What's on TV tonight Thursday 14 May 2026? The schedule arrives with two reasons to feel something before the first programme has even started. BBC One carries Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 2 live from Vienna from 8pm -- the second of the week's semi-finals, the night the UK entry gets its first proper outing with full staging. And over on BBC Four at exactly the same time, a piece of television history comes back from the dead: the lost 1968 Morecambe and Wise episode, recovered from a private estate and broadcast tonight on the day Eric Morecambe would have turned 100. Channel 5 lines up two new starts -- The Yorkshire Vet: Night Shift opens a new series at 8pm, then The Hardacres returns for its Series 2 premiere at 9pm. Channel 4 marks Taskmaster's 200th episode at 9pm. BBC Two runs the MasterChef Series 22 final heat at 8pm. Eurovision week reshapes the BBC One Thursday schedule, and the presence of a live two-hour semi-final from Vienna means the rest of the evening's channels are doing the heavy lifting for everything else.

Browse what's on right now for live updates, check tonight's highlights, or head to the full channels list including dedicated pages for BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky Atlantic. If you missed yesterday, our Wednesday 13 May 2026 TV guide covers the Twenty Twenty Six finale and the rearranged Manchester City fixture. The Freeview TV guide covers early evening through to past midnight.

What's on TV tonight: quick picks

  • Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 2 -- BBC One, 8pm -- LIVE from Vienna's Wiener Stadthalle; 15 countries; UK performs "Eins, Zwei, Drei"; Rylan Clark + Angela Scanlon; UK can vote
  • "Morecambe and Wise: the Lost Tape" -- BBC Four, 8pm -- Eric's 100th birthday; 1968 episode believed lost for 58 years; Film Is Fabulous! recovery; nudist camp sketch; Paper Dolls; Trio Athene
  • The Hardacres -- Channel 5, 9pm -- SERIES 2 PREMIERE; 1895; electricity arrives at Hardacre Hall; Michele Dotrice joins; full series on 5 streaming
  • MasterChef -- BBC Two, 8pm -- S22 final heat; Grace Dent + Anna Haugh; gnocchi challenge; langoustine curry; one cook in tears
  • "Taskmaster: An Even Bigger Spoon" -- Channel 4, 9pm -- 200th EPISODE; Joanna Page; Joel Dommett PVA glue; Amy Gledhill and the spoons; Kumail Nanjiani; Armando Iannucci
  • "The Yorkshire Vet: Night Shift" -- Channel 5, 8pm -- NEW SERIES; Donaldson's; George the spaniel; Honey caesarean; Wilbur the cocker spaniel's trapped wind
  • The Miniature Wife -- Sky Atlantic, 10pm -- S1 Ep 6; Les discovers Richie's affair; honey, bird seed, and a bird; Matthew Macfadyen + Elizabeth Banks
  • Bergerac -- U&Drama, 9pm -- S2 Ep 5; the coat in Nicola's wardrobe; Adrian Edmondson grifts Zoe Wanamaker
  • Nemesis -- Netflix -- ALL 8 EPISODES; crime thriller; Courtney A. Kemp; Y'lan Noel; drops today

See what's on right now for live updates.

