What's on TV tonight Thursday 4 June 2026? The biggest story belongs to BBC Two at 9pm, where the A Life in Ten Pictures documentary strand turns its lens on Sir David Beckham -- a man who has spent thirty years constructing one of the most deliberately managed public images in British cultural life, and who was knighted last June. The same strand that took apart Vladimir Putin a week ago now has someone altogether different to work with: beloved, very much alive, and in full control of his own narrative.
Across the same 9pm hour: Taskmaster Series 21 reaches its ninth episode -- titled, brilliantly, "Maybe Someone Else Wrote Veep" -- on Channel 4, with Armando Iannucci earning a nickname nobody predicted. Channel 5 has The Hardacres back for its fourth episode of Series 2, with the Hardacre Hall ball bringing some temporary cheer and Lady Imelda finding a new outlet for her grievances. BBC One has Reported Missing, with two cases tonight that take significantly different routes to the same anxiety: a Chinese student in Edinburgh whose story develops a sinister dimension, and a missing hiker in Glasgow where the geography is the problem.
Sport runs from the morning. England face New Zealand in the first Test at Lord's, the French Open reaches its women's semi-finals at Roland Garros, and the Women's Giro d'Italia covers 159 kilometres from Ala to Brescello. There is quite a lot happening.
Browse what's on right now for live updates, see tonight's full highlights, or go straight to the channels list -- including dedicated pages for BBC One, BBC Two, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Cricket, TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 3, and TNT Sports 4. For yesterday's listings see our Wednesday 3 June 2026 TV guide.
What's on TV tonight: quick picks
- David Beckham: in Ten Pictures -- BBC Two, 9pm -- A Life in Ten Pictures strand; Sir David Beckham knighted June 2025, investiture Windsor Castle 4 November 2025; Chingford to Cotswolds; ten key photographs + insider analysis; early callow footballer footage to fashion icon; resilience thread: red card, family rift, knighthood email, comeback; England--Greece free-kick equaliser 2001; Gabriel Tate byline; all episodes iPlayer
- England v New Zealand -- 1st Test, Day 1 -- Sky Sports Main Event + Sky Sports Cricket, from 10am -- Lord's Cricket Ground; first of three Tests; England last beat New Zealand 2--1; highlights BBC Two 7pm; RT preview p38
- French Open -- Women's Semi-Finals -- TNT Sports 1 + TNT Sports 4, from 10.30am -- Roland Garros, Paris; two semi-final matches; finalists established by day's end
- Taskmaster (S21, Ep 9, "Maybe Someone Else Wrote Veep") -- Channel 4, 9pm -- Greg Davies + Alex Horne; Amy Gledhill, Armando Iannucci, Joanna Page, Joel Dommett, Kumail Nanjiani; Iannucci earns nickname Professor Gong; all five given impossible task -- real challenge: most memorable forfeit; even Professor Gong succeeds; C4 streaming
- The Hardacres (S2, Ep 4) -- Channel 5, 9pm -- Sam (Liam McMahon) recovering; ball at Hardacre Hall; Lady Imelda (Michele Dotrice) and the National Vigilance Association -- literacy classes "hotbed of immorality"; Edward (Niall McNamee) + Liza (Shannon Lavelle) blossoming; Ma (Julie Graham) suspicious; 5 streaming
- Reported Missing -- BBC One, 9pm -- not Wales; Edinburgh: Chinese student missing, asked mother for large sums, story takes sinister turn; Glasgow: son missing after mountain hike, huge area, very few mobile masts; iPlayer
- MasterChef (S22) -- BBC One, 8pm -- Anna Haugh + Grace Dent; Opheem restaurant Birmingham, chef Aktar Islam, two Michelin stars; sand carrot, venison (endless prep list); MasterChef kitchen: pasta with Thai flavours (too far?) vs coq au vin (too safe?); one person goes home; iPlayer
- The Vardys (Ep 2) -- ITV1, 9pm -- Jamie and Becky Vardy; Cremonese fighting Serie A relegation; family home burgled; ITVX; RT Frostbite p9
- Make That Movie (Eps 3 + 4) -- Channel 4, 10pm + 10.30pm -- Sam Campbell; Ep 3: Amy Gledhill as teacher, bog man love story; Ep 4 (funnier per RT): Lenny Rush's Ewin + The Yooglet; creator "not seen in public since he tried to filibuster the Good Friday Agreement"; C4 streaming
- George Clarke's Beautiful Builds -- Channel 4, 8pm -- architect George Clarke; widow Shaz, north-east London Victorian terrace; late husband's memories vs two growing children; sensitive challenge; C4 streaming
- Emmerdale -- ITV1, 8pm -- Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) eyeing Ross Barton; last fella was murderous human trafficker Ray Walters; Gabby has renounced feelings for Ross; gossip Nicola has a toy boy -- turns out to be Sam Dingle; ITVX
- Healthy Ageing: What Should You Eat? Tonight -- ITV1, 7.30pm -- Kate Quilton explores right diet for quality of life as we age; STV 10.45pm
- Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) -- Rewind TV, noon + 8pm -- Freeview Play; Kenneth Cope as Marty Hopkirk (ghost); Mike Pratt as Jeff Randall; Annette Andre as Jeannie; Edwin Astley harpsichord; late-60s ITC; opener: Marty helps solve his own murder; bygone London
- Build Your Dream Home in the Country -- Channel 5, 7pm -- Mark Millar; Allan and Alison, Lancashire; Allan (former police officer) project-managing without experience; Alison swapping teaching for interior design; "next-level flat pack" method; problems predictably arise; 5 streaming
- Cornwall: a Year by the Sea -- Channel 5, 8pm -- Williams family; lambing time; most demanding season
- Women's Giro d'Italia Stage 6 -- TNT Sports 3, 2.30pm -- Ala to Brescello, 159km
See what's on right now for live updates.
