What's on TV tonight Sunday 31 May 2026? The evening anchors around two premieres. Russell T Davies' Tip Toe launches on Channel 4 at 9pm -- Alan Cumming and David Morrissey in a Manchester Gay Village drama that Davies has described in terms that make its stakes clear: "Our rights are paper-thin as gay people. We're in great danger. The fight is on." At the same hour, BBC One has Dear England Episode 3, which moves the drama into the ugliest chapter of Gareth Southgate's England tenure: the Euro 2020 final penalty shootout, the racism directed at three of his players, and the nation's response to both.

Earlier in the day, London Stadium hosts Soccer Aid for UNICEF's 20th anniversary match. Robbie Williams coaches England. Usain Bolt coaches the World XI. Owen Cooper -- 16 years old, the Emmy-winning star of Adolescence -- becomes the youngest player ever to take part. And Olly Murs arrives having just completed a 400km endurance walk from Old Trafford, which is the kind of detail that makes Soccer Aid what it is.

The Women's FA Cup Final at Wembley between Brighton and Manchester City kicks off at 3pm on Channel 4, which makes it free-to-air for the first time in several years and gives Brighton -- in their first-ever FA Cup Final -- the audience that occasion deserves.

Browse what's on right now for live updates, see tonight's full highlights, or go straight to the channels list -- including pages for BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4, U&Alibi, TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 3, and TNT Sports 4. For yesterday's listings see our Saturday 30 May 2026 TV guide.

What's on TV tonight: quick picks

  • Tip Toe (Eps 1 & 2) -- Channel 4, 9pm -- NEW SERIES; written by Russell T Davies; directed by Peter Hoar; produced by Nicola Shindler, Quay Street Productions (It's a Sin team); Alan Cumming as Leo (Canal Street bar Spit and Polish, Gay Village Manchester); David Morrissey as Clive (Leo's troubled neighbour of 15 years); Paul Rhys as Melba; opens with man hanging from lamppost, spools back 10 days; Davies: "Our rights are paper-thin as gay people"; 5 episodes; Eps 1 & 2 tonight; continues Mon 1 June; Channel 4 streaming
  • Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2026 -- ITV1, coverage 5pm, kick-off 6.30pm BST -- LIVE; 20th anniversary match; England v World XI; London Stadium; hosts Dermot O'Leary and Alex Scott; England coach Robbie Williams; World XI coach Usain Bolt; England: Rooney, Defoe, Jill Scott, Wilshere, Hiddleston, Danny Dyer, Olly Murs (completing 400km walk from Old Trafford), Owen Cooper (Adolescence Emmy-winner, 16, youngest-ever Soccer Aid player), Morgan Burtwistle (Angry Ginge, Player of the Match last year), Joe Marler goalkeeper; World XI: Jordi Alba, Bonucci, Ali Krieger, Nicky Byrne (Westlife), Dermot Kennedy, Behzinga, Maisie Adam, Chris O'Dowd goalkeeper, Nitro (Gladiators); £121m+ raised for UNICEF since 2006; ITVX
  • Women's FA Cup Final: Brighton v Manchester City -- TNT Sports 1 from 2pm, Channel 4 from 2.15pm, kick-off 3pm -- LIVE; Wembley Stadium; FREE-TO-AIR Channel 4; Brighton's first-ever FA Cup Final (beat Liverpool 3-2 in semi, Nadine Noordam stoppage-time winner); Man City beat Chelsea 3-2 AET (Bunny Shaw winner)
  • Dear England (Ep 3 of 4) -- BBC One, 9pm -- Euro 2020 final racism aftermath; Saka, Rashford, Sancho; 1996 flashback; young Gareth (Kasper Hilton-Hille) meets John Major post-penalty miss; Hungary 4-0; Joseph Fiennes; Ep 4 Mon 1 June; iPlayer
  • The Mother of All Cons -- BBC Two, 9pm -- NEW SERIES; three-part documentary; Believe in Magic charity; celebrity support including One Direction; Charity Commission 2017; shut down 2020; Megan Bhari; Munchausen by proxy / Fabricated or Induced Illness; mother Jean O'Brien; online cancer forum queries triggered unravelling; iPlayer
  • Death Valley (S2 Ep 3) -- BBC One, 8.15pm -- murder on set of epic period drama; Timothy Spall as John Chapel; Jim Howick as Randall St Clair (guest -- new character, not S1's Constable Atkins); Randall: polished, preening, barely acknowledges Chapel; "I don't think about that show any more. Nobody does"; iPlayer
  • The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer -- ITV1, 10.45pm + 11.45pm -- DOUBLE-BILL UK PREMIERE; Series 3 of Australian anthology; Sam Neill as Brett Colby SC; accused is husband of Colby's lifelong friend; cold case 1968, two teenagers' deaths; Danielle Cormack, Eryn Jean Norvill, Sarah Peirse; filmed Perth and Margaret River WA; ITVX
  • Murdoch Mysteries Season 19 Finale -- U&Alibi, 7pm -- "Hell of a Woman"; Union Station murder; Inspector Choi; Vivian Moon (Elena Juatco); twist: Johnny Moon faked his own death; Season 20 confirmed; Now
  • Antiques Roadshow -- BBC One, 7.15pm -- REPEAT; Fiona Bruce; Thirlestane Castle, Scottish Borders; Marc Allum examines letters from an Antarctic post office; iPlayer
  • Southbank at 75: You Are Here -- BBC Two, 6.10pm -- Southbank Centre 75th anniversary; Festival of Britain 1951; UK youth cultures (tea dance, punk, acid house, hardcore, grime, northern soul); Danny Boyle among directors; iPlayer
  • Later... with Jools Holland -- BBC Two, 10pm -- Jessie Ware, Holly Humberstone, Jack Antonoff; standout: Samm Henshaw; also Tim Pope (music video director, The Cure, Close to Me wardrobe-on-a-cliff promo); iPlayer
  • The Nice Guys ★★★★ -- BBC One, 10.30pm -- Shane Black 2016; Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling; 1970s LA; first draft 2001; 15 cert; iPlayer
  • The Assembly: Unseen -- ITV1, 10pm -- out-takes; Stephen Fry, Nicola Sturgeon, Lenny Henry, Anna Maxwell Martin, Aitch, Rylan; neurodivergent interviewers; more next week
  • Hudson and Rex -- U&Alibi, 8pm -- Rex and gin; patriarch found drowned in his own spirits
  • Giro d'Italia Stage 21 (Final Stage) -- TNT Sports 3 from 2pm -- 131km around Rome; Rome-EUR to Ostia, 8 laps of 9.5km circuit (Colosseum, Roman Forum, Tiber); finish Via del Circo Massimo
  • French Open Day 8 -- TNT Sports 4, from 9.30am -- Roland Garros; third-round singles

