What's on TV tonight Thursday 28 May 2026? The big story is a farewell, or several. A Taste for Murder wraps with its sixth and final episode on ITV1 at 9pm, bringing DCI Joe Mottram's Capri assignment to a close and finally turning the lens on what happened to his wife. Across the same hour: the "life-through-a-lens" documentary strand reaches Vladimir Putin on BBC Two, Kevin Macdonald's 2024 John and Yoko film opens on Sky Documentaries, and Taskmaster reaches the point in Series 21 where Alex Horne covers himself in bells.

Channel 4 adds a new series. Sam Campbell's Make That Movie launches at 10pm, a fictional reality format from the people behind Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, arriving with serious advance word from a comedian whose live work has been generating a reputation for years. BBC Four moves into centenary territory, with Marilyn Monroe Night building toward Some Like It Hot at 8.45pm. Monroe's 100th birthday is four days away on 1 June.

The Half Man series finale is not on BBC One tonight. It drops on BBC iPlayer tomorrow morning (Friday 29 May, 6am) and moves to BBC One on Tuesday 2 June at 10.40pm.

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, BBC Four, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky Arts, Sky Documentaries, Sky Sports Cricket, TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 3, and TNT Sports 4. For yesterday's listings see our Wednesday 27 May 2026 TV guide.

What's on TV tonight: quick picks

  • A Taste for Murder (Ep 6, SERIES FINALE) -- ITV1, 9pm -- Warren Brown as DCI Joe Mottram; Capri-set; Episode 6 of 6; Sofia Mottram's hit-and-run death finally questioned; Phyllis Logan; RT editorial parallel: Jimmy Perez, John Chapel, Robbie Lewis; full series ITVX
  • Putin: in Ten Pictures -- BBC Two, 9pm -- "life-through-a-lens" documentary strand; "far from beloved and very much alive"; 1990s St Petersburg businessman: "always looked at you like he had better things to do"; Stasi ID card 1985; school photo; shirtless-on-horseback "like a melted cowboy"; facsimile Kremlin offices in bunkers; all episodes iPlayer
  • One to One: John and Yoko ★★★★ -- Sky Documentaries, 9pm -- 2024 doc; 15 cert; Kevin Macdonald + Sam Rice-Edwards; 1972 MSG benefit concert; Willowbrook State School (Staten Island, developmental disabilities); box of private phone-call audio tapes from Lennon Estate; "eavesdropping -- and that's quite exciting"; Venice Film Festival 30 August 2024; Now streaming
  • Taskmaster (S21, Ep 8, "I Don't Got Any") -- Channel 4, 9pm -- Greg Davies + Alex Horne; Amy Gledhill, Armando Iannucci, Joanna Page, Joel Dommett, Kumail Nanjiani; The Jingling Match (18th-century bell suit pastime); Horne scampers in bells; contestants capture his IMAGE not him; C4 streaming
  • Make That Movie (NEW SERIES, Ep 1 "Snake Switch" + Ep 2 "Synthezoidian Elders") -- Channel 4, 10pm + 10.50pm -- Sam Campbell; fictional reality format; Joe Pelling director (Don't Hug Me I'm Scared); Blink Industries; Lara Ricote, Aaron Chen, Helen Bauer, David Hargreaves; Kim Noble as Mick (man + woman transform into snakes); "Some people don't belong on the screen"; full series C4 streaming
  • The Hardacres (S2, Ep 3) -- Channel 5, 9pm -- CL Skelton novels; Yorkshire period saga; Sam Hardacre (Liam McMahon) gravely ill; Mary (Claire Cooper) sends staff away; only Mr Lewis (Edward Mitchell) and Mrs Dryden (Ingrid Craigie) remain; Lady Imelda (Michele Dotrice) exploiting the crisis; Joe (Adam Little) and the canning machine; My5
  • Marilyn Monroe Night -- BBC Four, from 8pm -- Monroe centenary 1 June 2026 (4 days away); documentary on her life at 8pm; Some Like It Hot (1959, Billy Wilder) at 8.45pm; third centenary-pegged BBC Four broadcast this week (Baxter Sun 24, Reframed Tue 26); iPlayer
  • EastEnders -- BBC One, 7.30pm -- Ross Marshall asks Vicki Fowler whether she slept with Zack Hudson; Den Watts's daughter; wedding-day showdown; iPlayer
  • MasterChef (S22) -- BBC One, 8pm -- Anna Haugh + Grace Dent; contestants make a dish inspired by someone special; iPlayer
  • Reported Missing -- BBC One, 9pm -- documentary; missing 16-year-old in Glasgow; 18-year-old disappeared after hospital discharge; iPlayer
  • George Clarke's Beautiful Builds (S2) -- Channel 4, 8pm -- architect George Clarke; Luke Millard garden designer; Mitch and Elliott's Bromley post-war house; arched triptych of doors; C4 streaming
  • Cornwall: a Year by the Sea -- Channel 5, 8pm -- spring clean-up; baby seal in surf school; jellyfish on Minack Theatre balcony; Global Pasty Championships at Heligan; St Piran's Day; 5 streaming
  • Classic Movies: the Story of Mulholland Drive -- Sky Arts, 8pm -- David Lynch's 2001 film; documentary; film itself follows at 9pm; Now
  • Women's T20 Cricket: England v India (1st T20I) -- Sky Sports Cricket, 6.30pm -- Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford; Charlie Dean captains England (Sciver-Brunt out injured); Harmanpreet Kaur for India; first of three
  • French Open Day 5 -- TNT Sports 1 + TNT Sports 4 from 9.30am -- second-round matches continue at Roland Garros
  • Giro d'Italia Stage 18 -- TNT Sports 3 from 11.30am -- Fai della Paganella to Pieve di Soligo, 171km; 2,050m climbing; Muro di Ca' del Poggio (1.1km at 12.3%); summit 10km from finish

