May 2026 Culture Highlights Including a superior true crime story and some excellent documentaries.

June 5, 2026

We discovered a variety of programmes and books this month.

Television

Should I Marry a Murderer Netflix

★★★★

True Crime stories are the bedrock of TV programmes and podcasts. Some frustrate because it’s obvious who the offender is and others because they remain unresolved. Should I Marry a Murderer is different because the story is utterly compelling.

When Dr Caroline Muirhead told friends she was driving to the Scottish Highlands for a hill-walking date with a man she had met online, they were wary. “What if he turns out to be a murderer?” one asked. It was a joke that proved grimly close to the truth. Muirhead fell for the charismatic Alexander McKellar and only after agreeing to marry him discovered that he had killed cyclist Tony Parsons in 2017.

Although madly in love, she was faced with a moral dilemma – should she inform the police?  This is when the story really starts and is rendered still more visceral by the extensive mobile phone footage of the couple’s relationship.

RAFA Netflix

★★★★★

Although it helps, you don’t necessarily need to like sport to become engrossed in this documentary series.

Rafa Nadal was one of the triumvirate of players who became the most successful tennis players in history. The difference with Rafa is that he was competing against Roger Federer at his best and likewise against Novak Djokovic. Added to that, his career was blighted by a hereditary foot injury, and he won one of his 14 French Grand Slam titles without feeling in his foot.

Supported by his family throughout his career, his Uncle Toni coached him for nearly all of his career which started at the age of 4. Nadal had perhaps the strongest will to win of any sportsman and the story is at it’s strongest when retirement looms and when exactly should that be. He was the only tennis player to be World No1 in three different decades – that takes some doing.

Legends Netflix

★★★★

This thriller from Neil Forsyth aims for a similarly picaresque tone to his previous series, The Gold. It stars Steve Coogan as Don, a jaded detective who assembles a team of misfit customs employees either bored or bold enough to take a gamble with their careers, and possibly their lives.

It’s inspired by real events in the 90s in which customs officers with little training infiltrated heroin-smuggling rings at the behest of Margaret Thatcher, who needed “a crisis she could solve”. It’s more of a slow burn than The Gold but, as the officers (who include Tom Burke and Hayley Squires) embed themselves within criminal gangs, the stakes rise, identities collapse and events become increasingly tense.

Kylie Netflix

★★★★

When I Should Be So Lucky reached No 1 in 1988, the idea that Kylie Minogue would still be a cultural icon four decades later would have seemed ridiculous. Yet here we still are: the cult of Kylie has taken many twists and turns, some of them tragic, but she shows no sign of slowing down. It’s easy to forget how lambasted she was by the British Media for being talentless and now is considered an “icon”.

This three-part documentary comes from the makers of Beckham and is very much an authorised version of the story. This is a mixed blessing, but it does mean that Kylie herself is front and centre and able to tell her own story. Other contributors include her sister Dannii, Jason Donovan and Nick Cave.

Dutton Ranch Paramount+

★★★★

Yellowstone continues to expand, and so do the horizons of some of its best-loved inhabitants. In this spin-off, Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler (Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser) are saying goodbye to Montana and moving to Texas.

However, trouble seems to follow this couple wherever they go and, before long, they’re finding that the Lone Star State doesn’t take kindly to outsiders – particularly if they arrive as potential business rivals.

Rip was always one of the most interesting Yellowstone characters and this series is boosted by the presence of two great actors, Annette Bening, playing the titular baddie and Ed Harris, the good guy vet.

Podcasts

In The Psychiatrist’s Chair BBC Sounds

★★★★

This series dates back more than 40 years and we were reminded of it by Kirstie Young crediting the host, Dr Anthony Clare, with what she learnt as an interviewer.

Not all the subjects are available in the Radio 4 Extra series but those that are reveal an interview technique that doesn’t antagonise or shy away from getting to the heart of the subject. The great skill of an interviewer is to listen to what the subject says and respond accordingly, yet many don’t.

Dr Anthony Clare was the best-known psychiatrist of his day until he died of a sudden heart attack in 2007. Regardless of your opinion of his subjects, you can only admire how he elicits more from them than they may have been prepared to share.

In a separate programme, Kirsty Young, talks to several of Clare’s subjects and examines his incisive methods.

Sherlock Holmes Short Stories BBC Sounds

★★★★

Not a podcast, but a series of short stories narrated by Hugh Bonneville and the full story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated case, The Hound of The Baskervilles.

If you like this type of the story, then it’s enjoyable to dip in and out as the mood takes you.

Books

Five Silver Spoons Sam Steele

★★★★

A police-based thriller with some familiar themes. The victims have a history that evokes little sympathy for their demise and a detective inspector framed by a tragedy in her past.

There are enough twists, misdirection, and character dynamics to engage the reader and the central character, DI Hope is sufficiently complex and vulnerable to warrant further books.

If you like a whodunnit involving well developed characters and a satisfactory conclusion, then you’ll enjoy this.

The Easter Parade Richard Yates

★★★★

We are told in the opening sentence that the two sisters, Sarah and Emily Grimes would not have a happy life. That starts when their parents divorce and the girls grow up moving from one place to another.

Sarah takes the conventional route and has three children in an unhappy marriage. Emily becomes promiscuous and is serially let down. The writer has no interest in sentimentality so this is no happy read. It is the development of the sister’s relationship and their loneliness that makes this a superior and thoughtful read.

Dissection of a Murder Jo Murray

★★★★

Leila Reynolds is handed her first murder case. The problem is the prosecutor is her husband and mentor, Julian — a legendary attorney who shaped her career and pushed her to the top.

It appears to be a slam dunk case because all the evidence is stacked against Jack Miller, a man wrongly convicted and imprisoned for two years and defended by Leila five years ago. Jack is now accused of the murder of the judge who convicted him, and he only wants Leila to defend him.

Of course, we know the trial is not going to go as planned by the prosecution. What separates this from other familiar legal thrillers is the dynamic between husband and wife, a witness simply called X and why has Jack insisted on Leila as his lawyer? A good read and well constructed. 

Discover other cultural delights from months past in our Culture Section