See what's on right now for live updates.

Tonight's TV schedule: full listings

Time Channel Programme
9.30am TNT Sports 4 French Open Day 8 LIVE -- Roland Garros; third-round singles
2.00pm TNT Sports 1 Women's FA Cup Final coverage start -- Brighton v Manchester City build-up
2.00pm TNT Sports 3 Giro d'Italia Stage 21 (Final Stage) LIVE -- 131km Rome; 8 laps finishing circuit
2.15pm Channel 4 Women's FA Cup Final coverage start -- free-to-air; Brighton v Manchester City
3.00pm Channel 4 + TNT Sports 1 Women's FA Cup Final: Brighton v Manchester City KICK-OFF -- Wembley Stadium
5.00pm ITV1 Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2026 coverage start -- Dermot O'Leary; Alex Scott; build-up
6.10pm BBC Two Southbank at 75: You Are Here -- 75th anniversary; Festival of Britain; Danny Boyle
6.30pm ITV1 Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2026 KICK-OFF -- England v World XI; London Stadium; Robbie Williams v Usain Bolt
7.00pm U&Alibi Murdoch Mysteries Season 19 Finale -- "Hell of a Woman"; Union Station; Johnny Moon twist
7.15pm BBC One Antiques Roadshow (repeat) -- Thirlestane Castle; Marc Allum; Antarctic post office letters
8.00pm U&Alibi Hudson and Rex -- gin patriarch drowned in his own spirits
8.15pm BBC One Death Valley S2 Ep 3 -- Timothy Spall; Jim Howick as Randall St Clair; period drama murder
9.00pm BBC One Dear England Ep 3 of 4 -- Euro 2020 racism aftermath; Saka/Rashford/Sancho; Euro 96 flashback; Joseph Fiennes
9.00pm BBC Two The Mother of All Cons Ep 1 NEW SERIES -- Believe in Magic; Munchausen by proxy; three parts
9.00pm Channel 4 Tip Toe Eps 1 & 2 NEW SERIES -- Russell T Davies; Alan Cumming; David Morrissey; Gay Village Manchester
10.00pm BBC Two Later... with Jools Holland -- Jessie Ware; Holly Humberstone; Jack Antonoff; Samm Henshaw; Tim Pope
10.00pm ITV1 The Assembly: Unseen -- Stephen Fry; Nicola Sturgeon; Lenny Henry; Anna Maxwell Martin; Aitch; Rylan
10.30pm BBC One The Nice Guys ★★★★ (2016, 15) -- Shane Black; Russell Crowe; Ryan Gosling; 1970s LA
10.45pm ITV1 The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer Ep 1 UK PREMIERE -- Sam Neill; Brett Colby SC; Western Australia
11.45pm ITV1 The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer Ep 2 -- cold case 1968; multiple timelines; Danielle Cormack
Now streaming BBC iPlayer Dear England all 4 episodes; The Mother of All Cons full series
Now streaming ITVX The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer full series; Soccer Aid 2026

Tip Toe -- Channel 4, 9pm (NEW SERIES)

Tip Toe, Series 1, Episodes 1 and 2. Channel 4 at 9pm. NEW SERIES. Written by Russell T Davies. Directed by Peter Hoar. Produced by Nicola Shindler, Quay Street Productions. Alan Cumming as Leo. David Morrissey as Clive. Paul Rhys as Melba. Five episodes. Continues Monday 1 June.

The first image is a man hanging from a lamppost outside his own home. Events then spool back ten days. That structural decision -- starting at the end of something rather than the beginning -- is characteristic of how Russell T Davies frames a drama he wants you to understand as already in motion. The damage has been done. The question is what it cost.

Tip Toe is set in Manchester's Gay Village, on Canal Street, and the bar at its centre is called Spit and Polish. The name carries both the polish of a well-run performance space and the military-drill register of something that needs constant upkeep to stay presentable. Alan Cumming plays Leo, who owns it. By night he is all of that: showman, host, the person who makes the room work. On his own doorstep, in daylight, with his neighbours, he is something different. Timid in the specific way of someone who has learned to hold two versions of themselves apart.