Tonight's TV schedule: full listings
| Time | Channel | Programme |
|---|---|---|
| 10.00am | Sky Sports Main Event + Sky Sports Cricket | England v New Zealand -- 1st Test Day 1 LIVE -- Lord's; first of three |
| 10.30am | TNT Sports 1 + TNT Sports 4 | French Open -- Women's Semi-Finals LIVE -- Roland Garros, Paris |
| Noon | Rewind TV | Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) -- Kenneth Cope; Mike Pratt; Annette Andre; Edwin Astley harpsichord |
| 2.30pm | TNT Sports 3 | Women's Giro d'Italia Stage 6 LIVE -- Ala to Brescello, 159km |
| 7.00pm | BBC Two | England v New Zealand -- 1st Test Day 1 Highlights -- Lord's; edited coverage |
| 7.00pm | Channel 5 | Build Your Dream Home in the Country -- Allan and Alison; Lancashire; flat pack method |
| 7.30pm | ITV1 | Healthy Ageing: What Should You Eat? Tonight -- Kate Quilton; diet and ageing |
| 8.00pm | BBC One | MasterChef S22 -- Opheem Birmingham; chef Aktar Islam; Anna Haugh + Grace Dent; one leaves |
| 8.00pm | Channel 4 | George Clarke's Beautiful Builds -- Shaz; Victorian terrace; north-east London; memories + children |
| 8.00pm | ITV1 | Emmerdale -- Laurel Thomas; Ross Barton; Nicola; Sam Dingle |
| 8.00pm | Channel 5 | Cornwall: a Year by the Sea -- Williams family; lambing season |
| 8.00pm | Rewind TV | Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) -- evening repeat; Kenneth Cope; Mike Pratt |
| 9.00pm | BBC Two | David Beckham: in Ten Pictures -- A Life in Ten Pictures; knighthood 2025; Chingford; Gabriel Tate |
| 9.00pm | Channel 4 | Taskmaster S21 Ep 9 "Maybe Someone Else Wrote Veep" -- Iannucci = Professor Gong; impossible task |
| 9.00pm | BBC One | Reported Missing -- Edinburgh (Chinese student, sinister turn); Glasgow (mountain hike, few masts) |
| 9.00pm | Channel 5 | The Hardacres S2 Ep 4 -- Sam recovering; ball; Lady Imelda + NVA; Edward + Liza; Ma suspicious |
| 9.00pm | ITV1 | The Vardys Ep 2 -- Cremonese; burglary; Jamie and Becky |
| 10.00pm | Channel 4 | Make That Movie Ep 3 -- Amy Gledhill; teacher; bog man |
| 10.30pm | Channel 4 | Make That Movie Ep 4 -- Lenny Rush's Ewin; The Yooglet; Good Friday Agreement filibuster |
| Now streaming | BBC iPlayer | David Beckham: in Ten Pictures all episodes; Reported Missing |
| Now streaming | Channel 4 streaming | Taskmaster S21; Make That Movie full series |
| Now streaming | 5 streaming | The Hardacres Series 2 all episodes |
David Beckham: in Ten Pictures -- BBC Two, 9pm
David Beckham: in Ten Pictures. BBC Two at 9pm. Part of the A Life in Ten Pictures documentary strand. Gabriel Tate byline. All episodes available on BBC iPlayer.
The A Life in Ten Pictures strand has done this before with figures who were complicated, powerful, and not straightforwardly admirable -- Putin last Thursday being the most pointed example. The choice of David Beckham requires a different kind of argument, because Beckham is not straightforwardly difficult. He is liked. He has been liked, in the way that transcends sport, for thirty years. The photographs chosen for his documentary are therefore doing something other than excavating the distance between the public image and the reality underneath it. They are, in large part, examining the construction of a public image that was, and continues to be, one of the more successful image-management operations in modern British cultural life.
Beckham grew up in Chingford, in east London. That fact sits at one end of the biographical arc. At the other end is the Cotswolds country estate, the Inter Miami ownership stake, the Netflix documentary, the investiture at Windsor Castle on 4 November 2025 -- the moment when the knighthood announced in the June 2025 Birthday Honours was formalised in person by the King. The distance between those two ends is the story the film has to tell, and there is a lot of it.
Gabriel Tate has the byline. The documentary brings in a group of insiders whose access to the different phases of Beckham's career is specific enough to add something beyond the available public record.
Early footage
The early images have a particular quality. A young footballer who has not yet been shaped by management -- by agents, stylists, the machinery of a major club's image operation -- appears with the unguarded quality that only genuine obscurity produces. The documentary registers this as charming, which is accurate, and as significant, which is also accurate. The version of Beckham visible in those early photographs is the one that the subsequent career would never quite be able to bring back, precisely because everything that followed required the management that erased it.