Tonight's TV schedule: full listings

Time Channel Programme
12.30pm Sky Sports Main Event / Golf "Golf: PGA Championship" Round 1 LIVE -- Aronimink; Scheffler defending; all day
12.30pm TNT Sports 1 "Cycling: Giro d'Italia" Stage 6 LIVE -- Paestum to Naples; 142km
2.50pm Sky Sports Cricket "IPL Cricket" Match 58 LIVE -- Punjab Kings v Mumbai Indians; Dharamshala
7.30pm ITV1 "Rubbish: Are We All Paying? Tonight" -- Paul Brand; flytipping investigation (10.45pm STV)
8pm BBC One "Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final" LIVE -- Vienna; 15 countries; UK performs; Rylan + Angela Scanlon
8pm BBC Four "Morecambe and Wise: the Lost Tape" -- Eric's 100th birthday; 1968 lost episode
8pm BBC Two MasterChef S22 final heat -- Grace Dent; gnocchi; langoustine curry
8pm Channel 4 "Paul Merton: Driving Amazing Trains: Germany" -- SERIES FINALE; Trabant car-on-rails; Dresden tram
8pm Channel 5 "The Yorkshire Vet: Night Shift" NEW SERIES -- George the spaniel; Honey caesarean; Wilbur
8pm U&Yesterday "Bangers and Cash: Restoring Classics" -- Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000; 1970s Yamaha
8pm Sky Arts "Classic Movies: the Story of Chaplin" -- Ian Nathan; Chaplin (1992); Robert Downey Jr.
9pm Channel 5 The Hardacres S2 Ep 1 PREMIERE -- 1895; electricity; Michele Dotrice
9pm Channel 4 "Taskmaster: An Even Bigger Spoon" S21 Ep 6 -- 200th EPISODE; spoons; PVA glue
9pm U&Drama Bergerac S2 Ep 5 -- coat in wardrobe; Edmondson grifts Wanamaker
9pm Sky Atlantic Prisoner -- Amber + Tibor; syndicate restructure; Izuka Hoyle; Tahar Rahim
9pm Sky Arts Chaplin (1992) -- Richard Attenborough film; Robert Downey Jr.
10pm Sky Atlantic The Miniature Wife S1 Ep 6 -- Les + Richie's affair; honey + bird; Elizabeth Banks
From today Netflix Nemesis -- ALL 8 episodes; Courtney A. Kemp; Y'lan Noel; Matthew Law

Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 2 -- BBC One, 8pm (LIVE from Vienna)

The second of this week's semi-finals goes live from the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna tonight, and this is the one UK viewers have been building toward since Sam Battle won the national selection in March. Fifteen countries compete for 10 Grand Final spots. The UK is not one of them -- the Big Five auto-qualification means Sam, performing under his Look Mum No Computer stage name, walks on as a guest act rather than a competitor. He still performs. With full staging. For the first time on an Eurovision stage of this scale.

The song is "Eins, Zwei, Drei" -- German for one, two, three -- and in an era that has produced plenty of sleek, melancholy Eurovision pop, it takes a different route. Sam Battle has spent years building elaborate synthesizers in his south London studio and releasing videos that get passed around by people who care about how sounds are made. "Eins, Zwei, Drei" channels that energy into something that sounds like Lipps Inc. and "Funkytown" beamed through a bank of handmade oscillators. It is, in the best sense, eccentric. It is also the first UK Eurovision entry in 68 years not exclusively written in English -- the German counting lyric in the chorus is the hook, and it works.

UK viewers can vote in this semi-final, which matters. The public televote for the semi gives UK audiences a chance to register their preferences before Saturday's Grand Final, where the stakes are real. The Eurovision voting system allocates one of the 10 qualifying spots partly on televote and partly on national jury decisions, and the UK has no influence on the qualifying outcome -- but the semi-final televote builds the engagement numbers that feed into Saturday's broadcast.

Rylan Clark and Angela Scanlon present from the BBC studio. Angela Scanlon replaces Scott Mills in the co-presenter seat for 2026, and the pairing has been warmly reviewed across the first semi on Tuesday. On stage in Vienna: Victoria Swarovski, Michael Ostrowski, and Emily Busvine in the greenroom. The Grand Final is Saturday 16 May 2026.

Running order highlights: Bulgaria opens with "Bangaranga," Ukraine's "Ridnym" sits at position 12 just before the UK's guest performance, and Norway closes the competitive entries with "Ya Ya Ya."

On BBC One from 8pm, also streaming live on BBC iPlayer.

Morecambe and Wise: the Lost Tape -- BBC Four, 8pm

This is the one that matters most tonight, and if Eurovision is pulling you toward BBC One, it is worth holding this thought: Eric Morecambe was born on 14 May 1926. Today is the day he would have turned 100. He died in 1984 at 58, a number that feels brutal against the century being marked tonight.

The tape that airs on BBC Four at 8pm was made in 1968. It was first broadcast on BBC2 on 16 September that year, repeated in 1969, and then -- as happened to a great deal of British television before the archive ethics of the 1970s changed anything -- it disappeared. Believed wiped. Believed gone. Eric's son Gary Morecambe, who has spent decades cataloguing the family's television legacy, said he genuinely did not think there was anything left to find.

