TV Guide UK Tonight: Tues 19 May 2026 – Falling New Series, The Family Next Door Finale & MasterChef

Published: 15 May 2026

Tuesday 19 May 2026. After last night’s back-to-back finales, the week rolls on. Falling launches on Channel 4 at 9pm — Jack Thorne’s new drama with Keeley Hawes and Paapa Essiedu, Radio Times cover this week. The Family Next Door closes on ITV1 at 10:45pm in a double-bill finale. MasterChef knock-out week opens on BBC One at 9pm, and EastEnders at 7:30pm has Grant Mitchell back in Walford and straight into trouble.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Falling ⭐ — C4, 9pm — NEW SERIES. Keeley Hawes, Paapa Essiedu, Jack Thorne. The one to watch
• The Family Next Door — ITV1, 10:45pm — SERIES FINALE. Double-bill. Twenty years of secrets, one street party
• MasterChef — BBC One, 9pm — Knock-out week. Seven cooks, restaurant brief, one shot
• EastEnders — BBC One, 7:30pm — Grant Mitchell, Mark Fowler, masked men, a van
• The Way Out — U&Dave, 9pm — Mel Giedroyc, Ed Gamble, Nish Kumar. Art heist this week
• The Corinthians: We Were the Champions — BBC Four, 10pm — Women’s football pioneers. Outstanding

Early Evening

The Martin Lewis Show: Live – ITV1, 7:15pm

Energy price cap predictions and the latest on rising gas and oil costs. Martin Lewis takes live viewer questions. ITVX.

EastEnders – BBC One, 7:30pm

Grant Mitchell is back in Walford. Mark Fowler (Stephen Aaron-Sipple) is £10,000 in debt to a crime boss, and Grant (Ross Kemp) decides to sell his Portuguese bar and come home to sort it. Before any deal can happen, Mark is bundled into a van by masked men. The clock is on. BBC iPlayer.

Prime Time

Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr – BBC One, 8pm

Leeds this week, and not the ground floors. The brief is 20th-floor studio flats for young renters — compact, functional, and relentlessly beige. Each designer’s interpretation ends up wildly different. Michelle Ogundehin and former IDM winner Lynsey Ford judge; one contestant gets unstinting praise, four end up in a debrief about what they got wrong. BBC iPlayer.

Jamie’s Ultimate BBQ – Channel 4, 8pm (LAST IN SERIES)

Third and final instalment. Jamie Oliver opens with a morning grill session, then moves through a sesame chicken burger with slaw and Korean-inspired sauce, a veggie BBQ mezze plate — smoky baba ganoush, roasted peppers, halloumi and apricot — and a surf-and-turf plancha finish. C4 streaming.

9pm

Falling ⭐ – Channel 4, 9pm (NEW SERIES)

Jack Thorne — This Is England, Then Barbara Met Alan — writes about how people fail each other. Falling asks what happens when the failure is more inconvenient than usual. Sister Anna (Keeley Hawes) lives in contented convent seclusion, selling the vegetable garden’s produce to the community. Father David (Paapa Essiedu) is the opposite: activist, interventionist, carrying something unresolved.

When they meet, neither is looking for what they find. Thorne doesn’t flatten Anna’s faith into symbolism. Her vocation isn’t a cage; it’s the actual shape of her life. Essiedu plays David’s charisma and his damage at the same volume. Two side-plots establish them before anything else happens: Anna’s having to manage a postulant who’s made a serious error, while David is trying to protect a family from a violent patriarch. Episode 2 tomorrow. Full series on C4 streaming.

MasterChef – BBC One, 9pm

Knock-out week, which means no previews and proper pressure. Seven cooks, one brief: produce a dish good enough for a restaurant, pop-up or cookbook. Five proceed to Roe in Canary Wharf to cook under two professional chefs who aren’t there to be encouraging. BBC iPlayer.

Murder at the Grand Canal: True Crime Presents – ITV1, 9pm

The case of Marta Ligman, 23, whose body was found in the Grand Union Canal in London. The documentary examines the investigation and the circumstances around her death. ITVX.

The Way Out – U&Dave, 9pm

The art heist episode. Mel Giedroyc’s escape-room gameshow sends Ed Gamble’s team (Horrid Little Rat People) and Nish Kumar’s team (Society of the Best Friends) into a museum with cryptic clues and a mission to steal the Mona Lisa faster than each other. Catch up via U.