The later images -- the Posh and Becks years, the Madrid period, the LA Galaxy move, the LVMH collaborations, the long steady reorientation from footballer to something else entirely -- show a man who understood what he was becoming and applied himself to becoming it with the same dedication he applied to the football. Whether that is admirable or troubling is left for the insiders to argue about. The film's position, from what the pre-broadcast material suggests, is that both are true simultaneously.
The resilience thread
The strand requires a biographical arc, and the arc it has identified for Beckham is resilience. Which is a choice, because there are other arcs available. But resilience is the one the photographs support: for every genuinely difficult moment, there is a subsequent image that shows the thing rebuilt.
The red card in the 1998 World Cup is the central example. Beckham was sent off against Argentina in Saint-Denis, and what followed in England was not sympathy. He became the target of something organised and prolonged -- the kind of collective hostility that a tabloid press at full pitch can generate when it decides a public figure is fair game. The comeback from that, in the years between 1998 and 2001, was not accidental. It was worked for, and the work was of a specific kind: public, gradual, relentlessly consistent.
The free-kick against Greece is the moment that completes the arc. Old Trafford, 6 October 2001, England needing a point to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. England trailing 2--1 in the last minute of stoppage time. Beckham's equaliser from a set piece -- curling, precise, the kind of strike that was immediately understood as significant -- turned a result that would have been a failure into the one that carried England to Japan and South Korea. It is the kind of story that sporting biography is built around, and the photograph of the celebration at Old Trafford is the image the strand could not have left out.
The family rifts, the emails that circulated about a knighthood being denied, the periodic eruptions of the managed persona into something more ragged -- these are in the film too. What holds them together is the same structure: low point, then the turn, then the image that announces the recovery.
On BBC Two at 9pm. All episodes available on BBC iPlayer.
England v New Zealand -- 1st Test, Day 1 -- Sky Sports Cricket, 10am; highlights BBC Two, 7pm
England v New Zealand, 1st Test, Day 1. Lord's Cricket Ground, London. Live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from 10am BST. Highlights on BBC Two at 7pm.
Lord's in early June is one of the fixed points of the English summer, and a Test match there carries the particular weight of cricket played on a ground that has accumulated more history than almost any other in the sport. The slope that runs across the playing surface from north-west to south-east is one of the more famous topographical facts in cricket -- it affects movement off the pitch and the angle of delivery in ways that home players know instinctively and visiting sides learn across careers rather than innings.
England's last Test series against New Zealand ended 2--1 to England -- a result that established the current England side's capacity for the kind of aggressive, high-tempo batting that has defined their approach since the Stokes-McCullum era began. New Zealand, under their own leadership structure, are a side that has consistently competed against England in Test cricket without the kind of dominance that their result record in bilateral series suggests should be beyond them. The 2026 series opening at Lord's gives them the most difficult possible start: the slope, the atmosphere, the history, and a home side that has used this ground for some of its most convincing recent performances.
What to expect from Day 1
The first day of a Lord's Test in early June typically finds a pitch that offers something to the seamers in the first session before settling. Dew on the outfield in the morning, the ball swinging conventionally in the cooler air, and then the afternoon when the surface flattens and the batters -- if they have survived the first hour -- can begin to accumulate. England's approach under Stokes and McCullum has been to treat the first session as something to survive rather than dominate from, and then to play aggressively from the point at which the conditions allow it.
The toss is an important factor at Lord's because of the slope: the end a captain bowls from in the first session affects how the movement plays, and the decision about batting or fielding first is not always the obvious one it would be on a flatter surface. The Radio Times preview on page 38 has the full background on both squads and series context.
Highlights are on BBC Two at 7pm. Full live coverage on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from 10am BST.
Taskmaster -- Series 21, Episode 9 -- Channel 4, 9pm
Taskmaster, Series 21, Episode 9: "Maybe Someone Else Wrote Veep." 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.
The episode title is doing several things at once. "Maybe Someone Else Wrote Veep" is nominally a non-sequitur in the Taskmaster tradition -- titles that mean nothing until the episode explains them, or that mean nothing at all and are simply selected for being funny sentences. But this one has a specific directional quality, pointing as it does at the contestant who created Veep in the first place. It is a title that is funny because it is directed at someone in particular, and that someone is sitting in the studio when it is announced, which is a specific kind of public ribbing.
Armando Iannucci's presence in Series 21 has been one of the series' more interesting dynamics. His entire career -- The Day Today, Knowing Me Knowing You, The Thick of It, Veep, The Death of Stalin, Avenue 5 -- has been about the comedy of systems: bureaucratic incompetence, the gap between institutional language and human reality, the way that power organises itself and what it looks like from inside. Taskmaster puts him inside a different kind of system, one he cannot satirise or write his way out of, and his responses to that situation have been genuinely revealing -- not always in the direction you might expect.
Professor Gong
Tonight Iannucci makes a mess of one task and is ingenious on another. The nickname Professor Gong is earned in the second of these -- the specific mechanism by which it arrives is the episode's internal business, and describing it too precisely would remove the pleasure of watching it unfold. What matters is that it is a nickname that sticks, which in Taskmaster terms is a mark of distinction. The contestants who acquire monikers from the studio audience or from Greg Davies during a series tend to be the ones who have produced something memorable enough to warrant a fixed reference point.
The impossible task
The structural centrepiece of the episode is a task that cannot be completed. All five contestants are given the same task; the task is genuinely beyond completion. The instruction, then, is not to find a way to complete it but to generate the most memorable forfeit for failing -- which is the kind of reframing that the programme does when it wants to demonstrate that the interesting question was never the literal one.
