TV Guide UK Tonight: Sun 31 May 2026 – Tip Toe, Dear England & Soccer Aid 20th Anniversary

Published: 28 May 2026

Sunday 31 May 2026. Russell T Davies’ first new drama in years lands tonight, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that reminds you what television can do when someone with real conviction is in charge. Tip Toe starts at 9pm on Channel 4 (episodes 1 and 2 back to back) with Alan Cumming and David Morrissey in a five-part thriller that Davies has said is about the precariousness of LGBTQ rights in modern Britain. It’s a big launch for a Sunday night. Across on BBC One, Dear England reaches episode 3, and earlier in the afternoon the Women’s FA Cup Final brings Brighton against Manchester City to Wembley for Brighton’s first ever appearance in the final.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Tip Toe ⭐, Channel 4 9pm. Russell T Davies, Alan Cumming, David Morrissey. New series. This is the one.
• Dear England, BBC One 9pm. Episode 3: Joseph Fiennes as Southgate, the 1996 penalty miss flashback.
• Death Valley, BBC One 8:15pm. Timothy Spall and Jim Howick as estranged TV partners. Better than it sounds.
• The Mother of All Cons, BBC Two 9pm. New documentary series. One Direction, a sick teenager, and a charity that wasn’t what it seemed.
• Women’s FA Cup Final, Channel 4 2:15pm (k/o 3pm). Brighton v Manchester City at Wembley. Brighton’s big day.

Sport

Women’s FA Cup Final – Brighton v Manchester City – Channel 4, 2:15pm (k/o 3pm) / TNT Sports 1 from 2pm

Brighton have never been to a Women’s FA Cup Final before. That’s the thing to hold onto when the occasion threatens to overwhelm the match itself. Manchester City are the more fancied side, but finals have a habit of ignoring what’s expected, and Brighton have had a very good run to get here.

TNT Sports 1 has coverage from 2pm with a subscription; Channel 4 picks it up free-to-air from 2:15pm. Kick-off at Wembley is 3pm. If you’ve been following the Women’s Super League this season, this is a proper occasion.

Soccer Aid for Unicef – ITV1, 5pm

Twenty years in, and Soccer Aid has never quite shaken the feeling that it could all go wonderfully or slightly chaotically wrong, and that’s precisely why people watch it. The 20th anniversary edition is at London Stadium, with England taking on a World XI for Unicef.

The line-up confirmed for this year includes Wayne Rooney, Jill Scott, Robbie Williams, Usain Bolt, Tom Hiddleston (making his third appearance), Olly Murs (back after knee surgery), Owen Cooper from Adolescence making his debut at 16, and Angry Ginge, who was player of the match last year. Dermot O’Leary and Alex Scott host live on ITV1. Catch up via ITVX.

Tennis: French Open – TNT Sports 4, 9:30am

Day eight at Roland Garros. Subscription required.

Cycling: Giro d’Italia Final Stage – TNT Sports 3, 2pm

The final 131km circuit around Rome brings the 2026 Giro d’Italia to a close. Subscription required.

Early Evening

Southbank at 75: You Are Here – BBC Two, 6:10pm

The Southbank Centre turns 75 this year, having opened in 1951 alongside the Festival of Britain. To mark it, they’ve put together something genuinely ambitious: a live performance tracing British youth culture from a 1950s tea dance all the way through to grime, taking in punk, acid house and northern soul along the way. Danny Boyle is among the directors. The Southbank at its most confident. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Murdoch Mysteries – U&Alibi, 7pm (Series Finale)

The series finale of the current run, and Murdoch Mysteries steadies itself after a few eccentric episodes with something closer to proper noir. A murder in a public lavatory, a widow with questionable loyalties, and Inspector Choi in over his head. The climax delivers a cliffhanger rather than a resolution. Either satisfying or frustrating, depending on your patience for unresolved endings. Catch up via Now.