The Film Is Fabulous! charitable trust found it anyway, in the estate of a deceased television industry professional who had kept the 16mm print in private hands for decades. The trust works to recover exactly this kind of material -- pre-video-age television that ended up outside BBC Archives in ways nobody quite intended. The recovered episode runs to about 25 minutes; a boxing sketch featuring referee Jimmy Lee is missing from the print (approximately four and a half minutes gone from the 16mm version), but what remains is intact and has been restored for broadcast.

What is on the tape? A mixed-bag variety show in the format the pair had made their own by 1968. Sid Green and Dick Hills wrote it, their regular scriptwriters in this period. The Paper Dolls -- an all-girl trio who had hits in the 1960s -- perform their follow-up single. Trio Athene give a rousing version of the Greek song "Lefteris." There is a nudist camp sketch in which Ann Hamilton plays Pauline, the manageress of the colony, positioned strategically behind a hedge while Ernie, typically blithe, takes the whole situation entirely in his stride. Eric's reaction -- scandalised, affronted, disapproving of everything Ernie fails to be disapproving of -- is the comedic engine the two had been running for years. Jenny Lee-Wright appears as Eric's "niece," an exotic balloon dancer. The programme's TV critic Patrick Mulkern has reviewed it.

Gary's daughter Gail Morecambe, asked about the discovery, said: "What a lovely surprise this is, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it on a screen once again after so many years. I am especially thrilled that it coincides with my father's centenary year."

Ernie Wise was born six months earlier, in November 1925, making this a joint centenary year for both men. But tonight belongs to Eric.

On BBC Four at 8pm, available on BBC iPlayer after broadcast.

The Hardacres Series 2 premiere -- Channel 5, 9pm

The first series of The Hardacres ended with a family of Yorkshire dock workers installed in what Channel 5 describes, with some accuracy, as almost Downton-like luxury. Series 2 begins in 1895, and the Hardacres have been there long enough for modernity to arrive at their door.

Tonight's opening episode brings electricity to Hardacre Hall. It also brings bicycles for the ladies, which in 1895 is a more charged symbol than it sounds -- women cycling without chaperones was a cultural argument as much as a practical one, and the Hardacres are exactly the family to pick that argument. Mary Hardacre (Claire Cooper) opens a literacy class for her illiterate staff, a reminder that the family's rise has not erased the social conscience that drove it. Her husband Sam (Liam McMahon) is in the middle of converting his fish shops to general stores, a proto-supermarket pivot prompted by recession -- practical, pragmatic, and resented by the existing merchant class.

The show's central antagonist, Lady Emma Fitzherbert (Cathy Belton), returns with her acid commentary on the Hardacres' social ascent intact. What is new is the arrival of Emma's mother, Lady Imelda Hansen, played by Michele Dotrice. If you know Dotrice from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (she was Betty Spencer, Frank's long-suffering wife) or more recently from Unforgotten, the casting will land as a signal: she does not do lightweight. Lady Imelda is described as potentially outdoing her daughter for sheer unpleasantness, which is the show setting the bar deliberately high.

The Radio Times' Jane Rackham, reviewing the premiere, called it "closer to period soap than prestige TV, but undeniably enjoyable, undemanding drama" -- a fair assessment. This is not Sunday night BBC One territory, and it does not pretend to be. It is a decent Thursday evening serial with a strong cast, a clear sense of its own pleasures, and a villain whose arrival the premiere has been carefully building toward. The full six-episode run is already on 5 streaming if you want to binge rather than wait.

On Channel 5 at 9pm.

MasterChef final heat 14 May -- BBC Two, 8pm

Series 22, and Grace Dent opens the final heat with a question that is half-genuine and half-rhetorical: "Have we saved the best until last?" The programme has been running heats of six cooks in the standard format, and this is the last one before the field moves toward the quarter-finals.

The heat opens with signature dishes. One cook's response moves the judges -- and the cook herself -- to the point where tears appear, which in the context of a cooking competition is either embarrassing or earned, and the way MasterChef handles it will tell you which this is. The four survivors of the signature round face a gnocchi challenge, which the programme notes is "as always, a tricky one." Gnocchi challenges have a way of sorting MasterChef cooks quickly: the cooking window is narrow, the failure modes are obvious, and there is nowhere to hide if the texture is wrong.

The two-course judging section brings in two former winners and a finalist to evaluate the results. The dishes that come out of it are varied enough to be interesting: a creamy langoustine curry, a lemongrass panna cotta, a steak with potatoes and peas cooked in ouzo, and an almond and rosemary tart filled with sherry and fig compote served with manchego. That last one, in particular, is a combination that takes confidence to plate in a heat environment.