Even Professor Gong manages this. The impossible task, reframed as an opportunity to be memorably bad, produces better material than the possible tasks do when contestants are simply trying to win. Taskmaster has understood from its early series that failure is more interesting than success, and the impossible-task format is the most literal expression of that understanding.
On Channel 4 at 9pm. Available on Channel 4 streaming.
The Hardacres -- Series 2, Episode 4 -- Channel 5, 9pm
The Hardacres, Series 2, Episode 4. Channel 5 at 9pm. Adapted from C.L. Skelton's novels. Cast: Liam McMahon, Julie Graham, Niall McNamee, Shannon Lavelle, Michele Dotrice. Available on 5 streaming.
Series 2 of The Hardacres has been running the household through its most precarious period. Sam Hardacre (Liam McMahon) -- who was so ill in Episode 3 that his wife Mary sent most of the household staff away and refused to tell the children how bad things were -- is recovering. And the family, whose instinct when things go right is to make them visible, is celebrating with a ball at Hardacre Hall.
The ball is the kind of set piece a period drama earns by making the threat real before it allows the relief. Three episodes of concealed illness and managed crisis have given tonight's celebration its weight. It is not just a plot convenience -- it is the thing the household needed, held back until the narrative had established sufficiently clearly what it would have meant to lose it.
Lady Imelda's complaint
Lady Imelda Hansen (Michele Dotrice) does not celebrate the Hardacres' good fortune. She has been established across two series as the class resentment made visible -- the aristocratic neighbour for whom the family's rise from Victorian poverty is not an inspiring story but a threat to an order she considers correct. Sam's recovery removes the opportunity she was manoeuvring to exploit in Episode 3, which means she needs a new angle.
The new angle is the literacy classes. Lady Imelda has presented herself before the National Vigilance Association with a complaint that the literacy classes operating locally constitute a "hotbed of immorality." The National Vigilance Association -- a real late-Victorian organisation concerned with public morality and the suppression of vice -- is exactly the kind of institutional lever that Lady Imelda would find and use. The Association's language, its concern with what education produces in the lower orders, maps onto her own. The complaint is not about literacy. It is about who has the right to education and what happens to the existing social structure when the wrong people become educated.
Michele Dotrice plays Lady Imelda with a particular register: not pantomime villainy but the genuine conviction of a person who has never had to examine the premises of the world she lives in, because the world has always confirmed them. That conviction is what makes her useful as an antagonist and more interesting than a simpler character would be.
Edward and Liza
At the ball, something charming is happening. Edward Hardacre (Niall McNamee) and Liza (Shannon Lavelle) have been circling each other across the series in the way that period drama romantic plots do -- the interest is visible, the propriety of the setting prevents its direct expression, and the surrounding characters serve as observers of what both parties are apparently incapable of simply stating. Tonight their relationship blossoms in the atmosphere of the celebration.
Ma (Julie Graham) -- who has been one of the series' consistent grounding presences, the character through whom the family's values are most clearly expressed -- is charmed by Edward but not entirely convinced. He may be too good to be true. That suspicion is the series planting its next complication while the ball is still in full swing.
On Channel 5 at 9pm. Full series available on 5 streaming.
Reported Missing -- BBC One, 9pm
Reported Missing. BBC One at 9pm. Not Wales. Documentary series following police teams investigating missing-person cases. Available on BBC iPlayer.
Every 90 seconds, someone in the United Kingdom is reported missing. The documentary series has documented that statistic through the specific reality of what it means in practice -- the police resource, the family anxiety, the geography and circumstance that make each case different and each case urgent. Tonight has two, and they are different in the ways that missing-person investigations tend to differ.
Edinburgh -- the Chinese student
The Edinburgh case begins with a Chinese student whose disappearance is preceded by a pattern that already places it in a different register from straightforward misadventure. He has been asking his mother for large sums of money -- repeatedly, with an urgency that the family found difficult to explain. He is now missing. The combination of the financial pattern and the disappearance is what moves the investigation from the routine to the concerning. The story takes a sinister turn, which is the programme's way of indicating that the explanation, when it comes, is not a simple one.
Missing-person investigations that develop sinister dimensions put the police team in a different position from those working a missing teenager or a confused elderly person. The resource allocation changes. The questions change. The documentary is good at showing the point in an investigation where the working assumption shifts -- where the team decides, on the basis of accumulating information, that the comfortable explanation is no longer available.
Glasgow -- the mountain hike
The Glasgow case has a different texture. A mother is worried about her son following a mountain hike. He went into a large area and has not come back out of it. The practical difficulty is stark: a huge search area combined with very few mobile phone masts, which means that the simple question of whether he has been injured and cannot call for help cannot be resolved by attempting to reach him directly. The geography is the problem.
Mountain search-and-rescue in Scotland operates under conditions that the urban police work shown in the Edinburgh strand does not encounter. The terrain, the weather, the absence of infrastructure -- all of these are factors that shape what search and rescue teams can do and at what speed. The episode's Glasgow material is the kind of thing Reported Missing documents best: the effort the police put into finding people who did not plan to go missing, in conditions that make finding them genuinely difficult.
On BBC One at 9pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.
MasterChef -- Series 22 -- BBC One, 8pm
MasterChef, Series 22. BBC One at 8pm. Judges Anna Haugh and Grace Dent. Opheem restaurant, Birmingham. Chef Aktar Islam. Available on BBC iPlayer.
