It’s finally June – time for sunny park picnics and hazy evening barbecues. Or, at least, it should be. Let’s be honest, this is the UK, and we’re just as likely to endure thunderstorms as we are a heatwave.
Thankfully, for those evenings when we are sequestered in our living rooms due to a downpour, there are plenty of programmes on television to keep us entertained. From World Cup coverage to the return of restaurant drama The Bear, to the fascinating cosiness of Who Do You Think You Are?, here are the best shows to watch this month:
Tip Toe
Alan Cumming plays the gay owner of a Canal Street bar in Russell T Davies’s ‘Tip Toe’ (Photo: Channel 4)
Russell T Davies returns to Channel 4 for the first time since his seminal Aids drama It’s a Sin in 2021. This time, the drama takes place in modern-day Manchester, where neighbours Leo (a gay owner of a Canal Street bar played by Alan Cumming) and Clive (David Morrissey as a gruff, disillusioned electrician) find their lives increasingly intertwined in both amusing and disturbing ways. It all culminates in a gut-wrenching act of violence – a clarion call that only a master of television such as Davies could get away with.
Streaming on Channel 4 now
Clarkson’s Farm, Prime Video
A health issue puts Jeremy Clarkson out of action at the start of the latest series of ‘Clarkson’s Farm’ (Photo: Prime Video)
Despite being quite good at farming now, Jeremy Clarkson is still pumping out his Amazon show, Clarkson’s Farm. The first four episodes of the fifth series (new episodes arrive on Wednesdays) see him out of action after suffering a near heart attack, leaving all the heavy lifting to his famous farmhand Kaleb and long-suffering partner Lisa Hogan. Vegans beware: this series contains upsetting scenes of the Diddly Squat pigs sent off to meet their maker. Even Clarkson sheds a tear.
Streaming on Prime Video now
Cape Fear, Apple TV
Amy Adams in the terrifying horror ‘Cape Fear’ (Photo: Apple TV)
Horror is having a moment in the cinemas, with both Obsession and Backrooms enjoying box office success. The trend continues on the small screen, with this terrifying adaptation of John D MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners (though Martin Scorsese’s 1991 film version starring Robert de Niro is perhaps better known than the novel). Javier Bardem has heaps of fun playing murderous ex-convict Max Cady, who sets out on a mission to exact brutal revenge on the married lawyers (played by Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson) who failed to defend him 17 years earlier.
Streaming on Apple TV now
The Witness, Netflix
‘The Witness’ is a dramatised account of events around the killing of Rachel Nickell in 1992 (Photo: Ana Blumenkron/Netflix)
When 23-year-old Rachel Nickell was stabbed to death while walking on Wimbledon Common in 1992, her two-year-old son Alex was the sole witness to the murder. He was found clinging to his mother’s body, covered in her blood. This three-part true crime drama series (made with the help and blessing of the now adult Alex and his father, André Hanscombe) recounts not only the horror of the attack, but also how it shaped the rest of the men’s lives – and how the police’s failings led to Rachel’s murderer roaming free for 12 years.
Streaming on Netflix now
Who Do You Think You Are?, BBC One
This series has already featured Joe Swash and there’s plenty more to come (Photo: Stephen Perry/Wall to Wall/BBC)
Somehow, the BBC’s flagship genealogy series still hasn’t run out of celebrities to travel through time with. For the 23rd series – yes, 23rd – Zoe Ball, Strictly’s Amy Dowden, and Joe Swash have already traced their family histories and there’s plenty more to come, with Olympic heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson and actors Harriet Walter, Toby Jones, Ruth Madeley, and Adeel Akthar set to uncover the roots of their family trees. Even after 22 years, Who Do You Think You Are? is one of the most reliably fascinating programmes on TV.
