TV Tonight: Our highlights for Monday, May 22

Maryland stars Eve Best and Suranne Jones
Maryland starts on TV Tonight. (Image credit: ITV)

On TV tonight, new Suranne Jones drama Maryland kicks off, Steeltown Murders continues, David Attenborough's Prehistoric Planet returns, and there's some Great Coastal Railway Journeys. Here's what you shouldn't miss on TV Tonight.

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

Maryland, 9 pm, ITV1

Suranne Jones and Eve Best are brilliantly brittle as grieving sisters Becca and Rosaline in this three-part drama, co-created by Jones. In the wake of their mother Mary’s death, the sisters discover that she’d been leading a secret second life on the Isle of Man, complete with her own house and friends that her daughters knew nothing about – but why? 

Becca and Rosaline try to find out who their mother really was while rebuilding their own fractious relationship in this moving drama about family in all its forms, with a first-rate cast that also includes Happy Valley’s George Costigan, and Grease and The West Wing star Stockard Channing. Continues until Wednesday. 

★★★★ SP

Steeltown Murders, 9 pm, BBC One

Steeltown Murders key art

(Image credit: BBC/Seven Film/Tom Jackson)

DCI Paul Bethell always believed Dai Williams (Keith Allen), stepfather of murdered teenager Sandra Newton, was responsible for the Port Talbot killings, and he’s finally able to test his theory with DNA evidence tonight. The results aren’t quite what he was expecting, but an emotionally charged meeting between Dai and the man who placed him on an unofficial blacklist shows even the best cops can make costly mistakes. It’s a tense scene, in which Allen captures the suffering and resentment of a man who has borne the scars of a botched murder investigation for decades. 

★★★★ SMA

Great Coastal Railway Journeys, 6:30 pm, BBC Two

Great Coastal Railway Journeys

(Image credit: BBC)

Michael Portillo is going coastal as he makes tracks around the British Isles. Today, he kicks off his travels on the Isle of Man. The former politician visits the Tynwald – a parliament that’s older than his old haunt in London – shakes a leg with folk dancers and squeezes into the smallest car ever made. Tomorrow, it’s Liverpool, followed by Morecambe and Barrow-in-Furness, before the final destination on this week’s whirlwind tour, Solway Firth. With a pleasant patchwork of stopping-off points, this is just the ticket. 

★★★★ ER

Prehistoric Planet, Apple TV+

TV tonight Tyrannosaurus rex and its young

(Image credit: Apple TV+)

​​Get ready to travel 66 million years back in time once again, as Sir David Attenborough returns to introduce us to even more dinosaurs in the second series of Prehistoric Planet. Once more featuring original music from composer Hans Zimmer, the five-part series gives us a unique insight into new species, different habitats and the latest discoveries from leading palaeontologists.

Prepare to meet the Tarchia, one of the largest ankylosaurids, and catch up with fan favourites such as the Tyrannosaurus rex and the triceratops. Sir David brings history back to life with the help of impressive CGI. Continues until Friday. 

NC

Best box set on TV tonight

Missing: Dead or Alive, Netflix

Missing: Dead or Alive? press shot of police investigating missing person cases

(Image credit: Netflix)

Missing: Dead or Alive is the latest true crime offering from the streaming giant.  Instead of focusing on classic whodunit cases or profiling a murderer, Missing: Dead or Alive follows a Missing Person team as they investigate sudden disappearances. 

Shot as a fly-on-the-wall documentary, the gripping four-parter follows officers from a South Carolina sheriff’s department as they urgently search for individuals who’ve disappeared under troubling circumstances.

Best film on TV tonight

Moonlight, 9:45 pm, BBC Three

Alex Hibbert in Moonlight

(Image credit: A24/PLAN B ENTERTAINMENT/Album/Alamy Stock Photo)

A young African-American man in a rough Miami neighbourhood grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence and burgeoning adulthood. He finds support from a drug dealer and his kindly girlfriend, who can see he is being neglected and offer him sanctuary. Barry Jenkins' Oscar-winning drama, starring Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes.

Soaps

Live Sport

  • Monday Night Football: Newcastle United v Leicester City (Kick-off 8 pm), Sky Sports Main Event
  • Serie A: AS Roma v Salernitana (Kick-off 5:30pm), BT Sport 1

If you watch just one thing on TV tonight…

Don't miss Maryland on TV tonight.

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

Happy viewing!

CATEGORIES
Lucy Buglass
Senior Staff Writer

Lucy joined the WhatToWatch.com team in 2021, where she writes series guides for must-watch programmes, reviews and the latest TV news. Now she works for our sister site TechRadar in the same role. Originally from Northumberland, she graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a degree in Film Studies and moved to London to begin a career writing about entertainment.

She is a Rotten Tomatoes approved film critic and has a huge passion for cinema. She especially loves horror, thriller and anything crime-related. Her favourite TV programmes include Inside No 9, American Horror Story, Stranger Things and Black Mirror but she is also partial to a quiz show or a bit of Say Yes to the Dress