See what's on right now for live updates.

Tonight's TV schedule: full listings

Time Channel Programme
9.30am TNT Sports 1 + TNT Sports 4 French Open Day 5 LIVE -- Roland Garros; second-round singles; tournament 24 May--7 Jun
11.30am TNT Sports 3 Giro d'Italia Stage 18 LIVE -- Fai della Paganella to Pieve di Soligo, 171km; Muro di Ca' del Poggio
6.00pm Sky Sports Cricket Women's T20: England v India LIVE -- 1st T20I; Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, Chelmsford
7.30pm BBC One EastEnders -- Vicki Fowler; Ross Marshall; Zack Hudson; wedding showdown; Den Watts legacy
8.00pm BBC Four Marilyn Monroe Night -- documentary on her life; centenary 1 June 2026 (four days away)
8.00pm BBC One MasterChef S22 -- Anna Haugh + Grace Dent; dish inspired by someone special
8.00pm Channel 4 George Clarke's Beautiful Builds S2 -- Bromley; Luke Millard; arched triptych of doors
8.00pm Channel 5 Cornwall: a Year by the Sea -- spring; seal in surf school; Pasty Championships; St Piran's Day
8.00pm Sky Arts Classic Movies: the Story of Mulholland Drive -- David Lynch documentary
8.45pm BBC Four Some Like It Hot (1959) -- Billy Wilder; Marilyn Monroe centenary peg
9.00pm ITV1 A Taste for Murder Ep 6 SERIES FINALE -- Warren Brown; Sofia's death questioned; Phyllis Logan; Capri
9.00pm BBC Two Putin: in Ten Pictures -- Stasi ID card; shirtless horse "melted cowboy"; facsimile Kremlin bunkers
9.00pm Sky Documentaries One to One: John and Yoko ★★★★ -- Kevin Macdonald; MSG 1972; Willowbrook; Lennon phone tapes
9.00pm Channel 4 Taskmaster S21 Ep 8 "I Don't Got Any" -- The Jingling Match; Alex Horne in bells; contestants with cameras
9.00pm Channel 5 The Hardacres S2 Ep 3 -- Sam gravely ill; Mary sends staff away; Lady Imelda's scheming; canning machine
9.00pm BBC One Reported Missing -- 16-year-old missing Glasgow; 18-year-old after hospital discharge
9.00pm Sky Arts Mulholland Drive -- David Lynch, 2001; film broadcast
10.00pm Channel 4 Make That Movie Ep 1 NEW SERIES "Snake Switch" -- Sam Campbell; Kim Noble; snake-transformation film
10.50pm Channel 4 Make That Movie Ep 2 "Synthezoidian Elders" -- Sam Campbell; Lara Ricote; Aaron Chen

A Taste for Murder -- Series Finale -- ITV1, 9pm

A Taste for Murder, Episode 6 of 6. ITV1 at 9pm. SERIES FINALE. Warren Brown as DCI Joe Mottram. Phyllis Logan co-stars. Full series on ITVX.

Radio Times's Thursday 28 May page confirms what the series has been building toward: this is the end of DCI Joe Mottram's time in Capri. Six episodes, finishing tonight, with grief and island crime both finally accounted for.

