“Let’s see the numbers”: Elizabeth Berrington on Tip Toe, Brockwell Live and leaving Labour for the Green Party

Local actor Elizabeth Berrington, who stars in Russell T Davies’ new Channel 4 drama Tip Toe airing tonight, met Brixton Buzz in Brockwell Park to talk about the new TV show and discuss some of the issues shaping debate in the borough.

Originally from Wallasey on the Wirral, Berrington came to London in 1989 to study drama. “If you’re a working class kid in these towns and you want something else, you have to propel yourself from the cannon at great speed,” she told the Buzz. She landed in Brixton, getting a flat on Crownstone Court “for £50 a week with heating and hot water included”, and worked tables in places like Pizzaland. She’s lived in the borough ever since.

Since her screen debut in Mike Leigh’s Naked (1993), Berrington has built a career across some of British film and TV’s biggest productions, racking up an impressive 95 credits – from Leigh’s Oscar-winning Secrets & Lies (1996) to Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho (2021).

However, she laughs when we mention Doctor Who:

“It’s a bit shocking when people remember me from that – I was in a fat suit covered in mud – not a good look.

 

Everyone’s done a Doctor Who, a bit like everyone used to be in The Bill.”

 

– Elizabeth Berrington

But although her latest series Tip Toe is launching tonight (see trailer at end of article), it’s Brockwell Park, local politics and the future of the borough that gets the actor animated.

Over the years she’s enjoyed the Country Show, the sheep shearing and the falconry and “the size of a full grown cow is just mesmerising”, she says. But Berrington who was a volunteer at Brockwell Bark, the recent community-organised dog show admits she’s not a huge fan of massive crowds in small spaces and has never felt drawn to the commercial festivals.

Her take on the wider debate is pragmatic. “All of these borough councils are bust, really, aren’t they? It’s a luxury to have a park like this on your street corner, and if you can use your asset more productively, I’ve got ears to hear that conversation.”

But she wants the full picture: “Where is the money being spent? Let’s have more information. We’re not really getting it.  Let’s see the numbers.”

“I’ve always been a Labour voter, but feeling frustrated with things going on locally, and in this instance what was going on nationally – I proudly voted Green – and was pleased to see they’ve done well.”

 

Let’s make it fairer all round. That’s what I want our politics to be.

 

– Elizabeth Berrington

She’s also very proud of her son  who  was voting for the first time. Like her he also ticked all three Green boxes on the ballot. “So that was the youth vote activated there,” she smiled.

The conversation eventually turns to social media, a subject Berrington feels has become one of the defining issues facing younger generations.

Her son turns 20 this summer and she says many of his peers are already pushing back against the constant pressure of online life.

“They’ve seen the negative side. They’ve seen friends struggle with huge things. A lot of boys and girls around Herne Hill are actually deleting accounts and stepping away from stuff. They’re hugely social, face to face, making the most of everything London has to offer.”

While much of the public debate focuses on screen time and online safety, Berrington believes the wider impact on public discourse and democracy is often overlooked.

A strong supporter of proposals to ban social media use for under-16s, she argues that governments have been too timid in their approach to regulating the major platforms.

“Democracy is such a delicate thing and it has to be properly boundaried to protect what freedom is,” she says.

“Why aren’t we dealing with bots? If you want to make a comment, at least be accountable for it.”

For Berrington, the issue is not a lack of technological solutions but a lack of political will.

“Those social media platforms don’t care about us. There’s a tool where they could stop children posting images of themselves without their clothes. They could switch it on tomorrow. There’s no impetus to do it.”

After discussing everything from local elections to television drama, it is one of the few subjects on which she becomes unequivocal.

“Tinkering doesn’t work. It’s going to be down to people making a big, stinky fuss.”

It’s a subject close to the themes of Tip Toe, Russell T Davies’ new five-part drama in which Berrington stars. She describes it as “a real state of the nation piece” about “the rise of hate and disinformation and all the grey areas of the difficult conversations we won’t let ourselves have.”

She is understandably tight-lipped about the storyline, but her character Stephanie is a social worker, and best friend to Alan Cumming’s bar-owning Leo who finds her politics increasingly at odds with his.

Does the character go a bit JK Rowling, I ask? “She’s feeling some of that,” Berrington says. “She’s on the sharp end. She sees the vulnerabilities of women and girls, but she’s not a closed book. How can you love people and have a foot in both camps? How can you discuss the grey?”

“I hope people sit down and watch it. Get your older teenagers to watch it, because we’ve got to start talking about the grey, gritty, nitty bits in between. Putting our fingers in our ears won’t do anymore.”

More Info

• Tip Toe – 9pm tonight 31 May 2026 –  Channel 4
• Alan Cummings at Leo
• David Morrissey as Clive
• Elizabeth Berrington as Stephanie
• A bar owner in Manchester’s gay village, and his long-standing neighbour become embroiled in a feud.

Tip Toe trailer