TV Tonight: our highlights for Friday, May 27

TV tonight – Ewan McGregor is back as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Ewan McGregor is back as Obi-Wan Kenobi. (Image credit: Disney Plus)

On TV tonight, may the force be with you as Ewan McGregor takes on the title role in the new Star Wars spinoff, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which begins on Disney Plus. Stranger Things, season 4, drops on Netflix and crime thriller The Chalet is on All4. Comedy The Other One continues on BBC One and watch out for things that go bump in the night as Spooked Scotland creeps onto REALLY. Here’s what you shouldn’t miss on TV tonight. 

  • Our hand selected recommendations for what's on TV tonight include five TV shows, a film, live sport and the latest trending need-to-binge-on-now box set 
  • Keep up to date with the latest soap spoiler storylines on TV tonight with our daily soap synopsis 
  • For more information about what’s on TV tonight see our TV Guide

What's on TV tonight

Our expert TV journalists have picked the best things on TV tonight... 

Best TV shows on TV tonight

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Disney Plus

TV tonight Hayden Christensen is back as Darth Vader.

Hayden Christensen is back as Darth Vader. (Image credit: Disney Plus)

Ewan McGregor wondered if he’d ever return to the world of Star Wars after the prequel trilogy of 1999-2005 garnered mixed reviews, but he reprises his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in spectacular fashion. This highly anticipated spin-off (two episodes today, then released weekly) returns to a galaxy far, far away, to pick up the Jedi master’s story in the years after those movies, as he hides from the Empire’s Inquisitors on the desert planet of Tatooine. It’s a cinematic feast for Star Wars fans new and old, who will all be eager to see Obi-Wan and Darth Vader lock lightsabers once more. 

★★★★ SMA

Stranger Things, season 4, Netflix

TV tonight Eleven gets her skates on in California

Eleven gets her skates on in California. (Image credit: Netflix)

The much-loved series makes the shift from the nostalgic 1980s supernatural smash to full-blown horror as it returns for its much-anticipated fourth series (part one’s eight episodes are available today; part two from 1 July). Three years in the making, the penultimate chapter begins with a now powerless Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) in California with the Byers clan, while her pals back home head to high school in Hawkins. The show’s creators have promised lots of answers, as we delve deeper into the parallel world of the Upside Down, and there’s also a terrifying new monster on the prowl, played by Nightmare on Elm Street’s Robert Englund. 

★★★★ SMA 

The Chalet, All4

TV tonight Thierry Godard as Alexandre.

Thierry Godard as Alexandre.   (Image credit: All4)

This French drama, previously shown on Netflix, ticks a lot of boxes for fans of crime thrillers. A village full of suspicious locals. A shocking secret nobody will talk about. Dark looks. Old grudges. Stirring things up are a newly arrived couple. Meanwhile, 20 years before, another drama plays out in the same Alpine village, in scenery that is surely too beautiful for events so unpleasant. Spiral’s Gilou (aka Thierry Godard) adds to the surly mood of this atmospheric series that’s all about the slow burn.

★★★★ SM

The Other One, season 2, 9.30pm, BBC One

TV tonight ‘Heeeeere’s Auntie Dawn!’

Heeeeere’s Auntie Dawn! (Image credit: BBC)

It’s lambing season, and Cathy’s excited about taking sister Cat and brother Callum on the annual family trip to Auntie Dawn’s farm… until Cathy’s ex-fiancé Marcus arrives uninvited. Eccentric Dawn (Caroline Quentin) welcomes her family and starts to down the entire crate of energy drinks Cat’s brought as a gift. As Marcus attempts to ‘out-man’ Callum, Dawn – thanks to those energy drinks! – proves she’s got real muscle as she uses a giant axe to chop wood. Dawn made a memorable appearance at Cathy’s hen do in the first series, and once again Quentin is on scene-stealing form as she goes from adorable aunt to axe-wielding maniac… 

★★★ VW

Spooked Scotland, 9pm, Really

TV tonight Chris and Gail check out spooky spots

Chris and Gail check out spooky spots. (Image credit: Really)

"Are you a pixie?" You don’t often hear that asked on TV, but it’s medium Chris Fleming’s query to a creature only he can sense in a ‘fairy wood’ attached to Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran. As the series on Scotland’s most supernaturally out-there locations gets under way, Chris is half of a fine double act with Gail Porter – he’s the Derek Acorah to her Yvette Fielding, if you’re missing Most Haunted

★★★ SM

Best box set to watch on TV tonight

Derry Girls, seasons 1–3, All4

The Derry Girls jumping for joy.

The brilliant Derry Girls and the wee English fella! (Image credit: Channel4)

The riotous third series has just finished on C4, but if anyone has missed this absolute gem of a comedy, then all three seasons are now available on All4. The series follows teenagers Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Orla (Louisa Harland), Clare (Nicola Coughlan), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), and James (Dylan Maguire), or “the wee English fella” as everyone calls him, as they navigate life in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the early 1990s. The gang attend Our Lady Immaculate College run by the indomitable Sister Michael, played brilliantly by Siobhán McSweeney, who has seen all their madcap antics before and couldn’t care less. One of the best comedies on the box. 

Best film to watch on TV tonight

Top Gun, 9.40pm, Sky Cinema Tom Cruise

TV tonight Thumbs up for a sequel! (but you’ll have to wait 36 years)

Thumbs up for a sequel! (but you’ll have to wait 36 years). (Image credit: Sky)

Tom Cruise turns 60 this year, but it seems 60 is the new 30 in action-movie years – he stars in the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick, released in cinemas this week, and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning will be released in two parts in 2023 and 2024. From today, Sky Cinema Greats is temporarily renamed and devoting the weekend to Cruise. Tonight, you can see the original box-office smash Top Gun, with the first two Mission: Impossible films earlier from 4.30pm, and Collateral at 11.30pm (also on ITV4 at 9pm). Look out for an interview with the man himself, Tom Cruise: Movie Maverick, at 8.30pm. 

Live Sport

  • T20 Blast Cricket, Lancashire Lightning vs Yorkshire Vikings, 6.15pm, Sky Sports Main Event/NOW

Soaps on TV tonight

If you watch just one thing on TV tonight…

Don't miss Obi-Wan Kenobi on TV tonight — a real treat for Star Wars fans. 

Not found anything you want to watch on TV tonight? Check out our TV Guide

Happy viewing!

Joanne Lowles
Freelance writer and editor

Joanne Lowles has been writing about TV since 2002. After graduating from Cardiff University with a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism, she worked for All About Soap magazine covering the ups and downs of life on the cobbles, the square and the Dales. 


Next came nearly 10 years at TV Times magazine as a writer and then deputy features editor. Here she spent many happy days interviewing the biggest names in entertainment and visiting the sets of some of our most popular shows including Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife and Strictly Come Dancing


With a love of nature and wildlife she’s also interviewed the leading experts in this area including David Attenborough, Chris Packham and Steve Backshall. She’s also travelled the world visiting Mongolia, Canada and South Africa to see how the best in the business make the most brilliant natural history documentaries. 


Freelance since 2013, she is now is a digital writer and editor for What to Watch, previews the best on the box for TV Times mag each week and loves being constantly surprised, entertained and informed by the amazing TV that she is lucky enough to watch.