Grace Dent, watching someone deploy a chef's blowtorch with possibly excessive enthusiasm, delivers the line of the episode: "Careful, there's not a lot of me that's real." Self-deprecating, quick, and earned. Anna Haugh is her co-judge, replacing John Torode and Gregg Wallace in the new era of the format.

On BBC Two at 8pm, available on BBC iPlayer.

Taskmaster's 200th episode -- Channel 4, 9pm

Two hundred episodes. The first Taskmaster aired in 2015 on Dave, with Josh Widdicombe, Romesh Ranganathan, Frank Skinner, Tim Key, and Roisin Conaty completing tasks on a patch of suburban northwest London while Alex Horne looked on and Greg Davies judged. Eleven years on, the show has moved to Channel 4, acquired a Hampton Court location, and is broadcasting its 200th episode tonight with a lineup that includes a Silicon Valley actor, a Gavin and Stacey lead, Armando Iannucci, and someone who once hosted The Masked Singer UK.

Series 21's quintet -- Joanna Page, Joel Dommett, Kumail Nanjiani, Amy Gledhill, and Armando Iannucci -- have delivered a consistent run, and Episode 6 appears to be among the high points. The episode title, "An Even Bigger Spoon," derives directly from one of Amy Gledhill's tasks: she shoves progressively larger spoons into her mouth while narrating what she is doing. It is funnier in execution than description, which is the standard Taskmaster condition.

Joanna Page's contribution involves screaming -- specifically, screaming so loudly during a challenge that a golfer passing the Hampton Court grounds calls over the wall to check she is not in genuine distress. Joel Dommett spends time frantically blowing PVA glue out of a coconut's orifices, a sentence that requires no elaboration. Kumail Nanjiani, the programme's most internationally recognisable name (Silicon Valley, Eternals, a Best Original Screenplay nomination for The Big Sick), voluntarily humiliates himself twice. The show's reviewer, Huw Fullerton, notes that the PVA/coconut situation does not even merit a comment from Greg Davies, which is the clearest indicator of where this series has set its baseline.

Armando Iannucci -- the man behind The Thick of It, Veep, and The Death of Stalin, who has spent thirty years making satire that makes its targets bleed -- is participating in tasks involving household objects and the competitive judgment of Alex Horne. This continues to be the correct use of Armando Iannucci.

The 200th episode is a genuine landmark. Channel 4, 9pm.

The Yorkshire Vet: Night Shift -- Channel 5, 8pm (new series)

The Yorkshire Vet franchise has been running long enough on Channel 5 to justify a spin-off built around its least-sociable hours: the overnight shift. This new series is set at Donaldson's vets in Huddersfield, and the first episode makes clear why the night shift produces a different kind of television. Sixty per cent of emergency patients arriving after hours are dogs -- a statistic the programme uses early, and one that explains something about how attached people become to their animals when the vet's waiting room is the only option at 2am.

The opening episode's cases: George, a spaniel who has suffered a severe cut on an evening walk and may lose a leg; Honey, who needs a caesarean section; Wilbur, a cocker spaniel with trapped wind whose discomfort the show notes may have been detectable from as far away as Lancashire; Del, a fighting cat with the injuries that come from picking the wrong fight; and two lambs stuck mid-birth, requiring emergency intervention. It is a representative cross-section of a night-shift caseload -- ranging from the life-threatening to the merely very uncomfortable.

John Aizlewood reviewed it for the Radio Times with the warmth this type of programme tends to earn when it does what it does with genuine care for its subjects. The Donaldson's team are not performing for the camera; they are working, and the series is built around that difference.

On Channel 5 at 8pm, available on 5 streaming.

Drama tonight: The Miniature Wife, Bergerac, and Prisoner

Bergerac -- U&Drama, 9pm

The evidence in this week's Bergerac sits in a wardrobe, and Damien Molony's Jim Bergerac knows he should bag it. A coat belonging to Nicola Barton (Camilla Beeput) is linked to the murder scene: CCTV footage shows Nicola arriving at 8.29pm wearing it, minutes before the killing. The coat is evidence. Bergerac leaves it.