David Morrissey plays Clive, Leo's next-door neighbour of 15 years. Fifteen years is long enough to have assembled a set of assumptions about someone and to have stopped examining them. The Clive of the opening episodes is troubled in ways the programme does not explain. That restraint is the right instinct. Morrissey carries weight just below the surface of the dialogue, which is the quality the part needs.

Paul Rhys plays Melba, Leo's old friend, and the function Melba performs in the early episodes is the one friendship often performs in stories about people who have stopped moving: he disturbs Leo's complacency. "If there's a war, you're on the frontline," Melba tells him. It is the most direct version of the drama's argument. A Gay Village bar is a position, not a refuge, and being at the front of Canal Street means being at the front of something whether Leo has chosen that or not.

The writer and his argument

Davies does not make it difficult to understand what Tip Toe is about. He has said it in terms that leave no room for ambiguity. "Our rights are paper-thin as gay people. We're in great danger. The fight is on. That's what Tip Toe is about." That clarity about the subject is, in one sense, a gift to a reviewer and, in another, a test for the drama: a work of art that knows precisely what it intends to say has to earn the saying of it scene by scene, rather than relying on its stated position. The It's a Sin collaborators -- Davies writing, Hoar directing, Shindler producing -- have already passed that test once. The question is how Tip Toe does it with the particular register of Manchester's Gay Village in this particular moment.

Peter Hoar directed It's a Sin for Davies, which is the directorial credit that most clarifies what to expect. His work on that series had an instinct for the physical reality of the communities it depicted -- the geography of rooms, the specific look of a particular decade in a particular place -- without ever becoming a period document in the wrong sense. The visual intelligence of It's a Sin was in service of the emotional intelligence of the writing. That approach applies here too, and the Manchester setting gives Hoar a different kind of material: not the bedsit confidences of the It's a Sin London, but Canal Street on a weekend night, which is one of the most recognisable pieces of geography in contemporary British queer culture.

Episodes 1 and 2 tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm. Continues Monday 1 June. Full series on Channel 4 streaming.

Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2026 -- ITV1, coverage 5pm, kick-off 6.30pm BST

Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2026. ITV1 coverage from 5pm; kick-off 6.30pm BST. England v World XI. London Stadium. 20th anniversary match. Hosted by Dermot O'Leary and Alex Scott. England coached by Robbie Williams. World XI coached by Usain Bolt. Over £121m raised for UNICEF since 2006.

Soccer Aid was founded in 2006 by Robbie Williams and Jonathan Wilkes, and the proposition was simple: a charity football match between a celebrity England team and a celebrity World XI, broadcast on a Sunday evening in early summer. Twenty years later it is one of the most dependable fixtures on the ITV schedule, not because the football is technically proficient (it mostly is not) but because the event has developed a texture of accumulated memory that makes it compelling in ways a straightforward charity match shouldn't be.

Over £121m raised for UNICEF over twenty years is the number that matters most in any strict assessment of what Soccer Aid is for. The match itself is the mechanism; the fundraising is the purpose. But the broadcast has become something else alongside it. Part sporting spectacle, part variety entertainment, and a long-running joke that picks up new contributors each year.

The squads

England's squad this year carries a weight of accumulated Soccer Aid history alongside the new arrivals. Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe are the former Premier League names the format has always drawn on. Jill Scott -- who won a World Cup winner's medal with England Women in 2023 and has become one of the most beloved figures in British sport -- brings a different kind of football credibility to the England changing room. Jack Wilshere's appearances in Soccer Aid have always attracted a particular quality of attention: a former Arsenal and England midfielder whose career was fractured by injury, visible and lively in a context where no one is trying to injure him.

Tom Hiddleston is one of those Soccer Aid stalwarts who has turned out to be a genuinely useful player. Danny Dyer's appearances have been Soccer Aid events in themselves over the years.

Olly Murs arrives at London Stadium having walked 400km from Old Trafford -- a fundraising endurance challenge that, even by Soccer Aid's standards, is a notably committed contribution. He will presumably be in no state to press high up the pitch.

Owen Cooper is 16. He won an Emmy for his performance in Adolescence earlier this year. He is the youngest player ever to take part in Soccer Aid. There is no precedent for that combination at a charity football match, and the attention he will get from the 70,000-odd crowd at London Stadium — as both Emmy-winning young actor and teenager about to play in front of a capacity stadium — is something no amount of preparation fully accounts for.

Morgan Burtwistle, known from I'm a Celebrity as Angry Ginge, was Player of the Match last year. That status creates a specific kind of pressure for this year's performance.

Joe Marler in goal. The Harlequins and England rugby prop, now positioned behind the ten players ahead of him and required to adapt the instincts of a front-row forward to keeping a football out of the net. That last line of defence does not have an orthodox relationship with shot-stopping and is unlikely to develop one in the 90 minutes available, but Soccer Aid goalkeepers are not selected on conventional keeping merits.

The World XI

Usain Bolt coaches the World XI -- not plays in it, coaches it. The eight-time Olympic champion has appeared as a player in previous editions; his role has evolved. Jordi Alba and Leonardo Bonucci are the former professional footballers who give the World XI its defensive and left-sided structure, two players from Barcelona and Juventus respectively who were serious professionals until comparatively recently. Ali Krieger played for the US women's national team and won two World Cup medals; she is one of the accomplished female players giving the World XI a different physical quality to the England side.