Antiques Roadshow – BBC One, 7:15pm

Thirlestane Castle in the Scottish Borders. Marc Allum examines letters sent from a post office in Antarctica, which is the kind of detail that makes Antiques Roadshow genuinely hard to abandon even when you promised yourself you’d do something else. First shown last year. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Prime Time

Death Valley – BBC One, 8:15pm

The murder of a production assistant on the set of a period drama would be interesting enough on its own. The complication here is that the case brings John Chapel (Timothy Spall) back into orbit with his former television sidekick Randy, now going by the grander “Randall” St Clair (Jim Howick). Guest star Howick plays Randall as a man who has carefully reinvented himself as a polished star and finds Chapel’s continued loyalty to their shared past deeply inconvenient. “I don’t think about that show any more. Nobody does,” says Randall. Chapel thinks differently. The dynamic between Spall and Howick is this episode’s real pleasure. Full series on BBC iPlayer.

Hudson and Rex – U&Alibi, 8pm

Rex, a German shepherd with a very professional attitude to police work, has apparently acquired a detailed knowledge of artisan gin. His handler’s investigation into the death of a family distillery’s patriarch provides the opportunity to deploy it. Catch up via Now.

Tip Toe ⭐ – Channel 4, 9pm

This is the biggest TV launch of the week, and it’s on a Sunday, which feels right for something this unsettling.

Russell T Davies has been talking about Tip Toe for a while. The premise is tight: Leo (Alan Cumming) and his neighbour Clive (David Morrissey) have lived next door to each other on Canal Street in Manchester for fifteen years. Something shifts, and what begins as neighbourly friction becomes something much more threatening. The drama opens with a man hanging from a lamppost. Then the story spools back ten days, to Leo being locked out of his own house in his underwear and Clive letting him in.

Davies has said the series is about the position of LGBTQ people in Britain right now. “Our rights are paper-thin as gay people. We’re in great danger.” The writing takes that seriously. Cumming plays Leo as someone sociable and quick in public (he runs a bar called Spit and Polish on Canal Street) but genuinely unsure of his footing on his own doorstep. Morrissey’s Clive is the opposite: a troubled family man whose neighbourliness curdles into something you can’t quite name. Paul Rhys also appears as Leo’s old friend Melba, who tries to shake him out of his complacency.

Two episodes tonight. Both on Channel 4 streaming after broadcast.

Dear England – BBC One, 9pm

Episode 3 of James Graham’s four-part adaptation of his Olivier Award-winning stage play. Tonight’s episode includes a flashback to 1996: young Gareth Southgate’s penalty miss in the European Championship semi-final, and a conversation with John Major that follows. It’s one of the stranger scenes in the drama, but it sets up something important about continuity and leadership in a period when the country was changing prime ministers rather rapidly.

Joseph Fiennes continues to carry the role well. The drama is now deep enough into its run that the decisions Graham made in rethinking it for television (more interior, more private) are paying off. Episodes 3 and 4 are also on BBC iPlayer from tonight. Episode 4 is on BBC One tomorrow night.

The Mother of All Cons – BBC Two, 9pm

New three-part documentary series. The story, going in, sounds almost heartwarming: a teenager named Meg, diagnosed with a brain tumour, and her mother Jean ran a charity that raised remarkable sums and gave hundreds of seriously ill children experiences they’d remember, with One Direction’s backing in the early days. The first fifteen minutes or so let you sit with that version of things. Then the documentary starts asking questions, and other parents (some of whom had lost children) start asking questions too. By the end of part one, the whole picture looks very different. All three parts are on BBC iPlayer. Properly gripping.

Late Night

Later… with Jools Holland – BBC Two, 10pm

Jessie Ware and Holly Humberstone are both in the studio tonight, alongside Jack Antonoff. The real draw is Samm Henshaw, a soul singer who sounds like he was produced in 1972 rather than 2026. Proper Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye territory. Jools also has Tim Pope as a guest: the music video director who made the Cure’s Close to Me, among many others. If you need a reason, Samm Henshaw is it. BBC iPlayer.

