, and so he was absolutely delighted it was over.
“That’s one of the reasons why we didn’t do the shoot chronologically, we didn’t want to shoot that last, because it would have been a horrible way for him to have left it and not a nice way to remember it.”
Wanting to get the scene right
“[Channel 4’s Compliance department] are naturally worried about that kind of thing, so there were a lot of warnings said on screen before it was transmitted. And there were lots of conversations about how to get the scene right. Channel 4 is there to be edgy and bold and radical, to cause debate and to be controversial. But we didn’t linger on his face after he was hanged. I just think that would be torturous, and kind of obscene.”
Making it a homegrown show
“I’m very proud of the fact that it was shot with no co-production money, no American funding whatsoever, because everything these days has to be a co-production. We made it entirely with Quay Street, which is owned by ITV Studios, and they put the money into it, and now it is selling abroad.
“Now we are going to be shown on the Starz network in the US, and then we go to HBO Max in Europe. It’s very exciting. We presumed no one would want to show it, and no one would want to invest in it, because it attacks Trump and there’s a lot of modern-day politics in there. So we thought, let’s not ask for a lot of money. Let’s make it cheaply, homegrown, on an entirely British budget, and so to see it being successful now is really lovely.
“It’s kind of a clarion call, saying you don’t need all the big millions. You can make stuff like this that’s focused and intimate and true.”
‘Tip Toe’ is available to stream now on Channel 4