Late Night

Half Man – BBC One, 10:40pm

Richard Gadd and Jamie Bell’s parallel-timeline drama enters its home straight. Neve McIntosh as Lori, Niall’s mother, is doing the episode’s quietest and most difficult work — ageing twenty years across a single hour with nothing but performance to rely on. She deserves more credit. BBC iPlayer. (11:25pm Northern Ireland.)

The Corinthians: We Were the Champions – BBC Four, 10pm

In 1949, Bolton Wanderers’ scout Percy Ashley started a women’s football team so his deaf daughter Doris could play — and launched the Corinthians, who went on to beat European and South American opposition over three decades while the English establishment ignored them. Told by ten surviving players with wit, anger and no shortage of deserved pride. BBC iPlayer.

The Family Next Door – ITV1, 10:45pm (SERIES FINALE)

The Australian thriller closes with a pacy double-bill. A street party in Pleasant Court becomes the setting for a run of unwanted revelations — extra-marital affairs, broken trust — while Isabelle’s investigation finally reaches the truth she’s been chasing for twenty years. What that truth is, and why it matters so personally to her, makes the finale land harder than the slow middle episodes suggested it would. Full series on ITVX.

Berlusconi: Condemned to Win – BBC Four, 11:30pm (LAST IN SERIES)

A contributor near the start of the final episode chuckles and asks whether any of the Berlusconi method sounds familiar: ignore conflicts of interest, accuse critical media of bias, claim elections were rigged. The programme then mostly lets you join the dots. “He degraded Italian democracy, drip by drip,” another contributor says. Full series on BBC iPlayer.

Sport

Football: Premier League – Bournemouth v Manchester City – Sky Sports Main Event, 7pm (k/o 7:30pm)

Football: Premier League – Chelsea v Spurs – Sky Sports Premier League, 7:30pm (k/o 8:15pm)

Two Premier League matches tonight. Bournemouth host Manchester City on Sky Sports Main Event; Chelsea v Spurs at Stamford Bridge on Sky Sports Premier League.

Cycling: Giro d’Italia – TNT Sports 1, 11:30am

Stage 10. A 42km individual time trial from Viareggio to Massa.

IPL Cricket: Rajasthan Royals v Lucknow Super Giants – Sky Sports Cricket, 2:50pm

From 2:50pm on Sky Sports Cricket, 3pm Sky Sports Main Event.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

Channel 4 streaming: Falling (full series), Jamie’s Ultimate BBQ
BBC iPlayer: EastEnders, Interior Design Masters, MasterChef, Half Man, The Corinthians, Berlusconi: Condemned to Win
ITVX: The Family Next Door (full series), Murder at the Grand Canal, The Martin Lewis Show
U: The Way Out (full series)

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on tonight (Tuesday 19 May 2026)?

Yes — BBC One at 7:30pm. Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) is back from Portugal. Mark Fowler owes £10,000 to a crime boss; Grant plans to sell his bar to clear it. Before he can, Mark is bundled into a van by masked men. BBC iPlayer.

What time is Falling on Channel 4 tonight?

9pm on Channel 4 (Tuesday 19 May 2026). Jack Thorne’s new drama with Keeley Hawes as Sister Anna and Paapa Essiedu as Father David. Full series on C4 streaming. Episode 2 tomorrow.

What time is The Family Next Door finale on ITV1 tonight?

10:45pm on ITV1 (Tuesday 19 May 2026), double-bill conclusion. Second part 11:35pm in some regions. Full series on ITVX.

What time is MasterChef on BBC One tonight?

9pm on BBC One (Tuesday 19 May 2026). Knock-out week: seven cooks, one restaurant-standard dish, five progress to Roe in Canary Wharf. BBC iPlayer.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight (Tuesday 19 May 2026)?

Falling on Channel 4 at 9pm — Keeley Hawes, Paapa Essiedu, faith, doubt, and Jack Thorne doing what he does best. The Corinthians on BBC Four at 10pm is the sleeper pick of the week. The Family Next Door finale at 10:45pm is essential if you’ve followed the series. All three on their respective streaming services after broadcast.

Final Verdict

Falling on Channel 4 at 9pm is the night’s headline. Thorne, Hawes, Essiedu, a drama that trusts its audience. Set a series link — the full run is on C4 streaming if you miss it live.

The Corinthians: We Were the Champions on BBC Four at 10pm is the easiest thing to miss tonight and the one I’d most regret missing. A genuine piece of sporting history, told by the women who lived it.

The Family Next Door finale at 10:45pm on ITV1 carries you past midnight after MasterChef wraps. And last night’s finales are safely on iPlayer and ITVX if Monday got away from you.

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