The Assembly Unseen – ITV1, 10pm

Outtakes from the series in which neurodivergent interviewers questioned celebrities. The guests whose spare footage features tonight include Stephen Fry, Nicola Sturgeon, Lenny Henry, Anna Maxwell Martin, Aitch and Rylan. More next week. Catch up via ITVX.

The Nice Guys – BBC One, 10:30pm (15)

Shane Black’s 2016 comedy thriller finally found its audience on streaming after a soft theatrical run, and it deserves to be seen big. Ryan Gosling as a hopeless private detective and Russell Crowe as a violent enforcer team up to find a missing girl in 1970s Los Angeles. The period detail is excellent and Gosling in particular is at his physical comedy best. Rated 15. BBC iPlayer.

Cape Rock Killer – ITV1, 10:45pm

The Twelve returns for a third series with Sam Neill as defence barrister Brett Colby, this time defending a close friend who insists he’s innocent of murder. The case involves a woman’s death and a cold case from 1968 that reopens more questions than it answers. Slick Australian anthology crime drama. Catch up via ITVX.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

• Channel 4 streaming: Tip Toe (eps 1 & 2), Women’s FA Cup Final
• BBC iPlayer: Dear England (eps 3 & 4), Death Valley, The Mother of All Cons (full series), Southbank at 75, Antiques Roadshow, Later… with Jools Holland, The Nice Guys
• ITVX: Soccer Aid for Unicef, The Assembly Unseen, Cape Rock Killer
• Now: Murdoch Mysteries, Hudson and Rex
• TNT Sports / discovery+: Women’s FA Cup Final live (2pm), French Open, Giro d’Italia Final Stage (subscriptions required)

Frequently Asked Questions

What time is Tip Toe on tonight (Sunday 31 May 2026)?

Tip Toe starts on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight. Russell T Davies’ new five-part thriller stars Alan Cumming as Leo, a Canal Street bar owner, and David Morrissey as his neighbour Clive. Episodes 1 and 2 are both on tonight, and they’re also on Channel 4 streaming after broadcast.

Is EastEnders on tonight (Sunday 31 May 2026)?

No. EastEnders doesn’t air on Sundays. New episodes return on Monday 1 June on BBC One at 7:30pm. Catch up on any missed episodes via BBC iPlayer.

What time is the Women’s FA Cup Final today?

Brighton v Manchester City is at Wembley today. TNT Sports 1 has coverage from 2pm (subscription required); Channel 4 is free-to-air from 2:15pm. Kick-off is 3pm. This is Brighton’s first ever Women’s FA Cup Final.

What time is Dear England on BBC One tonight?

Dear England is on BBC One at 9pm tonight. This is episode 3 of James Graham’s four-part adaptation, with Joseph Fiennes as Gareth Southgate. Episodes 3 and 4 are also on BBC iPlayer from tonight, and episode 4 follows on BBC One tomorrow at 9pm.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight (Sunday 31 May 2026)?

Tip Toe on Channel 4 at 9pm is our clear pick: Russell T Davies’ new five-part thriller with Alan Cumming and David Morrissey. If you’ve been watching Dear England on BBC One, episode 3 is also at 9pm. Earlier in the day, the Women’s FA Cup Final on Channel 4 from 2:15pm is the sporting event of the afternoon.

Final Verdict

There’s a genuine clash at 9pm tonight: Tip Toe on Channel 4 or Dear England on BBC One. As new things go, Tip Toe is the bigger deal. Russell T Davies back with a proper thriller, Alan Cumming at his most interesting, and a subject matter that has genuine weight. But if you’ve been following Dear England, episode 3 is a significant step in the story and worth prioritising. Record one, watch the other. Earlier in the day, the Women’s FA Cup Final on Channel 4 from 2:15pm is the reason to have the television on in the afternoon.

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