TV Tonight: our highlights for Monday, August 23, 2021

Clive Myrie takes over as the new Mastermind host. (Image credit: BBC)

On TV tonight, newsreader Clive Myrie takes over as the new host of Mastermind on BBC2, it's the Love Island: Live Final on ITV2 and a daughter searches for her dad in Long Lost Family on ITV. Here’s what you shouldn’t miss on TV tonight.

Our hand selected recommendations for what's on TV tonight include three 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

Mastermind, 7.30pm, BBC2

TV tonight Clive Myrie takes over as host of Mastermind — And your specialist subject is… (Image credit: BBC)

There’s a new host in the chair as BBC News’ Clive Myrie takes over quizmaster duties – but as Clive says of the show, ‘The rules and the challenge have been the same for almost half a century’, so it’s very much business as usual. Tonight’s specialist subjects are a typically eclectic affair, ranging from the geography of Switzerland and the family of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to Bruce Springsteen and Sir Roger Moore, and Clive immediately strikes a kind, encouraging tone which clearly shows the series is in very safe hands.

★★★★ SP

Love Island: Live Final, 9pm, ITV2

TV tonight Liberty and Jake in the Love Island: Live Final. — Will Liberty and Jake be the 2021 winners? (Image credit: ITV)

After a summer of tears, tantrums and NVQs (if you know, you know!), we’ve reached the final. Having been inseparable right from the start, it looks like Jake and Liberty – AKA Jiberty – will be the ones to walk away loved-up and loaded with £50,000. But we’re holding out hope for fiery Faye and her cuddly Teddy, who have proved this series that the course of true love never runs smooth. During these uncertain times, this year’s series has brought some much-needed sunshine and happiness into our lives. What’s not to love?

★★★★ VW

Long Lost Family, 9pm, ITV

TV tonight Louise Stoppani see a picture of her birth father for the first time — Louise Stoppani see a picture of her birth father for the first time. (Image credit: ITV)

It’s a tough watch as two searchers who were the products of teenage romances yearn to find their parents but also uncover heartache. Rochester-based Louise Stoppani, 39, was raised by her mum and stepdad and is looking for her biological dad, Paul. But when her aunts Sharon and Michele are traced, can they give her the answers she needs? Meanwhile, Jonathan Gaskarth, 48, from Birmingham, had a happy adoption but is eager to meet his birth mum Carol, who reluctantly gave him up after falling pregnant at 16 to her childhood sweetheart. Their mother-son reunion is delightful but sadness also awaits....

★★★★ CC

Best box set to watch on TV tonight

The Chair, season 1, Netflix

Sandra Oh in The Chair on Netflix. — Sandra Oh stars as Dr Ji-Yoon Kim in the new comedy drama from Netflix. (Image credit: Netflix)

Best known as MI6 agent Eve Polastri in Killing Eve and as the no-nonsense Dr Cristina Yang in the long running medical series Grey's Anatomy, Sandra Oh plays an academic hoping to shake up a top university that’s then hit by scandal in this new black comedy. As the first woman chair of Pembroke University’s English department and one of its few women of colour on staff, Dr Ji-Yoon Kim (Sandra) has something to prove. But when colleague and love interest Bill (Jay Duplass) is filmed making a controversial gesture and the student body come out in protest, can Dr Kim save Pembroke and her reputation? Very funny and irreverent in parts, The Chair is top of the class!

★★★★ VW

Best film to watch on TV tonight

Akeelah and the Bee, 12.55pm, Film4

The great American tradition of the Spelling Bee was already explored in the excellent documentary Spellbound and the offbeat drama Bee Season. This drama might not carry the weight of either of those two movies, but it is still an enjoyable yarn as a shy 11-year-old girl (Keke Palmer) from a third-rate high school in Los Angeles is urged by her mentor (Laurence Fishburne) and mother (Angela Bassett) to put her linguistic abilities to the test.