British television has a long tradition of the bereaved detective. The investigator whose private loss shapes how they read the world. Radio Times draws the line through it explicitly: Jimmy Perez in Shetland, whose grief became structural to the series rather than decorative. John Chapel. Robbie Lewis, working in Morse's shadow and eventually out from under it. The bereaved detective is a recognised type because the type works. An investigator who understands loss is more useful in a murder inquiry than one who doesn't.

Joe Mottram arrived on Capri already carrying his. His wife Sofia died in what was described as a random hit-and-run accident. He accepted that framing. He got on with the job, found an island, found cases to solve, found Daria, found a version of forward motion. The finale raises the question the series has been delaying: what if Sofia's death was not random?

A different kind of investigation

When a detective's private grief becomes the subject of an investigation, the genre opens up. The detective is no longer the observer. The case isn't abstract. Skills used on other people's tragedies are now turned on their own. Warren Brown has played Mottram as someone contained, with authority visible and private disorganisation visible too. That gap closes differently in a finale than in any earlier episode.

Phyllis Logan as co-star has brought the precise register the role required. She isn't decorative. She is a counterweight, with her own responses to what unfolds rather than a sounding board for Mottram's. The pair of them have given the series its best exchanges, usually in moments where a scene appears to be about one thing and is actually negotiating something else.

Cosy crime depends on its geography. Capri does what the format needs: sunlight, beauty, separation from mainland reality, which together make violence feel doubly incongruous and land harder than it would in a grey northern setting. Whether A Taste for Murder gets a second series, and where it would go, depends on tonight.

On ITV1 at 9pm. Full series available on ITVX now.

Putin: in Ten Pictures -- BBC Two, 9pm

Putin: in Ten Pictures. BBC Two at 9pm. All episodes available on BBC iPlayer.

The strand has done this with figures of a specific kind: beloved, gone. The Freddie Mercury edition worked because Mercury's image was largely his own construction, and the photographs revealed the gaps. The Mandela edition worked because the photographs traced an arc from the Robben Island years to the State. The challenge of applying the format to Vladimir Putin is that he is, as the programme puts it with admirable economy, "far from beloved and very much alive" — and his image has been managed with the kind of professional care that makes the unofficial photograph more revealing than the official one.

The 1985 Stasi ID card is the key opening document. It places Putin in Dresden, in the years before his public career began, working as a KGB officer in East Germany. The man in that photograph did not expect to be who he became. The school photograph -- described as less than sweet -- shows him before even the KGB, which puts the whole subsequent career in a different kind of relief. A child who was not sweetly photogenic becomes a man who controls his image entirely. Something happened in between.

The shirtless horseback image

The 2009 photograph of Putin bare-chested on a horse in Siberia was released as an act of deliberate image construction. The intended message was physical vitality, masculine authority, connection to the Russian landscape. What the outside world received it as -- "like a melted cowboy" -- tells you something about the gap between how the Kremlin reads its own messaging and how that messaging translates. The image became a meme, which is not what it was designed to become.

The facsimile Kremlin offices are the most interesting detail. Putin has had replicas of his Kremlin working space constructed in bunkers and secure locations across Russia, so that when he appears in footage from an office that looks like his Kremlin study, nobody can determine whether he is in Moscow or somewhere else entirely. That isn't the security precaution of a man confident in his own safety. It is a more revealing kind of anxiety.

The 1990s businessman who worked alongside Putin during his years as a fixer for the mayor of St Petersburg provides the documentary's most useful first-hand account: "always looked at you like he had better things to do with his time." The observation comes from a period when Putin was not yet a political figure but was already organising himself like someone who was waiting for his moment.

On BBC Two at 9pm. All episodes available on BBC iPlayer.

One to One: John and Yoko -- Sky Documentaries, 9pm

One to One: John and Yoko. ★★★★ Sky Documentaries at 9pm. 2024 documentary. 15 cert. Directed by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards. Available on Now.

Kevin Macdonald has made a career out of finding the archive that changes everything else. Touching the Void had the climbers' own testimony restaging what photographs could not show. Whitney had the private recordings that complicated the public image. One Day in September had the Munich footage that had never been broadcast. In each case the film is about what the archive reveals: evidence, not illustration, and evidence that reframes what you thought you understood.

One to One: John and Yoko has both elements. The 1972 One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden was a public event, extensively filmed, organised by John Lennon and Yoko Ono to raise money for Willowbrook State School -- a New York state institution for people with developmental disabilities in Staten Island. The concert footage exists. What did not exist in any previous documentary context was the box of audio tapes that the Lennon Estate made available to Macdonald and Rice-Edwards: recordings of John and Yoko's private phone calls, conducted around the period of the concert and intercut through the film.