Nicky Byrne from Westlife, Dermot Kennedy, Behzinga from the Sidemen, Maisie Adam, and Chris O'Dowd as goalkeeper complete the cast. Nitro from Gladiators. The World XI is always slightly better assembled as a football team than the England side -- less nostalgia, more recent professional quality on the left side of defence -- and that quality gap is what makes the England coaching job feel perpetually challenging. Robbie Williams has been in that position before.

Twenty years of Soccer Aid

The moments that have become Soccer Aid folklore deserve brief mentions at the 20th anniversary. José Mourinho once invaded the pitch to complain about a refereeing decision, his disbelief operating at the same register regardless of the competition level. Serge Pizzorno from Kasabian scored a goal of such technical quality that it remains the benchmark against which all subsequent Soccer Aid goals are measured. Ben Shephard received a red card. All of it happened. All of it was broadcast to millions. All of it is now part of the event's mythology.

Coverage on ITV1 from 5pm, kick-off 6.30pm BST. Available on ITVX.

Women's FA Cup Final: Brighton v Manchester City -- Channel 4 from 2.15pm, kick-off 3pm

Women's FA Cup Final 2026. Brighton and Hove Albion v Manchester City. Wembley Stadium. Kick-off 3pm. Free-to-air on Channel 4 (coverage from 2.15pm) and on TNT Sports 1 (coverage from 2pm).

Brighton have never been to a Women's FA Cup Final. That absence ends today at Wembley. For a club that has built its women's programme with considerable deliberation over the past several years, the final is both a destination and a confirmation that the building has arrived somewhere.

Their route to Wembley went through Liverpool at the semi-final stage. The match produced a 3-2 win, with Nadine Noordam scoring in stoppage time -- the kind of goal that gets attached to a club's history permanently. Stoppage-time winners in semi-finals have a shelf life measured in decades. Brighton supporters will still be describing it in twenty years.

Manchester City came through the other side of the draw after beating Chelsea 3-2 after extra time in their semi, with Khadija Shaw -- known as Bunny Shaw -- scoring the winner. Shaw is one of the most complete centre-forwards in the women's game and the most significant individual threat City carry into today's final. Brighton's ability to handle her will determine much of how the match unfolds.

The free-to-air broadcast on Channel 4 is significant. Women's FA Cup Finals have moved around broadcasters over the years, and the combination of Channel 4's reach and a genuinely open final -- with a first-time finalist on one side -- gives today the best possible conditions for an audience that goes beyond the committed fanbase of either club.

Live on Channel 4 from 2.15pm and TNT Sports 1 from 2pm, kick-off 3pm BST.

Dear England -- Episode 3 of 4 -- BBC One, 9pm

Dear England, Series 1, Episode 3 of 4. BBC One at 9pm. Written by James Graham. Directed by Paul Whittington. Produced by Left Bank Pictures. Joseph Fiennes as Gareth Southgate. Episode 4 broadcasts Monday 1 June. All episodes on BBC iPlayer.

Dramatising events that happened recently enough for most of the audience to remember them is difficult. The Euro 2020 final is not history in the way that Euro 96 is now history. A significant portion of the audience watching tonight was watching the same match five years ago: the missed penalties, the racism that followed online and in person, the public rejection of that racism. Dear England Episode 3 is asking that audience to watch something they remember and trust the drama to show them something they didn't see.

The episode covers the aftermath of those penalty defeats — Saka, Rashford, Sancho — and the national response to the abuse. James Graham's writing in these sections has to walk a line. The racism was real; the rejection of it was also real and remarkable in scale. Dwell too long on the abuse and the episode wallows in something that should be named and moved past. Reach too quickly for uplift and the period gets sentimentalised. Graham threaded that needle on stage. The television version is Paul Whittington's challenge in direction.

The Euro 96 flashback

Tonight's episode also contains the structural departure that Dear England has been moving toward since the opening: a flashback to 1996, and to the minutes immediately after a young Gareth misses his own penalty at Euro 96. Kasper Hilton-Hille plays the young Southgate. The encounter with then-Prime Minister John Major, who offers some words to the devastated teenager, is described as slightly cheesy by people who have seen it -- a generous verdict. The historical detail of John Major appearing at a football stadium in that moment sits oddly, and the scene has to work on its own terms rather than as documentary recreation.

Then Hungary beat England 4-0. The episode holds all of this in a single hour, which is ambitious.

A note on the scheduling: Episode 4 does not air tonight. It broadcasts on BBC One on Monday 1 June. The full series -- all four episodes -- is available on BBC iPlayer now.

On BBC One at 9pm.

The Mother of All Cons -- BBC Two, 9pm (NEW SERIES)

The Mother of All Cons, Episode 1 of 3. BBC Two at 9pm. NEW SERIES. Three-part documentary. Believe in Magic charity. Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Full series on BBC iPlayer.

The Believe in Magic charity had a clear and appealing stated purpose: to give terminally and seriously ill children magical experiences. It attracted genuine support from significant names -- One Direction among them. It raised real money and it did, in some accounts, provide genuine experiences to some genuinely ill children.

It also, according to the investigation that followed, concealed something much darker.

The Charity Commission investigated in 2017. The charity was shut down in 2020. The Kingston Adult Safeguarding Board produced a review that reached a conclusion that sits at the more extreme end of what safeguarding inquiries typically find: that Megan Bhari -- one of the charity's central figures, presented to the world as seriously ill herself -- was in fact a victim of Fabricated or Induced Illness, previously known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Her mother Jean O'Brien was identified as the architect of the deception.