The situation is the series' central complication -- Bergerac is emotionally involved with someone who could be a killer, and his DI, Barney Crozier (Robert Gilbert), is not wrong to point out that the coat is now inadmissible if prosecutors discover the relationship. The reboot has been handling Bergerac's compromised position carefully across these five episodes, and this instalment brings it to a direct confrontation.

The subplot involves Adrian Edmondson's grifter Nigel, who is running cons on Charlie Hungerford. For viewers who remember the 1980s original, Charlie was played by Terence Alexander as a male character -- this reboot has cast Zoe Wanamaker in the role, and she is excellent with the material, even when that material involves Nigel extracting money from her through failed investment schemes. Edmondson plays Nigel with the studied cheerfulness of someone who has worked out that the best grifters never let the mark feel taken advantage of until it is too late.

Series 2 airs on U&Drama on Thursdays at 9pm. Full series on U streaming.

Prisoner -- Sky Atlantic, 9pm

Matt Charman's six-episode thriller is at a point in its run where the two leads -- Izuka Hoyle's Amber and Tahar Rahim's Tibor -- have moved past mutual wariness into something more complex. Amber, the prison transport officer who handcuffed herself to contract killer Tibor to prevent his escape after their convoy was ambushed, is no longer the overwhelmed bystander the series initially presented. She is building competence and agency in real time, and the series is tracking that change with more care than the initial premise might have suggested.

Tibor's world, meanwhile, is undergoing what the programme drily describes as a "senior management restructure" within his criminal syndicate. The euphemism does the work. Created by Matt Charman, directed by Otto Bathurst. The full box set dropped on NOW on 30 April; the weekly Sky Atlantic run continues tonight.

On Sky Atlantic at 9pm.

The Miniature Wife -- Sky Atlantic, 10pm

The RT brief's reviewer David Brown makes no secret of his reservations about this adaptation -- Manuel Gonzales's original short story about a woman accidentally shrunk to six inches by her husband's experiment has been stretched across ten episodes in a way that keeps returning to the same two ideas: that Lindy and Les's careers are built on uncertain foundations, and that each is convinced acclaim is the most important thing in the world. The longer it runs, the more apparent the stretch becomes.

And then there is Richie. O-T Fagbenle plays the shrunken version of the character who has been having an affair with Lindy (Elizabeth Banks), and tonight Matthew Macfadyen's Les finds out. The retribution sequence involves honey, bird seed, and a pet bird positioned near Richie's miniature person in a way that suggests the show has found its darkly comic register when it is not circling the thematic material. Fagbenle is, as the brief notes, underused but always a highlight when the series remembers to use him.

On Sky Atlantic at 10pm. Full series on NOW.

Sport tonight

PGA Championship round 1 -- Sky Sports, from 12.30pm

The second major of 2026 begins at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania -- a course set in a suburb west of Philadelphia that last hosted the PGA Championship in 1962. The defending champion is Scottie Scheffler, who won at Quail Hollow in 2025 by five strokes over a field that included Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English. Whether Scheffler arrives at Aronimink in the same dominant form he maintained through much of the 2025 season is the question the first round will start to answer.

The field spans PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf players. The course runs to 7,394 yards at par 70, which means the scoring demands are not driven by length alone. Round 1 coverage runs all day on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Golf from 12.30pm BST.

Giro d'Italia Stage 6 -- TNT Sports 1, 12.30pm

Stage 6 is a 142km route from Paestum, on the Tyrrhenian coast south of Salerno, into Naples -- a city that demands a particular kind of finish. The stage is predominantly flat, with the day's one categorised climb at Cava de' Tirreni breaking the coastal rhythm before the race sweeps around Vesuvius and into the city from the east. The final 70 kilometres are almost entirely urban; the finish is on cobblestones at the Piazza del Plebiscito, which is among the more theatrical stage finishes the Giro calendar produces.

This is a sprinters' day in all but name. The general classification favourites will be watching each other rather than attacking, and the breakaway management will be decided by team directors calculating whether the stage is worth a chase. Live from 12.30pm on TNT Sports 1.

IPL: Punjab Kings v Mumbai Indians -- Sky Sports Cricket, 2.50pm

Match 58 of 74 takes place at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala, a ground that sits at 1,457 metres above sea level against the backdrop of the Dhauladhar range in Himachal Pradesh. The altitude affects the ball -- it travels further, which tends to favour batters. Punjab Kings host Mumbai Indians in a T20 fixture that carries late-season qualification weight for both sides. Local start 7.30pm IST, building from approximately 2.50pm BST on Sky Sports Cricket.