What the tapes do

Macdonald's description of the tapes is worth quoting in full: "This is them unguarded, the real them. It felt like you were eavesdropping and that's quite exciting." The excitement is legitimate, but so is the discomfort. Private phone calls were private. They were made available because the Estate judged that the portrait they contribute is more accurate -- or more useful to how Lennon is remembered -- than their continued absence. That editorial decision shapes everything about what the film can be.

What the phone calls appear to reveal, intercut with the concert footage, is the distance between the public performance of a political and artistic identity and the private texture of the relationship conducting it. Lennon and Ono as public figures were managed and calculated in their public statements. The tapes suggest what they were like when they were not managing anything.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 30 August 2024. The strand's previous entry on Sky Documentaries covered subjects who could not contest the portrait. This one cannot be contested either, though for different reasons. One to One: John and Yoko is a four-star documentary in the older sense: it has done the archival work, it has found something genuinely new, and it has put a filmmaker of real quality in the editor's chair.

On Sky Documentaries at 9pm. Available on Now.

Taskmaster -- Series 21, Episode 8 -- Channel 4, 9pm

Taskmaster, Series 21, Episode 8: "I Don't Got Any." Channel 4 at 9pm. Greg Davies as Taskmaster. Alex Horne as assistant. Contestants: Amy Gledhill, Armando Iannucci, Joanna Page, Joel Dommett, Kumail Nanjiani. Available on Channel 4 streaming.

Taskmaster has held its formula for twenty-one series because the formula works. The task structure lets character emerge in ways scripted formats cannot predict. The strongest Taskmaster episodes are the ones where a task reveals something about the contestant that no interview format would have surfaced. Series 21 has given Armando Iannucci, whose entire career has been about satirising systems, the comedy of being subjected to one he cannot satirise his way out of. Kumail Nanjiani's response to the pressure of the task room has been a running source of material.

Tonight's episode takes its headline task from an 18th-century pastime called The Jingling Match. The original version of the game was this: a group of blindfolded players attempted to catch a single person wearing a suit covered in bells. The bells announced the location of the target; the difficulty was in navigating toward a sound that could be coming from multiple directions at once.

The Taskmaster version

The adaptation, characteristically, preserves the bell suit and removes several of the elements that made the original game straightforward. Alex Horne wears the bells. He scampers. The contestants, however, are not trying to catch Horne. They are trying to capture his image -- photograph him -- which introduces a technological mediation that the 18th century did not have to contend with, and which moves the task from physical pursuit to something more like documentary photography of a moving and highly motivated subject.

Alex Horne's willingness to undergo whatever the task requires of him is one of the programme's less-celebrated pleasures. He approaches each task as a professional who has agreed to have very specific things done to him and carries the agreement with a precise neutrality that functions as straight man to whatever chaos the contestants generate.

The episode title "I Don't Got Any" gives little away about the other tasks in the episode, which is how it should be. Taskmaster titles have historically operated as either complete non-sequiturs or, in retrospect, obvious references to something in the recording that you will now immediately remember.

On Channel 4 at 9pm. Available on Channel 4 streaming.

Make That Movie -- NEW SERIES -- Channel 4, 10pm and 10.50pm

Make That Movie, Episodes 1 and 2. Channel 4 at 10pm and 10.50pm. NEW SERIES. Created by Sam Campbell. Directed by Joe Pelling. Produced by Blink Industries. Cast: Sam Campbell, Lara Ricote, Aaron Chen, Helen Bauer, David Hargreaves. Full series on Channel 4 streaming.

Sam Campbell is an Australian comedian whose live work has been accumulating a particular reputation. Deadpan. Surreal. Committed to a logic that is internally consistent and externally baffling in roughly equal measure. His Taskmaster series introduced him to a larger British television audience, and he was one of the more unsettling presences the programme has hosted. Not because he was unpleasant, but because the gap between his apparent affect and what he was actually doing was wider than usual. Last One Laughing UK showed similar qualities.

Make That Movie is a fictional reality format in which Campbell plays a director who turns people's movie ideas into reality. The premise lands somewhere between a commission competition and a dream logic constructed specifically to produce the kind of material Campbell's sensibility generates best. Joe Pelling, who co-created Don't Hug Me I'm Scared -- a series that was also formally structured and deeply disquieting -- directs. The production company is Blink Industries, which produced Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. The overlap in creative DNA is not incidental.