FII is one of the most contested and disturbing diagnoses in child safeguarding. It describes a pattern of behaviour in which a caregiver -- typically a parent -- fabricates or induces illness in a child, either for attention, financial gain, or reasons that are poorly understood by anyone who has not attempted to make sense of the psychology involved. The child, in these cases, is both victim and instrument. The parent, in the cases that reach formal inquiries, typically presents as devoted, knowledgeable, and credible.

How it unravelled

The mechanism that began the unravelling was not a whistleblower or a medical professional who spotted an inconsistency. It was parents of genuinely ill children posting suspicious questions in online cancer support forums. This is a specifically contemporary detail: a community of people who knew what severe childhood illness actually looked like, connecting with each other in a digital space, and noticing that something in the Believe in Magic story did not match the pattern.

The three-part structure gives the documentary room to follow the full arc: the charity's establishment and rise, the suspicions and the investigation, and the safeguarding review's conclusions. Each episode on BBC Two at 9pm; full series on BBC iPlayer from tonight.

On BBC Two at 9pm.

Death Valley -- Series 2, Episode 3 -- BBC One, 8.15pm

Death Valley, Series 2, Episode 3. BBC One at 8.15pm. Timothy Spall as John Chapel. Guest: Jim Howick as Randall St Clair. Available on BBC iPlayer.

Series 2 of Death Valley has been finding increasingly inventive ways to put John Chapel (Timothy Spall) in social situations that expose the gap between the persona he projects and the person underneath it. Tonight that gap is made literal by a guest star whose entire function in the episode is to embody what Chapel used to be, seen through the distorting lens of someone who has decided he was never there.

Jim Howick plays Randall St Clair -- previously Randy, Chapel's former television sidekick, who has undergone a thorough rebranding since their last contact. The name change from Randy to Randall is the first signal: a studied elevation that tells you everything about what Randall is now performing. He has recently completed work on Caesar, a period whodunnit, and regards that credit as his current identity. Chapel -- and their shared history -- is something Randall has filed under things that no longer require acknowledgement.

"I don't think about that show any more. Nobody does."

That line is doing the work Death Valley does consistently: the comedy is in the precision of the social cruelty, and the effect is not broad farce but the specific register of a man who has decided to delete a chapter of his own history in front of the person that chapter starred.

A note on the casting: Jim Howick appeared in Death Valley Series 1 as Constable Atkins. Randall St Clair is an entirely different character; the call-back is to the actor's face rather than the role. That is a casting decision with a logic of its own -- familiar enough to reward regular viewers, distinct enough not to require continuity from the previous series.

The investigation tonight involves a murder on the set of a large-scale period drama production -- a setting that gives the episode both the logistical comedy of television production and the particular social dynamics of a crew that has been living in close proximity for weeks. Neither of those things is particularly good for John Chapel, who is already managing Randall.

On BBC One at 8.15pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer -- ITV1, 10.45pm (UK premiere)

The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer, Episodes 1 and 2. ITV1 at 10.45pm and 11.45pm. DOUBLE-BILL UK PREMIERE. Series 3 of the Australian crime anthology The Twelve. Sam Neill as Brett Colby SC. Full series on ITVX.

Australian crime drama has occupied a consistent and confident place in the late-night ITV1 schedule for several years, and The Twelve is one of the better examples of what the genre can do at this level of production. The anthology structure -- each series a fresh case, the same barrister at its centre -- gives the show both continuity (Neill's Brett Colby is the constant) and variety (a completely different legal situation each time).

Series 3 takes the Cape Rock Killer as its subject. The accused is the husband of Colby's lifelong friend -- a personal proximity that distinguishes this series from its predecessors and means the defence work has a specific quality of difficulty. You know someone well enough to have built a life partly around them, and then you are asked to defend them in the most serious circumstances the law contemplates.

The cold case element -- the deaths of two teenagers in 1968, surfacing into a contemporary investigation -- is the structural device that lets the series operate across multiple timelines. These flashback structures, done well, produce a particular kind of narrative tension: the past keeps revising what the present means, and by the time both strands are visible simultaneously, the viewer is watching two versions of events at once.

Western Australia as a filming location gives the series a landscape that the camera uses well -- the Margaret River region in particular has a quality that is neither the emptying deserts of the outback nor the urban density of Perth, but something in between that suits a story about isolation, old secrets, and the social architecture of a tight community.

The supporting cast includes Danielle Cormack, Eryn Jean Norvill, Sarah Peirse, and William Zappa. For a double-bill premiere at this hour, the combination of Neill's assured central performance and a new cold-case puzzle is a reliable late-night proposition.

Episodes 1 and 2 on ITV1 at 10.45pm and 11.45pm. Full series on ITVX.

Murdoch Mysteries -- Season 19 Finale -- U&Alibi, 7pm

Murdoch Mysteries Season 19 Finale. "Hell of a Woman." U&Alibi at 7pm. Available on Now. Season 20 already confirmed.

Season 19 closes with a murder in a public toilet at Union Station -- a setting that Murdoch Mysteries has always used well, placing the Victorian formality of its detective work against the ordinary civic architecture of Toronto. Murdoch and Inspector Choi butt heads over the investigation, with the closing dynamic of the season leaning into Choi's personal entanglement with their main suspect.