The MasterChef restaurant challenge sends the remaining four amateur cooks to Opheem in Birmingham -- the two-Michelin-starred restaurant under chef Aktar Islam that has been one of the more significant developments in British Indian cuisine over the past several years. Two Michelin stars is not the routine validation that the first star represents; it is the second tier of serious critical recognition, and the expectation in a two-Michelin-starred kitchen is correspondingly different from what an amateur cook will have encountered in most of their previous challenges.
Islam's cooking at Opheem works within the framework of Indian culinary tradition while applying the technical rigour of the European fine-dining kitchen -- not fusion in the diluted sense but a genuine integration of approaches that produces food that is identifiably in the Indian tradition and technically demanding in the way that Michelin-starred kitchens require. For the amateur cooks, the challenge is not to replicate what Islam does but to prepare a menu in a kitchen that operates at that level, alongside a brigade that does so every service.
The dishes
The preparation involves a sand carrot course -- a presentation that requires specific technical skill in both cooking and plating -- and a venison dish with a prep list that, as the programme notes, goes on for quite some time. Both dishes are in the territory where the gap between adequate execution and genuinely accomplished execution is wide enough to be clearly visible to judges of Grace Dent and Anna Haugh's experience.
Back in the MasterChef kitchen, the classic-with-a-twist challenge produces the two responses the format is designed to generate. One cook's pasta with Thai flavours may have pushed the combination too far -- the two traditions are not incompatible, but the distance between a successful fusion and an unsuccessful one in this kind of dish is a matter of precise balance that is extremely difficult to achieve under competition pressure. Another cook's coq au vin may have played the brief too safely -- the classic is accomplished but the twist is insufficient to distinguish it from something that simply did the job.
Anna Haugh and Grace Dent decide, and one person leaves. The series has been building toward its conclusion.
On BBC One at 8pm. Available on BBC iPlayer.
George Clarke's Beautiful Builds -- Channel 4, 8pm
George Clarke's Beautiful Builds. Channel 4 at 8pm. Architect George Clarke. Available on Channel 4 streaming.
The programme returns to the format that has given it most of its best material: a homeowner with a specific emotional relationship to the space they need to change. Shaz is a widow in north-east London whose Victorian terrace was a home she shared with her late husband. The challenge she brings to George Clarke is not simply a renovation brief -- it is a question about what a house is for, and whether the things that made it a home can survive a significant physical transformation.
The practical requirement is clear enough. Two growing children need the space to be different. The Victorian terrace that worked for two adults has not automatically reconfigured itself for the next stage of the family's life, and the layout -- standard for its era -- is not ideally suited to what the household now needs. The renovation is necessary.
What makes the challenge tricky is the emotional dimension that sits alongside the practical one. Shaz wants to preserve memories of her husband in the space. That is a completely understandable impulse and also, architecturally, a significant constraint: it is the kind of brief where the wrong intervention does not just fail aesthetically but fails in a more personal way, removing something that cannot be brought back. George Clarke is good at this kind of project precisely because his understanding of what domestic space means to the people who live in it goes beyond the structural. The Victorian terrace has to become something new without becoming unrecognisable.
On Channel 4 at 8pm. Available on Channel 4 streaming.
Emmerdale -- ITV1, 8pm
Emmerdale. ITV1 at 8pm. Available on ITVX.
Emmerdale's current storyline has one of those irresistible character set-ups: Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy), whose romantic history in the village has been eventful in the specific direction of extremely poor decisions, is now eyeing Ross Barton. For context on the scale of the improvement being attempted here: her last serious involvement was with Ray Walters, who turned out to be a murderous human trafficker. Ross Barton is many things, but he is not that.
The complication in the immediate term is that Gabby -- Laurel's stepdaughter -- had her own feelings for Ross, and has apparently renounced them. Laurel is thrilled. The situation is the kind that soaps manage well: two women with feelings for the same man, one of whom is trying to be gracious about stepping back, and the other who is trying to contain her relief at the step-back. The situation has the structure of a Bridget Jones-adjacent comedy -- Laurel Thomas in the position of someone discovering that the village bad boy has possibilities -- crossed with the Emmerdale register, which means the comedy will not stay uncomplicated for long.
Meanwhile, the village gossip infrastructure is in motion. Nicola, who operates at the level of a one-woman information exchange, has acquired a toy boy. The reveal: it is Sam Dingle. The gap between the expectation that a gossip of Nicola's calibre would set for herself and the reality of Sam Dingle is where the comedy sits.
On ITV1 at 8pm. Available on ITVX.
The Vardys -- Episode 2 -- ITV1, 9pm
The Vardys, Episode 2. ITV1 at 9pm. Available on ITVX.
The Vardys launched on ITV1 on Tuesday and the second episode continues the reality series following Jamie and Becky Vardy. The first episode established the family dynamic and the sporting context -- Jamie Vardy has moved to Cremonese in Serie A, a club that is, as the series makes clear, fighting to stay in the division. The combination of an unfamiliar league, a new club in a difficult position, and a family making the adjustment to Italian life gives the series its texture.
Tonight a family burglary adds a different kind of pressure to what is already a demanding set of circumstances. The Radio Times Frostbite section on page 9 has the preview. The Vardys is the kind of reality series that works when the stakes in the accompanying life are genuinely present rather than constructed for the cameras, and the Cremonese relegation battle provides an ongoing structural tension that a mid-table club never could.