The opener

Episode 1 is called "Snake Switch." Mick (played by Kim Noble, the performance artist whose work has been consistently difficult to classify for several decades) wants Campbell to make a film about a man and a woman who take turns transforming into snakes. This is not a complicated premise in terms of narrative. The complication is that it requires a filmmaker -- fictional Campbell -- to take it seriously, which is what the format hinges on. Campbell treats every idea as though it contains the germ of something worth making, and the comedy lives in the rigour with which he applies that treatment.

One line quoted in advance coverage: "Some people don't belong on the screen. Some people should exist without any evidence." This is the kind of sentence that is funny and unsettling simultaneously, and it suggests what register the series is operating in.

Episode 2, "Synthezoidian Elders," follows at 10.50pm. The full six-episode run is on Channel 4 streaming.

On Channel 4 at 10pm and 10.50pm. Full series available on Channel 4 streaming.

The Hardacres -- Series 2, Episode 3 -- Channel 5, 9pm

The Hardacres, Series 2, Episode 3. Channel 5 at 9pm. Adapted from C.L. Skelton's novels. Cast: Liam McMahon, Claire Cooper, Edward Mitchell, Ingrid Craigie, Michele Dotrice, Adam Little. Available on My5.

C.L. Skelton's Hardacres novels take a Yorkshire family from Victorian poverty upward through the decades, accumulating wealth and the enemies that come with it. The television adaptation has followed that arc, with Series 2 -- which premiered on 14 May 2026 -- now moving into the household's more vulnerable period.

Sam Hardacre (Liam McMahon) is seriously ill. Not so ill that the story has announced it with a diagnosis scene and a formal reckoning, but ill in the way that serious illness actually arrives in households: incrementally, then suddenly, with the people around the patient making decisions about what to conceal and from whom. Mary Hardacre (Claire Cooper) sends most of the household staff away. She refuses to tell the children how bad things are. The two who remain -- tutor Mr Lewis (Edward Mitchell) and housekeeper Mrs Dryden (Ingrid Craigie) -- are kept because they are trusted, or because their functions are too essential to suspend.

Lady Imelda's manoeuvre

Lady Imelda Hansen (Michele Dotrice) has been established across two series as the series' principal antagonist -- a woman whose class resentment of the Hardacres' rise is not a background texture but the animating principle of several plots. Sam's illness gives her an opening. The precise nature of the advantage she is moving to exploit is where the episode's tension sits. A family that is managing illness internally and concealing it from the outside world is a family whose attention is elsewhere, and Lady Imelda has always been most effective when attention is elsewhere.

Son Joe (Adam Little) responds to the crisis in a different register: he throws himself into the family business and recklessly commits to a new canning machine. This is the pattern the series has traced through the Hardacres -- when things go wrong privately, the men invest outward. Whether the canning machine is a sound investment or a product of the kind of optimism that illness in the household makes briefly irresistible is left open.

Period saga requires a specific texture: the sense that every decision made today is laying down something that will come back in a later episode as consequence. The Hardacres has maintained that across two series.

On Channel 5 at 9pm. Available on My5.

Marilyn Monroe Night -- BBC Four, from 8pm

Marilyn Monroe Night. BBC Four from 8pm. Documentary at 8pm; Some Like It Hot (1959, dir. Billy Wilder) at 8.45pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

Monroe's centenary is on 1 June 2026. She was born on 1 June 1926 in Los Angeles, which means Thursday 28 May is four days before the date. BBC Four has been working toward it all week: Stanley Baxter's centenary (born 24 May 1926) was marked with a documentary on Sunday 24 May; Reframed: Marilyn Monroe -- the 2022 CNN four-part series narrated by Jessica Chastain, previously UK-premiered on BBC Two in 2023 -- ran on Tuesday 26 May. Tonight completes the week's centenary programming with a curated evening dedicated to Monroe herself.

The documentary that opens the evening at 8pm revisits the life in the way the format does: career, image, myth, cost. Monroe's particular difficulty as a documentary subject is that the mythology is so thick that almost any factual account has to fight its way through it to reach the person. The best Monroe documentaries have been the ones that treat the mythology as the subject rather than trying to dissolve it: what did it do to her to be that famous in that way at that time?

Some Like It Hot

Some Like It Hot (1959), directed by Billy Wilder, follows at 8.45pm. The film is routinely placed on lists of the greatest comedies in cinema history, and the specific quality that puts it there is not Monroe's performance alone but the precision of the construction around it. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as musicians on the run from the mob, disguised as women, joining an all-female band. The script -- Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond -- handles a situation that could easily have become crude with an elegance that the surrounding culture would not quite have permitted had it been explicit about what it was doing.

Monroe's Sugar Kane is performing helplessness that is not entirely helpless, and the film is sharp enough to understand that. The performance is the one that defined her career for many critics, which is a specific kind of tribute: the woman who could do this did not only do this, but this is the one that will survive longest in the public memory of what she was.