The seasonal payoff involves Vivian Moon (Elena Juatco) -- the widow of PI Johnny Moon, who has been the object of Choi's cautious interest across the back half of the series -- and the revelation that Johnny Moon is not, in fact, dead. He faked it. The implications of that for both Vivian and Choi are the kind of cliffhanger that a season finale earns by having developed the relationship carefully enough that the audience has an investment in the outcome.

Season 20 is already confirmed, which takes the edge off the cliffhanger for anyone worried about whether the show continues.

On U&Alibi at 7pm.

Also worth watching today

Antiques Roadshow -- BBC One, 7.15pm

A repeat, first shown last year -- Fiona Bruce and the Antiques Roadshow team at Thirlestane Castle in the Scottish Borders. Among the items examined tonight: letters sent from a post office in Antarctica, brought in by Marc Allum. The Antarctic provenance is the kind of origin story that Antiques Roadshow uses better than almost any other programme, because the gap between where an object has been and where it ends up on a roadshow table is the entire programme in miniature. On BBC One at 7.15pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

Southbank at 75: You Are Here -- BBC Two, 6.10pm

The Southbank Centre turns 75 this year, tracing its roots to the Festival of Britain in 1951. Tonight's BBC Two documentary marks the anniversary with a cast of hundreds performing across fifty years of UK youth cultures: 1950s tea dance, punk, acid house, hardcore, grime, northern soul. Danny Boyle is among the directors. The breadth of the concept is its strength -- a 75-year cultural institution that has housed everything from classical concerts to club nights, with a physical position on the South Bank of the Thames that gives the building a particular weight in the geography of London's cultural life. On BBC Two at 6.10pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

Later... with Jools Holland -- BBC Two, 10pm

Tonight's Later... brings together Jessie Ware and Holly Humberstone in the same programme as Jack Antonoff, who as a producer has been one of the most significant names in pop music for the past decade and appears here in his own performing capacity. The standout voice of the evening is reportedly Samm Henshaw, whose lineage in the Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye tradition gives him a sonic authority that the Later... setting handles better than most formats.

The programme's credit worth pausing on is Tim Pope -- music video director, best known for his long collaboration with The Cure. Pope directed the Close to Me promo, in which the band performed inside a wardrobe perched on a cliff. As music video conceits go, it is one of the few that became genuinely famous: not because of the technology involved but because of the physical comedy of five people crammed into a piece of furniture that was falling off a cliff, which turned out to be the right image for that song. On BBC Two at 10pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

The Nice Guys ★★★★ -- BBC One, 10.30pm

Shane Black's 2016 comedy thriller is one of those films that found a second life considerably larger than its theatrical run suggested. Russell Crowe as Jackson Healy -- a grumpy hired enforcer who hurts people for money -- and Ryan Gosling as Holland March -- a bumbling, financially compromised private detective -- are tracking a missing girl through 1970s Los Angeles, which turns out to be a city with more interconnected corruption than either of them anticipated. The period detail is convincing, the dialogue is quick and funny, and the central relationship between two people who have no obvious reason to trust each other achieves exactly the chemistry the script requires.

Black and Anthony Bagarozzi wrote the first draft in 2001. It took until 2013 for the screenplay to reach Gosling and Crowe. The eventual production is one of the better arguments for patient development: the film knows what it is doing at every moment, which is not always true of long-gestating projects. Certificate 15. Four stars. On BBC One at 10.30pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

The Assembly: Unseen -- ITV1, 10pm

Out-takes from The Assembly, the programme in which neurodivergent and learning-disabled interviewers put questions to celebrities that the conventions of broadcast journalism would typically edit away. Tonight's edition features Stephen Fry, Nicola Sturgeon, Lenny Henry, Anna Maxwell Martin, Aitch, and Rylan -- a range of public figures whose relationships to public presentation vary considerably, which makes the out-takes format more interesting than the word suggests. More next week. On ITV1 at 10pm.

Hudson and Rex -- U&Alibi, 8pm

Rex investigates the death of the patriarch of a venerable gin firm, found drowned in his own spirits. The crime-in-the-context-of-craft-production is a Hudson and Rex staple -- the setting provides both a physical location and a set of suspects with shared professional stakes. Gin makes a more convincing murder weapon than most. On U&Alibi at 8pm.

Live sport today

Women's FA Cup Final -- Channel 4 from 2.15pm, TNT Sports 1 from 2pm, kick-off 3pm

Covered in full above. Brighton v Manchester City, Wembley Stadium. Free-to-air on Channel 4 from 2.15pm and on TNT Sports 1 from 2pm.

Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2026 -- ITV1, coverage 5pm, kick-off 6.30pm BST

Covered in full above. England v World XI, London Stadium. ITV1 from 5pm, kick-off 6.30pm BST.

Giro d'Italia -- Stage 21 (Final Stage) -- TNT Sports 3, from 2pm

The 109th Giro d'Italia ends today in Rome. The final stage covers 131km, beginning with an out-and-back from Rome-EUR to the Tyrrhenian coast at Ostia before returning to the city for eight laps of a 9.5km finishing circuit that passes the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the banks of the Tiber, finishing on Via del Circo Massimo. The geography of that circuit is not incidental: Roman Forum, Colosseum, the Circus Maximus where chariot races were held. The Giro has always known how to stage a finale. The final stage of a Grand Tour in Rome carries a ceremonial quality similar to the Champs-Élysées on Tour de France Sunday -- the general classification is typically settled before the stage begins, which means the day belongs to the sprinters and to the narrative of a three-week race reaching its formal conclusion in the most recognisable urban landscape in cycling.