Streaming today: Nemesis -- Netflix

Courtney A. Kemp created Power in 2014 and built it into one of the most consistently-watched franchises in the Starz catalogue. Nemesis is her Netflix project: an eight-episode crime thriller following LAPD detective Isaiah Stiles (Matthew Law) and criminal mastermind Coltrane Wilder (Y'lan Noel) through a cat-and-mouse structure that Kemp has described as among the most personal things she has made.

The first two episodes are directed by Mario Van Peebles. All eight drop simultaneously today, Thursday 14 May 2026, which means the full series is available to run straight through if the appetite is there. For viewers who found the Power universe satisfying but stretched across too many spinoffs, Nemesis is a self-contained entry point: eight episodes, one story, no prior knowledge required.

Available on Netflix from today.

Also worth catching tonight

"Paul Merton: Driving Amazing Trains: Germany" -- Channel 4, 8pm (series finale)

The series ends where it perhaps always had to: Germany, the country that produced the Trabant, the Iron Curtain, and some of Europe's most diligently maintained railway infrastructure. Paul Merton rides an East German electric coal-transporting train and a Trabant car body that has been converted to run on rails -- a vehicle only the GDR could have produced. He also drives a tram in Dresden. Paul's late father was a driver on the London Underground, and that personal thread has given the series an emotional backbone that goes beyond railway enthusiasm. Six episodes, all delivered with exactly as much sentiment as the subject warrants. On Channel 4 at 8pm.

"Rubbish: Are We All Paying? Tonight" -- ITV1, 7.30pm

Paul Brand, the ITV News political correspondent who has built a parallel reputation as an investigative reporter, looks at the growth of illegal flytipping -- specifically, the criminal gangs who have identified waste disposal loopholes as a revenue stream, and what is being done to close those loopholes. The "are we all paying?" framing suggests the investigation links illegal waste disposal to wider costs passed on to households and councils. ITV1 Tonight slot at 7.30pm (10.45pm on STV). On ITV1 and ITVX.

"Bangers and Cash: Restoring Classics" -- U&Yesterday, 8pm

A rusting Subaru Impreza Turbo 2000 and a 1970s Yamaha motorcycle go through the full Mathewsons restoration treatment tonight at the family-run auction house in Thornton-le-Dale, North Yorkshire. The show's format is straightforward -- buy, restore, sell, repeat -- but the Impreza in particular should attract interest from a generation for whom the Turbo 2000 was a very specific adolescent aspiration. On U&Yesterday at 8pm.

"Classic Movies: the Story of Chaplin" -- Sky Arts, 8pm

Ian Nathan and fellow critics examine Richard Attenborough's 1992 biopic starring Robert Downey Jr. The Chaplin (1992) entry to the Classic Movies strand is the RT brief's reviewer Calum Baker's "shakiest 'classic' claim" of the series -- it is a solid, slightly overstuffed film with a 61% Rotten Tomatoes score, not the obvious choice for a "classic" designation. But the discussion is the thing: the critics are worth listening to on whether Attenborough's biopic format, and Downey Jr.'s meticulously prepared performance, adds up to more than the sum of its parts. The film itself follows at 9pm. On Sky Arts from 8pm. Available on NOW.

Frequently asked questions

What's on TV tonight Thursday 14 May 2026?

The headline picks tonight are: Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 2 live from Vienna on BBC One at 8pm (Rylan Clark and Angela Scanlon present; the UK's Look Mum No Computer performs "Eins, Zwei, Drei"); Morecambe and Wise: the Lost Tape on BBC Four at 8pm, broadcast on what would have been Eric Morecambe's 100th birthday; The Hardacres Series 2 premiere on Channel 5 at 9pm; Taskmaster's 200th episode -- "An Even Bigger Spoon" -- on Channel 4 at 9pm; the MasterChef Series 22 final heat on BBC Two at 8pm; and The Yorkshire Vet: Night Shift, a new series on Channel 5 at 8pm. Nemesis (all eight episodes) drops on Netflix today. Browse tonight's full highlights or what's on right now for live listings.