BBC Four's centenary week closes here. Four days later, on 1 June 2026, Monroe turns 100.

On BBC Four from 8pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

Also worth watching tonight

EastEnders -- BBC One, 7.30pm

The situation Walford has been building through this week reaches another pressure point. Ross Marshall has asked bride-to-be Vicki Fowler directly: did she sleep with Zack Hudson, the half-brother of her adoptive half-sister? The question is out, and a soap wedding where a question like that is already in the air rarely arrives at the altar without consequences. Vicki is the daughter of Den Watts, which means the show has a genetic argument for why scandal follows her into ceremonial occasions. On BBC One at 7.30pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

MasterChef -- BBC One, 8pm

Series 22 continues with judges Anna Haugh and Grace Dent. Tonight's challenge asks contestants to make a dish inspired by someone special to them -- a personal brief that tends to produce a range of outcomes: the best of it is food with a story behind it; the worst of it is food whose emotional significance outpaces its technical execution. The semi-final is progressing. On BBC One at 8pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

Reported Missing -- BBC One, 9pm

The returning documentary series follows police teams working missing-person investigations, filmed with access to the cases as they unfold. Tonight covers two: a 16-year-old who has gone missing in Glasgow, and an 18-year-old who disappeared after being discharged from hospital. Missing-person investigations have a pace and uncertainty that the documentary format handles well -- there is a structural reason why the cases are not resolved in the opening minutes, and that uncertainty is what gives the series its tension. On BBC One at 9pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.

George Clarke's Beautiful Builds -- Channel 4, 8pm

Series 2 opens with Mitch and Elliott's post-war house in Bromley, south-east London. Architect George Clarke addresses the structural limitations of a three-bedroom house built in an era when spatial flow was a secondary consideration, with garden designer Luke Millard taking the exterior. The arched triptych of doors is the headline detail. On Channel 4 at 8pm. Available on Channel 4 streaming.

Cornwall: a Year by the Sea -- Channel 5, 8pm

Spring arrives after a hard winter: a baby seal ends up in a surf school, jellyfish on the balcony of the Minack Theatre, a storm clean-up across the county. The Global Pasty Championships at the Gardens of Heligan. St Piran's Day: pipes, flags and beards. On Channel 5 at 8pm. Available on 5 streaming.

Classic Movies: the Story of Mulholland Drive -- Sky Arts, 8pm

The documentary on David Lynch's 2001 film leads into the film itself at 9pm. Lynch on his creative process; critics on what the film means, arriving at different conclusions. The film: Naomi Watts, a car accident, a blue box, a Hollywood casting process, a third act that disagrees with the first two. On Sky Arts at 8pm (documentary) and 9pm (film). Available on Now.

Half Man -- iPlayer Friday morning, BBC One Tuesday 2 June

One clarification worth making for Thursday evening: Half Man is not on BBC One tonight. The series finale (Episode 6 of 6) of Richard Gadd's BBC/HBO six-parter drops on BBC iPlayer on Friday 29 May at 6am. The linear broadcast on BBC One follows on Tuesday 2 June at 10.40pm. The penultimate episode -- Episode 5 -- aired on BBC One on Tuesday 26 May.

Live sport today

Women's T20 Cricket: England v India -- 1st T20I -- Sky Sports Cricket, 6.30pm

The first of a three-match Women's T20 series between England and India starts at 6.30pm BST at the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground in Chelmsford. The ground is Essex's home ground -- the sponsorship-naming on the venue changed to Ambassador Cruise Line in 2026. England are captained by Charlie Dean; India by Harmanpreet Kaur. Women's T20 cricket between these two sides has a competitive history that makes first-match positioning significant in a short series.

Live on Sky Sports Cricket from 6pm BST.

French Open Day 5 -- TNT Sports 1 and 4, from 9.30am

Roland Garros moves further into the second round on Day 5 of the 2026 French Open. The clay at Roland Garros tends to produce longer matches than the faster surfaces, which means the second round can take the best part of two days to complete. Live on TNT Sports 1 and TNT Sports 4 from 9.30am BST.

Giro d'Italia Stage 18 -- TNT Sports 3, from 11.30am

Stage 18 of the 2026 Giro d'Italia runs from Fai della Paganella -- a ski resort village in Trentino -- to Pieve di Soligo in the Veneto, covering 171 kilometres with 2,050 metres of altitude gain. Three climbs give the stage its character: Civezzano and Fastro build the legs before the day's decisive passage, the Muro di Ca' del Poggio. The Muro is 1.1 kilometres long at a 12.3% average gradient -- the kind of wall that is over before it has properly started, but at the pace a Grand Tour peloton climbs it, 1.1 kilometres is enough to produce gaps. The summit sits 10 kilometres from the finish. The final approach into Pieve di Soligo is a gently rising 300 metres, short enough that any gaps opened on the Muro will not be recovered by racing into the line.