Live on TNT Sports 3 from 2pm.

French Open Day 8 -- TNT Sports 4, from 9.30am

Day 8 at Roland Garros brings third-round singles play, the point in the draw where the field is compressing and the seeds begin to face opponents who have come through two matches on clay. The third round on clay is where accumulated fatigue starts to be a factor for anyone who has been playing full three-setters in warm conditions; it is also where the remaining unseeded players who have survived begin to look genuinely dangerous. Live on TNT Sports 4 from 9.30am.

Frequently asked questions

What's on TV tonight Sunday 31 May 2026?

Sunday 31 May 2026 leads with two 9pm primetime premieres: Tip Toe, Russell T Davies' new five-part drama on Channel 4 (Alan Cumming as Manchester Gay Village bar owner Leo, David Morrissey as troubled neighbour Clive, directed by Peter Hoar, Eps 1 & 2 tonight, continues Mon 1 June), and The Mother of All Cons, the new three-part documentary on BBC Two about the Believe in Magic charity and Munchausen by proxy (full series on iPlayer). BBC One has Dear England Episode 3 at 9pm -- Euro 2020 racism aftermath, Euro 96 flashback, Joseph Fiennes as Southgate; Episode 4 Monday 1 June. In the afternoon, the Women's FA Cup Final -- Brighton v Manchester City -- kicks off at 3pm at Wembley, free-to-air on Channel 4 from 2.15pm; Brighton's first-ever FA Cup Final. Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2026 is on ITV1 with coverage from 5pm and kick-off at 6.30pm BST at London Stadium -- England coached by Robbie Williams, World XI by Usain Bolt, Owen Cooper (aged 16, youngest-ever Soccer Aid player), £121m+ raised for UNICEF since 2006. Death Valley S2 Episode 3 is on BBC One at 8.15pm (Tim Howick guest as Randall St Clair). The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer double-bill UK premiere is on ITV1 at 10.45pm and 11.45pm (Sam Neill). Later... with Jools Holland is on BBC Two at 10pm (Jessie Ware, Samm Henshaw, Jack Antonoff, Tim Pope). The Nice Guys is on BBC One at 10.30pm (four stars, Shane Black, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling). Murdoch Mysteries Season 19 Finale is on U&Alibi at 7pm. Giro d'Italia Final Stage 21 (Rome) is on TNT Sports 3 from 2pm. French Open Day 8 is on TNT Sports 4 from 9.30am.

What is Tip Toe on Channel 4 tonight?

Tip Toe is a new five-part drama written by Russell T Davies, launching on Channel 4 at 9pm on Sunday 31 May 2026 with Episodes 1 and 2. Directed by Peter Hoar and produced by Nicola Shindler at Quay Street Productions (the team behind It's a Sin). Alan Cumming plays Leo, owner of Manchester Gay Village bar Spit and Polish -- a showman by night, timid on his own doorstep. David Morrissey plays Clive, Leo's troubled next-door neighbour of 15 years. Paul Rhys plays Melba, Leo's old friend who tells him: "If there's a war, you're on the frontline." The drama opens with a man hanging from a lamppost outside his own home and spools back 10 days. Davies has said: "Our rights are paper-thin as gay people. We're in great danger. The fight is on. That's what Tip Toe is about." The series runs for 5 episodes; continues Monday 1 June on Channel 4.

What time is Soccer Aid 2026 and where is it?

Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2026 takes place at London Stadium on Sunday 31 May 2026. ITV1 coverage begins at 5pm BST; kick-off is at 6.30pm BST. It is the 20th anniversary match -- Soccer Aid was founded in 2006 and has raised over £121m for UNICEF. Hosts: Dermot O'Leary and Alex Scott. England are coached by Robbie Williams; the World XI are coached by Usain Bolt. Available on ITVX.

Who is playing in Soccer Aid 2026?

Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2026 features England v World XI at London Stadium, kick-off 6.30pm BST on ITV1. England: Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, Jill Scott, Jack Wilshere, Tom Hiddleston, Danny Dyer, Olly Murs (completing a 400km walk from Old Trafford to London Stadium ahead of the match), Owen Cooper (Adolescence Emmy-winner, aged 16, youngest-ever Soccer Aid player), Morgan Burtwistle (Angry Ginge, I'm a Celebrity, Player of the Match last year), and Joe Marler as goalkeeper. England are coached by Robbie Williams. World XI: Jordi Alba, Leonardo Bonucci, Ali Krieger, Nicky Byrne (Westlife), Dermot Kennedy, Behzinga (Sidemen), Maisie Adam, Chris O'Dowd as goalkeeper, and Nitro (Gladiators). World XI are coached by Usain Bolt.

What happens in Dear England Episode 3?

Dear England Episode 3 of 4 airs on BBC One at 9pm on Sunday 31 May 2026. Joseph Fiennes plays Gareth Southgate. The episode deals with the fallout from England's Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy -- specifically the racism directed at Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford, and Jadon Sancho after their missed penalties, and the national rejection of that racism. The episode also contains a flashback to 1996: young Gareth (Kasper Hilton-Hille) has just missed his penalty at Euro 96 and encounters then-Prime Minister John Major. Then Hungary beat England 4-0. Episode 4 broadcasts on BBC One on Monday 1 June. All episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.