What time is Eurovision Semi-Final 2 tonight?

Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 2 is live on BBC One from 8pm tonight, Thursday 14 May 2026. Presented by Rylan Clark and Angela Scanlon. Fifteen countries compete for 10 Grand Final places. The UK's Look Mum No Computer (Sam Battle) performs "Eins, Zwei, Drei" as an auto-qualifying Big Five act -- not competing but performing with full staging. UK viewers can vote in this semi-final. The Grand Final is on Saturday 16 May 2026.

How do I vote in Eurovision Semi-Final 2?

UK viewers can vote during Eurovision Semi-Final 2 tonight, even though the UK auto-qualifies for the Grand Final and is not competing in the semi-final itself. Voting opens during the broadcast and is available via the BBC Eurovision app, the Eurovision website, and by phone. Full details are on the BBC Eurovision pages and will be communicated live during the show.

Is the lost Morecambe and Wise tape on iPlayer?

Yes. Morecambe and Wise: the Lost Tape airs on BBC Four at 8pm tonight and will be available on BBC iPlayer after broadcast. The 1968 episode was believed lost for nearly six decades before the Film Is Fabulous! charitable trust recovered it from the estate of a deceased television industry professional.

Why is the lost Morecambe and Wise tape airing today?

The lost Morecambe and Wise tape airs today because Thursday 14 May 2026 is the 100th anniversary of Eric Morecambe's birth -- he was born on 14 May 1926. The BBC has scheduled the rediscovered 1968 episode on BBC Four at 8pm to mark the centenary. Ernie Wise was born in November 1925, making 2026 a joint centenary year for both men, but the date today belongs to Eric.

Is The Hardacres Series 2 premiere tonight?

Yes. The Hardacres Series 2 premieres tonight on Channel 5 at 9pm. Set in 1895, the opening episode brings electricity and bicycles to Hardacre Hall, while Michele Dotrice joins as the manipulative Lady Imelda Hansen, the mother of returning antagonist Lady Emma Fitzherbert (Cathy Belton). The full six-episode series is already available on 5 streaming if you want to watch ahead.

Is Taskmaster's 200th episode tonight?

Yes. Taskmaster Series 21 Episode 6 -- "An Even Bigger Spoon" -- is the programme's 200th episode. It airs tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm. The quintet for Series 21 is Joanna Page, Joel Dommett, Kumail Nanjiani, Amy Gledhill, and Armando Iannucci. Greg Davies and Alex Horne preside.

Is Race Across the World on tonight, Thursday 14 May 2026?

Race Across the World Series 6 has been airing on Thursdays at 8pm on BBC One, but tonight that slot is taken by the live two-hour Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final 2 from Vienna. The BBC has not published an officially confirmed alternative airtime for Episode 7 this week. Check BBC iPlayer or your set-top guide on the day -- the episode is likely to either shift to BBC Two or to a different night this week. The Mongolia leg (the seven-day trek from Ulgii to Kharkhorin) is up next when it does land.

What is Nemesis on Netflix?

Nemesis is a new eight-episode crime thriller created by Courtney A. Kemp, the creator of the Power universe. All eight episodes drop on Netflix today, Thursday 14 May 2026. It stars Y'lan Noel as criminal mastermind Coltrane Wilder and Matthew Law as LAPD detective Isaiah Stiles. The first two episodes are directed by Mario Van Peebles. Available now on Netflix.

Tonight's final word

A night where BBC One gives itself over to Eurovision for two hours and BBC Four quietly airs one of the most significant pieces of television recovery in recent memory. The Morecambe centenary broadcast is the event of the evening, even if it will not win the ratings. A lost piece of 1968, returned in time for what would have been a centenary, on the channel that has always been the natural home for this kind of archive material. Watch it.

The rest of the evening is well-stocked: a Channel 5 drama premiere, a 200th Taskmaster episode milestone, a new Yorkshire Vet: Night Shift series, the MasterChef Series 22 final heat, and a full Netflix drop. Check what's on right now, see tonight's full highlights, or browse all channels. For context, Eurovision Semi-Final 1 from Vienna landed on Tuesday -- read our Tuesday 12 May 2026 TV guide for the running order and the Boy George/San Marino moment. Tomorrow is Friday 15 May -- the second week of Eurovision coverage continues, with the Grand Final on Saturday 16 May.