Streaming on BBC iPlayer. New episodes are on Tuesdays at 9pm on BBC One
Alice and Steve, Disney+
Nicola Walker stars as Alice in a romcom about an age-gap romance between Alice’s daughter and her friend (Photo: Lara Cornell/ Disney+)
I’ll watch anything with Nicola Walker in, so I’m really looking forward to this age-gap romcom. She plays the titular Alice, whom we first meet comforting her long-term friend Steve (Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement) following the breakdown of his marriage. “Any woman would be lucky to have you,” she tells him – a sentiment that she fails to stand by when Steve reveals that his new lover is in fact Alice’s 26-year-old daughter Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith)…
Streaming on Disney+ from Monday 8 June
Gareth Southgate: Changing the Game for Young Men
Gareth Southgate will explore ways to turn things around for young men (Photo: Sam Palmer/Cardiff Productions/BBC)
Young men are having a tough time in 2026: since the pandemic, the number of men aged 16-24 not in education, employment or training has risen by 40 per cent, they are twice as likely to be expelled from school and three times as likely to die by suicide. Enter Gareth Southgate, who, after spending the past decade turning England’s football hopes around, hopes to do the same for Britain’s young men. In this documentary, he meets with boys who are struggling, moving the conversation on from the toxic “manosphere” and instead asking how they can be helped.
Tuesday 9 June, 9pm, BBC One
Brexit: A Very British Civil War
David Cameron is among key figures featured in a two-part account of how we came to leave the EU (Photo: Ian Watts/Zinc Television/BBC)
Oh, how time flies when you’re having fun. It’s been 10 years since the Brexit referendum turned the UK into a political war zone, and this two-part film recounts exactly how we came to leave the European Union. It features interviews with Brexit’s architects and critics, including David Cameron and Boris Johnson (both of whom have since conveniently retired from politics), but it’s Nigel Farage (still very much involved in the rat race) who stands to gain – or indeed lose – something from his involvement.
Tuesday 9 June, 9pm, BBC Two
The Rest is Football
The hit football podcast comes to the screen to give daily dispatches from the World Cup (Photo: Netflix)
Gary Lineker’s football podcast is being turned into a daily TV dispatch from the World Cup. Flanked by his usual mic-mates Micah Richards and Alan Shearer, Lineker will analyse the games, interview the players and dive into all the nerdy stats surrounding the biggest competition in the world from a plush new studio in the heart of New York. The deal is reportedly worth an eye-watering £1.6m a week – whether it’s worth the money remains to be seen.
Streaming on Netflix from Wednesday 10 June
The Light in the Hall: Still Waters, Channel 4
The new series of ‘The Light in the Hall’ tells a different story, told across two timelines (Photo: Channel 4)
The first series of this Welsh drama came to a pretty conclusive end with (spoiler alert) Ela’s secret girlfriend Izzy admitting to the murder. How, then, to kick off a new series? By telling an entirely different story, of course. Still set in the fictional town of Llanemlyn, this spin-off is told across two timelines: in 1995, when activist Llyr dies in a bombing, and 2025, when the killer (who also happens to be Llyr’s cousin) is released from prison. But all is not as it seems, as trainee journalist Caryl (Siân Reese-Williams) discovers when she delves into what really happened 30 years ago.
Tuesday 16 June, 9pm, Channel 4
The Bear season five, Disney+
Jeremy Allen White as Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto. This will be the fifth and final series of ‘The Bear’ (Photo: FX/AP)
Four years ago, this stressful but brilliant restaurant drama became a worldwide phenomenon, but already, The Bear is preparing for one last service. The fifth and final season will see Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Natalie (Abby Elliott) join forces to keep the restaurant open after head chef Carmy (breakout star Jeremy Allen White) left his job in a dramatic act of self-care. Will they finally be awarded their long-coveted Michelin star?
Streaming on Disney+ from Friday 26 June
House of the Dragon season three
We’re finally getting the epic Battle of the Gullet as ‘House of the Dragon’ returns (Photo: HBO Max)
Time to dig out your green and black banners – Westeros’ warring dynasty is back. Details of how the Targaryen’s will tear each other apart this season are being kept under wraps, but we do know that we’re finally getting the epic Battle of the Gullet, known as the bloodiest sea battles in all of Game of Thrones’ history. There’s also the addition of James Norton as Alicent’s cousin Ormund Hightower, lending some much-needed muscle to the wannabe queen’s fight for King’s Landing.
Streaming on HBO Max from Monday 22 June