What is the Women's FA Cup Final 2026 and how can I watch it?

The Women's FA Cup Final 2026 is Brighton and Hove Albion v Manchester City at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 31 May 2026. Kick-off is at 3pm. It is live and free-to-air on Channel 4 (coverage from 2.15pm) and also on TNT Sports 1 (coverage from 2pm). Brighton are in their first-ever Women's FA Cup Final -- they reached Wembley with a 3-2 semi-final win over Liverpool, with Nadine Noordam scoring a stoppage-time winner. Manchester City beat Chelsea 3-2 after extra time in their semi-final, with Khadija "Bunny" Shaw scoring the winner.

What is The Mother of All Cons on BBC Two tonight?

The Mother of All Cons is a new three-part documentary launching on BBC Two at 9pm on Sunday 31 May 2026. It tells the story of the Believe in Magic charity, which provided "magical experiences" for terminally and seriously ill children and attracted celebrity support including from One Direction. The Charity Commission investigated in 2017; the charity was shut down in 2020. The Kingston Adult Safeguarding Board review concluded that Megan Bhari was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy (Fabricated or Induced Illness), with her mother Jean O'Brien as the architect of the deception. The unravelling began when parents of genuinely ill children started posting suspicious questions in online cancer forums. Full series on BBC iPlayer.

Who is Jim Howick playing in Death Valley tonight?

Jim Howick plays Randall St Clair in Death Valley Series 2 Episode 3 on BBC One at 8.15pm on Sunday 31 May 2026. Randall is John Chapel's former television sidekick, previously known simply as Randy, now rebranded with a grander name and a new identity built around his work on the period whodunnit Caesar. He regards his shared history with Chapel (Timothy Spall) as a chapter closed. Jim Howick played Constable Atkins in Death Valley Series 1 -- Randall St Clair is a different character.

What is The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer on ITV1 tonight?

The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer is the third series of the Australian crime anthology The Twelve, getting its UK premiere on ITV1 tonight with a double-bill at 10.45pm and 11.45pm. Sam Neill plays Brett Colby SC, a defence barrister who is the recurring lead across all three series. The accused in this series is the husband of Colby's lifelong friend. The case involves a woman's death and a cold case from 1968 -- the deaths of two teenagers. The series runs for 8 x 1-hour episodes and features Danielle Cormack, Eryn Jean Norvill, Sarah Peirse, and William Zappa. Filmed in Western Australia (Perth and the Margaret River region). Full series on ITVX.

What is The Nice Guys on BBC One tonight?

The Nice Guys is Shane Black's 2016 comedy thriller, on BBC One at 10.30pm, certificate 15. Russell Crowe plays grumpy enforcer Jackson Healy; Ryan Gosling plays bumbling private detective Holland March. The pair track a missing girl through 1970s Los Angeles. Written by Shane Black and Anthony Bagarozzi -- the first draft dates to 2001; the script reached Gosling and Crowe in 2013. Available on BBC iPlayer.

Tonight's final word

The afternoon has a clear shape. The Women's FA Cup Final at Wembley kicks off at 3pm -- Brighton's first, and free-to-air on Channel 4, which gives it the audience it deserves. By the time that concludes, Soccer Aid is building toward its 6.30pm kick-off at London Stadium, where Robbie Williams watches England from the touchline for the twentieth anniversary of an event he started. The two matches sit together on a Sunday afternoon without competition, which is the schedule working as it should.

The 9pm hour is the more interesting editorial question. Three programmes of genuine ambition land simultaneously: Tip Toe on Channel 4, Dear England Episode 3 on BBC One, and The Mother of All Cons on BBC Two. That is an unusual concentration of original drama and documentary in a single timeslot, and it creates a real choice rather than a default.

Tip Toe is the new commission with the biggest question attached to it. Russell T Davies writing about the Gay Village, Peter Hoar directing, Alan Cumming and David Morrissey in the central roles -- that combination of names is carrying significant expectation. It's a Sin earned that expectation; Tip Toe will spend its five episodes either justifying it or not. The opening image of a man hanging from a lamppost and the ten-day rewind suggests a writer who knows that the argument he has stated clearly -- "Our rights are paper-thin as gay people" -- needs to be demonstrated rather than declared.

Dear England Episode 3 is the hardest episode the series has to write. The Euro 2020 final penalties and the racism that followed are recent enough that a significant portion of the audience has direct memory of both the events and how they felt. Graham's task is not to document those events but to do something with them that drama can do and journalism cannot. The Euro 96 flashback with a young Southgate meeting John Major in the immediate aftermath of a missed penalty is the kind of scene that looks unfilmable on paper. Whether it works depends entirely on how Kasper Hilton-Hille and the production handle it.

The Mother of All Cons on BBC Two sits alongside both of those as the programme that will expand the audience for what happened at Believe in Magic beyond the people who already followed the Charity Commission investigation. Three parts, one BBC iPlayer box set, and a story that gets considerably darker as it continues.

The Nice Guys at 10.30pm on BBC One is, in this context, both the right end to the evening and the lightest programme on the schedule. Shane Black made something genuinely funny with a cast that found the same frequency. After all of the above, that is not a minor thing.

Check what's on right now, browse tonight's highlights, or find any channel through the full channels list. Tomorrow: Dear England Episode 4 on BBC One, The Twelve: Cape Rock Killer continues on ITVX, and the week's television moves into June.