On TV tonight, the 10 most popular acts perform for the last time in the Britain's Got Talent Final on ITV, a new series of Top Gear revs into action on BBC One and season 2 of comedy The Outlaws also begins on BBC One. The streets of London are the stage for The Platinum Pageant, a fantastic parade celebrating the Queen's reign with a carnival to remember on BBC One and finally, travel to South America with Eden: Untamed Planet on BBC Two. 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 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
Britain's Got Talent Final, 7.30pm, ITV
Following a week of action-packed semi-finals, the stage is set for the live grand final of BGT. Having already won over the public, it’s crunch time for the 10 most popular acts – two have gone through from each semi-final – as they perform again for your votes. After a year away from our screens, this series has given us some top talent – but we would be truly amazed if busker-turned-opera singer Maxwell Thorpe hasn’t made tonight’s final. We’re going to stick our necks out now and say that we think he’s the one to beat. Whatever happens, it’s guaranteed to be a corker of a show.
★★★★ VW
Top Gear, 8pm, BBC One
The big overseas road trip is part of Top Gear’s DNA, so it’s great to see Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris heading on a proper post-lockdown adventure. Roaming Florida in a clapped-out RV, the trio are on a mission to actually win some races for a change, but get more than they bargained for as they try donk racing (which evolved from illegal street drag races), get soggy in swamp buggies and take part in the Dirty 30, an oval-track race featuring vintage US police cars.
★★★★ IM
The Outlaws, season 2, 9pm, BBC One
The community service offenders are back and in a whole heap of new trouble as the engaging comedy-drama returns for a second run. While Rani and Christian are making tentative steps towards romance, they get a nasty shock when crime lord The Dean resurfaces and makes it clear they owe him… Meanwhile, veteran crook Frank (a typically scene-stealing Christopher Walken) is facing a moral dilemma, Greg (creator Stephen Merchant) is contemplating an office romance and the gang’s deluded supervisor Diane is still dreaming of becoming a cop!
★★★★ CC
The Platinum Pageant, 1pm, BBC One
The streets of London are playing host to an unmissable parade celebrating the Queen’s 70 years on the throne. A military display and an appearance from the Gold State Coach kick off the spectacle, while 150 ‘national treasures’, including Alan Titchmarsh and Basil Brush, mark the music and culture of each decade of the monarch’s reign. After some glorious carnival performances, the pageant culminates at Buckingham Palace, where Ed Sheeran leads a special musical tribute. Kirsty Young, Clare Balding, AJ Odudu, Anita Rani, Sophie Morgan and Anton Du Beke oversee proceedings as street parties take place around the country.
★★★★★ CC
Eden: Untamed Planet, 6.10pm, BBC Two
This penultimate edition focuses on ‘the remote and mysterious land’ of Patagonia at the tip of South America. The wildlife here survives in extremes, so what a technological feat the filming is – from the flamingos feeding on brine shrimp 4,800m up in high UV radiation to the puma hunting amid a 87,000-strong Magellan penguin colony, captured using nocturnal heat-sensitive technology. Be wowed.
★★★★ NT
Best box set to watch on TV tonight
The Midwich Cuckoos, season 1, Sky Box Sets/Now
The man behind BBC One’s espionage hit The Night Manager turns his hand to sci-fi as he brings John Wyndham’s iconic 1957 sci-fi novel to the small screen. Writer David Farr has brought the tale, which sees all the women of childbearing age in a small town fall pregnant by aliens, into the modern age. The setting is now an affluent commuter town just outside of London, rather than a rural village as in the original novel and Keeley Hawes drives the story forward as Dr Susannah Zellaby, a character reimagined as a woman, which is an excellent way to tell this sinister and uniquely female horror story. Also watch out for Max Beesley as DCI Paul Kirby and Aisling Loftus as expectant mum Zoe Moran.
Best film to watch on TV today
Radioactive, 9.30pm, BBC Two
Rosamund Pike plays Marie Curie in this biopic about the pioneering Polish physicist (first available on Prime Video). It tells of the romance between Marie and her husband Pierre (Sam Riley), their discovery of polonium and radium and the two Nobel Prizes they received for their work. It also explores Marie’s childhood traumas and her struggles for academic acceptance as a female scientist.
Live Sport
- World Cup Qualifier, Wales vs Scotland/Ukraine, 4pm (k-o 5pm), Sky Sports Main Event/NOW
If you watch just one thing on TV tonight…
Don't miss Britain's Got Talent Final on TV tonight – who will walk away victorious!?
Not found anything you want to watch on TV tonight? Check out our TV Guide.
Happy viewing!