On ITV1 at 9pm. Available on ITVX.
Make That Movie -- Episodes 3 and 4 -- Channel 4, 10pm and 10.30pm
Make That Movie, Episodes 3 and 4. Channel 4 at 10pm and 10.30pm. Sam Campbell. Full series on Channel 4 streaming.
The series continues its run of bringing public participants' movie ideas to absurdist life. Two more episodes tonight, and both have specific material worth signposting.
Episode 3 -- the bog man
Amy Gledhill -- who is also in the same series of Taskmaster, airing in the preceding hour on the same channel -- appears as a teacher whose presence in the format inspires an idea about falling in love with a bog man. The bog man concept is precisely the kind of premise that Make That Movie's logic is built around: not obviously filmable in the conventional sense, but containing enough internal emotional logic -- the preserved body, the impossible archaeology of a romance across time -- that a filmmaker who takes it seriously can find something in it. Whether fictional Campbell takes it seriously, and to what degree that seriousness is distinguishable from Campbell's usual mode of absolute deadpan commitment to whatever is in front of him, is the episode's territory.
Episode 4 -- The Yooglet
Episode 4 is the funnier of the two, according to Radio Times. Lenny Rush's character Ewin wants a film starring a national treasure known as "The Yooglet." The difficulty: permission must come from the Yooglet's creator, "who has not been seen in public since he tried to filibuster the Good Friday Agreement." That sentence is the episode's premise, its first joke, and its structural engine simultaneously. The Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. The creator of The Yooglet has therefore been absent from public life for twenty-eight years, for reasons that are not explained and are presumably not meant to be. Tracking down someone of that description, for the purposes of obtaining film rights, is exactly the kind of task that Make That Movie's logic generates naturally.
Lenny Rush is a young actor whose profile has risen significantly over the past two years. His presence in the episode is one of the series' smarter casting decisions.
On Channel 4 at 10pm (Episode 3) and 10.30pm (Episode 4). Full series available on Channel 4 streaming.
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) -- Rewind TV, noon and 8pm
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Rewind TV at noon and 8pm. Available on Freeview Play.
Rewind TV's scheduling of the late-1960s ITC series is a reminder of how good this show was -- and how specific the things were that made it good that the 2000s reboot with Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves was unable to replicate, despite genuine effort.
The premise is not complicated. Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) is a private detective who is killed in a hit-and-run at the opening of the series. He appears to his partner Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt) as a ghost -- visible only to Jeff, audible only to Jeff, and incapable of interacting with the physical world in any way that helps with their casework, except by knowing things the living cannot know and occasionally nudging Jeff in the right direction. Annette Andre plays Jeannie, Marty's widow, who is unaware that her late husband is still present and commenting.
Edwin Astley's harpsichord
The opening episode -- in which Marty helps solve his own murder -- is the series at its most economical: it establishes all the rules of the format in 50 minutes without explaining any of them in expository dialogue, trusts the audience to understand the implications of a ghost-visible-only-to-his-partner conceit, and delivers a resolution that is both comic and slightly melancholy simultaneously. The two registers coexist in the show across its entire run and were the thing its later imitators found hardest to sustain.
Edwin Astley's harpsichord theme is the series' other calling card. The harpsichord carries a specific cultural weight in the late 1960s -- haunted, baroque, slightly absurd -- that the music deploys with complete precision. The theme is genuinely memorable in a way that television music of the period often was not, and it places Randall and Hopkirk in a tonal space that nothing else in the ITC stable occupied. Bygone London in the late 60s provides the visual texture, and the street filming that the ITC crews were able to do gives the episodes a location authenticity that studio-bound television of the era could not match.
On Rewind TV at noon and 8pm. Available on Freeview Play.
Also worth watching tonight
Build Your Dream Home in the Country -- Channel 5, 7pm
Allan is a former police officer with no relevant building experience who has decided to project-manage his and Alison's retirement house in the Lancashire countryside. Alison is swapping a teaching career for interior design. Between them they have a great deal of determination and a construction method that Allan describes as "next-level flat pack," which is the kind of phrase that a project manager with no relevant experience produces with full confidence and which the series is clearly setting up for closer examination. Mark Millar hosts, and the Lancashire location gives the episode some genuinely good countryside. Multiple bedrooms, balconies and bathrooms in the plans. Problems, predictably, arise. On Channel 5 at 7pm. Available on 5 streaming.
Healthy Ageing: What Should You Eat? Tonight -- ITV1, 7.30pm
Kate Quilton's ITV Tonight documentary takes on the question of whether diet can materially improve quality of life as we age -- a question that generates a significant amount of conflicting advice and a relatively small amount of settled evidence. The format has Quilton going to the evidence rather than staying in the studio, which tends to produce more useful television than the panel-of-experts variant. On ITV1 at 7.30pm. STV broadcast at 10.45pm. Available on ITVX.
Cornwall: a Year by the Sea -- Channel 5, 8pm
Lambing time for the Williams family. The documentary series has been following the Cornish seasons through their demands, and lambing is the one that concentrates all the farm's energy into a period where the workload and the reward are both at their highest simultaneously. The most demanding and the most rewarding -- simultaneously. On Channel 5 at 8pm.
