'Unrecognisable' Tip Toe star Paul Rhys played one of the BBC’s 'sickest' and most disturbing villains
'This guy had to be the creepiest villain'
Tip Toe stars Paul Rhys as Melba, who has one of the most “powerful” scenes in the first episode – but do you remember the sick villain he played?
The new Channel 4 drama, created by It’s a Sin’s Russell T Davies, revolves around two feuding neighbours: Leo (Alan Cumming) and Clive (David Morrissey). Leo is a queer man who runs a gay bar in Manchester, while Clive is a straight, often angry bigot.
The series also acquaints us with Leo’s colleagues. Melba, a gay man who’s the number one customer at Leo’s bar, is one of his closest friends.
Viewers have been quick to praise Rhys’ “stunning” performance, though it’s just the latest in a long line of roles that have left a big impression.
Paul Rhys movies and TV shows you’ve seen before
Rhys is a 62-year-old actor whose on-screen career dates back to 1986. So, he’s appeared in more than a few movies and TV shows you may have seen before.
For example, he starred alongside Colin Firth in 1988’s Tumbledown. He also appeared in the BBC’s Gallowglass adaptation in 1993, where he met his late partner, Arkie Whiteley.
In the past few years, he’s had roles in major films, such as Napoleon, Saltburn, and Wuthering Heights, alongside Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie.
He’s been a more prolific presence on British TV. In the aughts, he starred in Anna Karenina, The Innocents, The Cazalets, Poirot, Spooks, and Being Human.
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In 2010, he played one of his most recognisable and unforgettable characters: Lucien Burgess, the face-licking, demented satanist and serial killer from Luther (specifically, series 1 episode 3).
There’s no need to mince our words: Lucien is a freak, and a terrifying one at that. In a series full of unimaginable brutality and culprits who chill your blood, he’s one of the most memorable – and that’s a credit to Rhys’ performance.
“This guy had to be the creepiest villain from all three series,” one viewer wrote online. “This guy was easily the creepiest villain so far, his intro with the face licking just made my skin crawl,” another commented.
As for Rhys’ other TV roles, you may have seen him in ITV’s Victoria, in which he played Sir John Conroy. In 2023, he starred alongside Joanna Page and Mark Lewis Jones in Men Up, a superb BBC comedy based on the true story of viagra’s arrival in the UK.
Paul Rhys’ Melba is the “star” of Tip Toe
Whatever Rhys does, no matter the project, he delivers. However, it helps in Tip Toe that he’s had some of the most affecting, eyebrow-raising dialogue so far.
For example, in a poignant scene with Cumming’s Leo, he talks about the ostensible evolution of society’s attitudes to the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s a storm, it’s a tide, it’s a great big tsunami,” he says, talking about hatred towards queer people.
“They let us all come out, so now we’re standing in the open ready for them to shoot us down… I used to walk into a room and just go, ‘Ta-da!’ Now I tiptoe, just in case.”
Writing on X, one fan posted: “Melba is the star of the show.”
“That dialogue from Melba was spot on. This is superb so far & so on key,” another wrote. “God, this script is on fire. A stunning performance from Paul Rhys as Melba,” a third commented.
“There’s great performances from Alan Cumming and David Morrissey but Paul Rhys was the standout with the screen time he had,” a fourth added.