Live on TNT Sports 3 from 11.30am BST.

Frequently asked questions

What's on TV tonight Thursday 28 May 2026?

Thursday 28 May 2026 is headlined by several finales and a new-series launch. A Taste for Murder reaches its sixth and final episode on ITV1 at 9pm -- Warren Brown as DCI Joe Mottram in Capri, with Joe's wife Sofia's death finally questioned; full series on ITVX. BBC Two has Putin: in Ten Pictures at 9pm -- a documentary built from photographs including his 1985 Stasi ID card and facsimile Kremlin bunker offices. Sky Documentaries has One to One: John and Yoko at 9pm -- Kevin Macdonald's 2024 documentary on the 1972 MSG benefit concert, with private phone-call audio from the Lennon Estate. Channel 4 has Taskmaster Series 21 Episode 8 at 9pm ("I Don't Got Any"; The Jingling Match with Alex Horne in bells) and the new series Make That Movie at 10pm (Sam Campbell, Joe Pelling, director of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared). Channel 5 has The Hardacres Series 2 Episode 3 at 9pm. BBC Four has Marilyn Monroe Night from 8pm, including Some Like It Hot (1959) at 8.45pm -- Monroe's centenary is 1 June 2026. BBC One has EastEnders at 7.30pm, MasterChef at 8pm, and Reported Missing at 9pm. Women's T20: England v India 1st T20I is on Sky Sports Cricket from 6.30pm at Chelmsford. French Open Day 5 is on TNT Sports from 9.30am. Giro d'Italia Stage 18 (Fai della Paganella to Pieve di Soligo, 171km) is on TNT Sports 3 from 11.30am.

What time is A Taste for Murder finale?

A Taste for Murder finale airs at 9pm on ITV1 on Thursday 28 May 2026. It is Episode 6 of 6 -- the series finale. Warren Brown stars as DCI Joe Mottram, the British detective based on the island of Capri, with Phyllis Logan co-starring. Radio Times confirms this is the finale; the full series is available on ITVX. The finale brings Joe's time on the island toward its close and introduces a significant new question about his wife Sofia's death -- long assumed to be a random hit-and-run -- which is finally examined. Radio Times draws a parallel between Mottram and the bereaved-detective tradition in British television drama, including Jimmy Perez in Shetland, John Chapel, and Robbie Lewis.

What is Putin in Ten Pictures?

Putin in Ten Pictures is a BBC Two documentary airing at 9pm on Thursday 28 May 2026. It is part of the "life-through-a-lens" strand and profiles Vladimir Putin through ten photographs the programme describes as revealing -- someone "far from beloved and very much alive." Key images include his 1985 Stasi ID card from his KGB years in Dresden, a school photograph described as less than sweet, the famous 2009 shirtless-on-horseback image (the documentary calls it "like a melted cowboy"), and facsimile replicas of his Kremlin office built in bunkers so no one can determine his location. A 1990s St Petersburg businessman recalls Putin "always looked at you like he had better things to do with his time." All episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.

What is One to One John and Yoko about?

One to One: John and Yoko is a 2024 documentary directed by Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void, Whitney, One Day in September) and Sam Rice-Edwards, rated 15, airing on Sky Documentaries at 9pm on Thursday 28 May 2026. The film focuses on the 1972 One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, organised to raise money for Willowbrook State School -- a New York state institution for people with developmental disabilities in Staten Island. The documentary is largely archive footage, but the Lennon Estate gave the directors a box of audio tapes of John and Yoko's private phone calls, intercut with the concert footage. Director Kevin Macdonald described the experience as "eavesdropping -- and that's quite exciting." The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 30 August 2024 and is available on Now.

What is The Jingling Match on Taskmaster tonight?

The Jingling Match is an 18th-century pastime in which blindfolded players had to grab a person wearing a suit covered in bells. On Taskmaster Series 21 Episode 8 -- Channel 4 at 9pm on Thursday 28 May 2026, episode title "I Don't Got Any" -- the format is adapted so that Alex Horne scampers around covered in bells while contestants must capture his image using a camera rather than grab Horne himself. Series 21 contestants are Amy Gledhill, Armando Iannucci, Joanna Page, Joel Dommett, and Kumail Nanjiani. Greg Davies hosts as Taskmaster.