Live sport today
England v New Zealand -- 1st Test, Day 1 -- Sky Sports Cricket, 10am; highlights BBC Two, 7pm
The 2026 Test summer opens at Lord's with the first of three Tests against New Zealand. The series carries the standard significance of a home summer Test campaign: seam bowling conditions in June, the crowd at St John's Wood, and the specific pressure of an England team that has established a particular identity and must now defend it against a side that has been competitive in recent bilateral series.
New Zealand's record at Lord's in Test cricket has been variable. They have won there, but not with the kind of regularity that suggests the ground suits their approach. England's approach under Stokes and McCullum has produced results that have made Lord's feel more comfortable again after a difficult period.
The toss, the opening bowlers, and the first-hour conditions will tell the story of the day before a ball is properly delivered. Live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from 10am BST. Highlights on BBC Two at 7pm.
French Open -- Women's Semi-Finals -- TNT Sports 1 and 4, from 10.30am
Day 12 at Roland Garros is the day the women's semi-finals are played. Both matches on clay; the Court Philippe-Chatrier or Suzanne-Lenglen draws for the semi-finals will determine which players meet in the later afternoon or early evening session. The clay at Roland Garros in early June is at its most played-in -- the surface has been used for eleven days, the bounce is lower and more consistent than it was in the early rounds, and the conditions tend to favour the players who have spent the most time on clay in the weeks and months before the tournament.
Live on TNT Sports 1 and TNT Sports 4 from 10.30am BST.
Women's Giro d'Italia Stage 6 -- Ala to Brescello -- TNT Sports 3, 2.30pm
Stage 6 of the Women's Giro d'Italia 2026 runs from Ala to Brescello, covering 159 kilometres. The route moves the race away from the mountain terrain of Stage 5 toward a different kind of challenge. Brescello, in the province of Reggio Emilia, is known as the filming location for the Don Camillo films of the 1950s and 60s -- a cultural footnote that the stage organisers presumably noted before the route was finalised. Live on TNT Sports 3 from 2.30pm BST.
Frequently asked questions
What's on TV tonight Thursday 4 June 2026?
Thursday 4 June 2026 is led by David Beckham: in Ten Pictures on BBC Two at 9pm -- the A Life in Ten Pictures strand; Sir David Beckham knighted June 2025, investiture Windsor Castle 4 November 2025; Chingford to Cotswolds; ten key photographs and insider analysis; Gabriel Tate byline; all episodes iPlayer. England v New Zealand 1st Test Day 1 is live at Lord's on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from 10am, with highlights on BBC Two at 7pm. French Open Women's Semi-Finals are on TNT Sports 1 and 4 from 10.30am at Roland Garros. Channel 4 has Taskmaster Series 21 Episode 9 "Maybe Someone Else Wrote Veep" at 9pm -- Armando Iannucci earns nickname Professor Gong; impossible task, best forfeit wins; Channel 4 streaming. Channel 5 has The Hardacres Series 2 Episode 4 at 9pm -- Sam (Liam McMahon) recovering, ball at Hardacre Hall, Lady Imelda (Michele Dotrice) and the National Vigilance Association, Edward (Niall McNamee) and Liza (Shannon Lavelle) romance, Ma (Julie Graham) suspicious; 5 streaming. BBC One has Reported Missing at 9pm -- Edinburgh Chinese student (sinister turn), Glasgow mountain hike (huge area, few mobile masts); iPlayer. BBC One has MasterChef at 8pm -- Opheem restaurant Birmingham, chef Aktar Islam, two Michelin stars, Anna Haugh and Grace Dent, one person leaves; iPlayer. ITV1 has The Vardys Episode 2 at 9pm -- Cremonese, burglary, ITVX. Channel 4 has Make That Movie Episodes 3 and 4 at 10pm and 10.30pm -- Amy Gledhill and bog man, Lenny Rush's Ewin and The Yooglet. Channel 4 has George Clarke's Beautiful Builds at 8pm -- widow Shaz, north-east London. ITV1 has Emmerdale at 8pm -- Laurel Thomas, Ross Barton, Nicola and Sam Dingle. ITV1 has Healthy Ageing: What Should You Eat? at 7.30pm -- Kate Quilton. Channel 5 has Build Your Dream Home in the Country at 7pm -- Allan and Alison, Lancashire. Channel 5 has Cornwall: a Year by the Sea at 8pm -- lambing. Rewind TV has Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) at noon and 8pm -- Kenneth Cope, Mike Pratt, Edwin Astley harpsichord. Women's Giro d'Italia Stage 6 Ala to Brescello 159km on TNT Sports 3 from 2.30pm.
What is David Beckham: in Ten Pictures on BBC Two?
David Beckham: in Ten Pictures airs on BBC Two at 9pm on Thursday 4 June 2026. It is part of the A Life in Ten Pictures documentary strand -- the same series that covered Vladimir Putin on BBC Two on 28 May 2026. Ten key photographs and insider analysis trace Beckham's life from Chingford to his Cotswolds country estate. Sir David Beckham was knighted in the June 2025 Birthday Honours; his investiture took place at Windsor Castle on 4 November 2025. Gabriel Tate has the byline. The resilience thread runs through it: for every red card, family rift or catty email about a knighthood denied, there is an engineered comeback -- culminating in his famous free-kick equaliser for England against Greece at Old Trafford in October 2001. All episodes available on BBC iPlayer.
What time is England v New Zealand at Lord's today?
England v New Zealand 1st Test Day 1 is live at Lord's, London, on Thursday 4 June 2026. Live coverage on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket begins at 10am BST. The toss typically takes place around 11am; play generally follows shortly after. This is the first of a three-match Test series. England's previous Test series against New Zealand ended 2--1 to England. Highlights are on BBC Two at 7pm.
What happens in Taskmaster Series 21 Episode 9 tonight?
Taskmaster Series 21 Episode 9 -- titled "Maybe Someone Else Wrote Veep" -- airs on Channel 4 at 9pm on Thursday 4 June 2026. Greg Davies hosts; Alex Horne assists. Contestants: Amy Gledhill, Armando Iannucci, Joanna Page, Joel Dommett, Kumail Nanjiani. The episode title is a pointed joke at Iannucci, the creator and showrunner of Veep. Iannucci makes a mess of one task but is ingenious on another and earns the nickname Professor Gong. All five contestants face a task impossible to complete; the challenge is to create the most memorable forfeit for failing it. Even Professor Gong succeeds. Available on Channel 4 streaming.
What happens in The Hardacres Series 2 Episode 4 tonight?
The Hardacres Series 2 Episode 4 airs on Channel 5 at 9pm on Thursday 4 June 2026. Sam Hardacre (Liam McMahon) is recovering and the family celebrate with a ball at Hardacre Hall. Lady Imelda Hansen (Michele Dotrice) is outraged and takes her grievance about local literacy classes to the National Vigilance Association, calling them a "hotbed of immorality." Charming Edward (Niall McNamee) and Liza (Shannon Lavelle) find their relationship blossoming at the ball. Ma (Julie Graham) likes Edward but suspects he may be too good to be true. Full series available on 5 streaming.
What is Reported Missing about tonight on BBC One?
Reported Missing airs on BBC One at 9pm on Thursday 4 June 2026 (not Wales). Two cases tonight. In Edinburgh, a Chinese student has gone missing after asking his mother for large sums of money -- the story takes a sinister turn. In Glasgow, a mother is worried about her son following a mountain hike; the search covers a huge area with very few mobile masts, making location extremely difficult. Available on BBC iPlayer.
What is MasterChef about tonight and what is Opheem?
MasterChef Series 22 airs on BBC One at 8pm on Thursday 4 June 2026. Judges Anna Haugh and Grace Dent. Four amateur cooks prepare a menu at Opheem, the two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Birmingham under chef Aktar Islam. Dishes include sand carrot and a venison preparation with an extensive prep list. Back in the MasterChef kitchen: pasta with Thai flavours (possibly too far) vs coq au vin (possibly too safe). Anna Haugh and Grace Dent judge and send one person home. Available on BBC iPlayer.
What is Make That Movie on Channel 4 tonight?
Make That Movie Episodes 3 and 4 air on Channel 4 at 10pm and 10.30pm on Thursday 4 June 2026. Sam Campbell's fictional reality format turns participants' movie ideas into films. Episode 3: Amy Gledhill plays a teacher who inspires an idea about falling in love with a bog man. Episode 4 (the funnier per Radio Times): Campbell pursues an idea from Lenny Rush's character Ewin, who wants a film starring "The Yooglet" -- but the Yooglet's creator "has not been seen in public since he tried to filibuster the Good Friday Agreement." Full series on Channel 4 streaming.
What time are the French Open Women's Semi-Finals today?
The French Open Women's Semi-Finals are live on TNT Sports 1 and TNT Sports 4 from 10.30am BST on Thursday 4 June 2026, at Roland Garros, Paris. The two semi-final matches decide the finalists for the women's singles title. The 2026 French Open runs from 24 May to 7 June.
What is the Women's Giro d'Italia Stage 6 today?
Women's Giro d'Italia 2026 Stage 6 -- Ala to Brescello, 159km -- is live on TNT Sports 3 from 2.30pm BST on Thursday 4 June 2026. The route moves the race out of the mountains and across the Po plain toward the province of Reggio Emilia.
Tonight's final word
Thursday 4 June has a clear centrepiece at 9pm on BBC Two. The A Life in Ten Pictures strand has found a subject in David Beckham that demands a different mode from Putin: not the archaeology of a hidden self, but the examination of a public image that was built with unusual care and skill and that turned out -- with the knighthood, the Windsor Castle investiture, the enduring affection -- to have worked. Gabriel Tate's approach, and the insider access the documentary has assembled, will determine whether it has anything to say beyond the official version. The early material suggests it does.
Lord's adds a different kind of occasion to the day. England and New Zealand in the first Test of three is the kind of fixture that fills the ground and commands the kind of attention that only Test cricket at its home ground generates. The first session at Lord's in June is still one of the better pieces of television sport Britain produces, even before a ball has been properly delivered.
Taskmaster at 9pm on Channel 4, an hour after the cricket highlights on BBC Two, is the evening's lighter alternative for anyone whose attention was either captured fully by the Beckham documentary or diverted by the Test scorecard. Professor Gong earns his nickname. The impossible task produces better television than most possible ones. Series 21 has been good and tonight's episode is good within it.
The Hardacres have their ball. Reported Missing has its cases. MasterChef has its restaurant. Make That Movie has the Good Friday Agreement. It is a genuinely full Thursday.
Check what's on right now, browse tonight's highlights, or find any channel through the full channels list. Tomorrow: Friday 5 June -- MasterChef series finale on BBC One; French Open men's semi-finals at Roland Garros; England v New Zealand 1st Test Day 2 at Lord's.