What is Make That Movie on Channel 4?

Make That Movie is a new six-episode series launching on Channel 4 at 10pm on Thursday 28 May 2026, with a second episode at 10.50pm. Created by and starring surreal Australian comedian Sam Campbell (known from Taskmaster and Last One Laughing UK), the show is a fictional reality format in which Campbell plays a director who turns people's movie ideas into reality. It was directed by Joe Pelling, who co-created Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, and produced by Blink Industries. The main cast includes Sam Campbell, Lara Ricote, Aaron Chen, Helen Bauer, and David Hargreaves. In the opening episode, "Snake Switch," eccentric Mick (Kim Noble) wants Campbell to make a film about a man and a woman who take turns transforming into snakes. The full series is available on Channel 4 streaming.

What time is the England v India Women's T20?

The England v India Women's T20 starts at 6.30pm BST on Thursday 28 May 2026 at the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground in Chelmsford -- Essex's home ground, whose sponsorship naming changed in 2026. It is the first Women's T20 International of a three-match series. England are captained by Charlie Dean; India by Harmanpreet Kaur. Live on Sky Sports Cricket from 6pm BST.

When is Marilyn Monroe's centenary?

Marilyn Monroe's centenary is 1 June 2026 -- she was born 1 June 1926 in Los Angeles, so she would turn 100 four days after Thursday 28 May 2026. BBC Four marks the date with Marilyn Monroe Night from 8pm on 28 May: a documentary on her life at 8pm followed by Some Like It Hot (1959, directed by Billy Wilder) at 8.45pm. This is the third Monroe or centenary-themed broadcast in a single week on the channel: BBC Four covered Stanley Baxter's centenary on Sunday 24 May, broadcast Reframed: Marilyn Monroe on Tuesday 26 May, and now closes the week with Marilyn Monroe Night on Thursday 28 May.

When does the Half Man finale drop on iPlayer?

The Half Man series finale (Episode 6 of 6) drops on BBC iPlayer on Friday 29 May 2026 at 6am -- not on BBC One on Thursday night. The linear BBC One broadcast follows on Tuesday 2 June 2026 at 10.40pm. Half Man is a six-part BBC/HBO co-production created and written by Richard Gadd (Baby Reindeer). Gadd plays Ruben Pallister and Jamie Bell plays Niall Kennedy. The penultimate episode (Episode 5) aired on BBC One on Tuesday 26 May 2026.

What time is the Giro d'Italia today?

Giro d'Italia Stage 18 is live on TNT Sports 3 from 11.30am BST on Thursday 28 May 2026. The stage runs from Fai della Paganella to Pieve di Soligo, covering 171km with 2,050 metres of altitude gain. Three key climbs shape the day: Civezzano, Fastro, and the Muro di Ca' del Poggio (1.1km at a 12.3% average gradient, summit 10km from the finish). The final approach into Pieve di Soligo is a gently rising 300-metre straight, short enough that any gaps opened on the Muro will likely decide the stage.

Tonight's final word

Thursday 28 May has a quiet confidence to it. No single headline event dominates the evening in the way a European final or a new-series launch night dominates -- but A Taste for Murder's finale on ITV1 at 9pm is the conclusion of six weeks of Capri sunshine and grief, and the question it raises about Sofia Mottram's death gives the ending more weight than a straightforward cosy-crime wrap-up. Warren Brown has been very good in this. Phyllis Logan has been very good in this. Both deserve a finish that honours what came before it.

On BBC Two at the same hour, the Putin documentary uses a format that has previously been used only for the beloved-and-gone to profile someone who is neither, which is the most interesting editorial decision the strand has made. The photographs it has assembled -- the Stasi card, the horseback image, the bunker offices -- are doing different kinds of work, and taken together they produce something closer to an argument than a portrait.

The evening's new arrival is Make That Movie on Channel 4 at 10pm. Sam Campbell is a comedian whose work has been rewarding audiences who found it before it became widely known, and this is the point at which that wider knowledge arrives. Joe Pelling directing, Blink Industries producing: the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared DNA is present. Whether the format can sustain it across six episodes is what two episodes tonight will start to answer.

The Half Man finale drops on iPlayer tomorrow morning at 6am. The Giro enters Pieve di Soligo from 11.30am. England face India in Chelmsford at 6.30pm. Monroe's hundredth birthday is in four days.

Check what's on right now, browse tonight's highlights, or find any channel through the full channels list. Tomorrow: Friday 29 May -- the Half Man finale on iPlayer, the French Open into Day 6, and the Giro's Stage 19.