Full Drama listings for Tuesday 27 October 2026, with times in London local time.

Drama’s night belongs to the last two hours

See also: What's on tonight across all channels | Wednesday's TV guide

Drama spends its evening warming up for a double bill of detectives, and the reward for waiting is New Tricks at 10pm. It gets 80 minutes, the longest slot of the night by a distance, and it is the only programme tonight with room to breathe. A police procedural that ran for twelve series and 107 episodes on BBC One has earned that sort of runtime, and a late start suits something built around slow, sceptical police work.

Father Brown at 9pm is the lead-in, and a decent one. The British period crime series has run to 11 series and 110 episodes, which makes it a reliable hour rather than a thrilling one. It also airs at 4.20pm, so anyone who sat through the afternoon version has seen the schedule do the same trick twice in a day. If you want one detective rather than two, 10pm is the better bet, because there is nothing against it on the main channels worth the trade. BBC News at Ten and Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death are both serious, neither is a drama.

Before that the channel is in comfort mode. Last Of The Summer Wine turns up at 6pm, 6.40pm and 7.20pm, three back-to-back half-hour-plus slots of a sitcom that has racked up 31 series and 295 episodes. The 7.20pm showing is the one that matters if you are choosing, since it faces EastEnders on BBC One and Tipping Point: Best Ever Finals on ITV1. It is the gentlest option in that window, and that is the whole case for it.

Anna Pigeon Mysteries at 8pm is the odd one out. It has aired only twice in the ten days we can see, today and a week ago, so this is a rarity on the channel rather than part of the furniture. Whether it is any good is a question the schedule cannot answer. Against DIY SOS and NCIS it is a quiet alternative, and I would give it a go if the rest of the night does not appeal, but I would not rearrange the evening for it.

Late on, Shakespeare And Hathaway – Private Investigators closes things out at 11.20pm, having already had an afternoon slot. Drama is a channel of strands, and tonight those strands are fairly visible.

The verdict is simple: skip the early evening, arrive for 9pm, stay for New Tricks.


Also on TV tonight at 9pm

  • BBC One: Blue Lights
  • BBC Two: Surgeons: At the Edge of Life
  • ITV1: New: Unbelievable Moments:…
  • Channel 4: The Great British Bake Off (from 8pm)
  • Channel 5: Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild
  • BBC Four: The Normans
  • ITV2: Big Brother
  • ITV3: Vera (from 8pm)
  • ITV4: Junk and Disorderly
  • E4: Gogglebox

Every channel tonight, side by side · Films on TV tonight · Tomorrow’s TV


Frequently asked questions

What’s on Drama tonight?

On Tuesday 27 October 2026, Drama shows Last Of The Summer Wine at 7.20pm, Anna Pigeon Mysteries at 8pm, Father Brown at 9pm and New Tricks at 10pm.

Is there a film on Drama tonight?

No. Drama has no films in its evening schedule on Tuesday 27 October 2026.

What’s on Drama late tonight?

After 11pm, Drama has Shakespeare And Hathaway – Private Investigators at 11.20pm.

What time does Drama’s evening start?

The evening schedule starts with Last Of The Summer Wine at 6pm.

The BBC archive, played in order, all day

Drama is a channel of British television drama that has already been shown somewhere else, much of it first shown on BBC One, and it does not pretend otherwise. Across the 34 days we tracked, 94% of its airtime went to titles that recurred on three or more days. Its morning is a run of classic medical soaps, its afternoon belongs to gentle detectives, and its evening hands over to a rotating cast of investigators before New Tricks shuts up shop at 10pm.

There is very little film here, and there are not many surprises either. What there is, instead, is order: the same programmes in roughly the same places, day after day, which is exactly what some viewers want from a channel.

What its day looks like

Mornings are the “classic” hours. Classic Doctors arrives at around 8.35am, Classic Holby City at 9.55am and Classic Casualty at 10.55am, each on 25 of the 34 days. The Bill then takes the late morning, usually from 11.55am, and was the channel’s most-shown drama with 74 airings over 30 days. Classic EastEnders follows at around 12.55pm, often as a double bill.

Neighbours sits mid-afternoon, usually around 2.50pm, and then the cosy detectives take over. Sister Boniface Mysteries usually starts around 3.20pm, Father Brown at 4.20pm and the sitcom As Time Goes By at 5.20pm. Pie in the Sky and Shakespeare And Hathaway – Private Investigators drift in on some afternoons.

The evening, from 6pm to 10.30pm, is the most fixed part of the day and the one surprise in the shape. It opens with comedy, not crime. Last Of The Summer Wine aired 75 times across 25 days, usually from 6pm, and its 7.20pm showing never moved in the window. From 8pm the channel rotates its detectives: The Brokenwood Mysteries, Sister Boniface Mysteries, The Chelsea Detective, Miss Marple, Anna Pigeon Mysteries and Miss Scarlet all took the 8pm slot for short runs. The 9pm slot works the same way, with Father Brown, Silent Witness, A Remarkable Place to Die and Wallander each getting a few nights. Then, on 25 of the 34 days and always in the same slot, New Tricks at 10pm.

Late night brings Copper at around 11pm and Judge John Deed after midnight. Overnight, Drama runs signed repeats: Copper (BSL) appeared on 23 nights, usually around 3.10am, and The Chelsea Detective (BSL) on six. Teleshopping fills a slot from around 4am every night, and At Home with the Braithwaites, 2point4 children and Birds of a Feather turn up in the small hours or early morning.

Popular shows on Drama

New Tricks is a police procedural that began in 2003 and was first shown on BBC One. It ran to 12 series and 107 episodes, with a cast that included Dennis Waterman, James Bolam, Alun Armstrong, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Tamzin Outhwaite. On Drama it is the 10pm fixture, and the closest thing the channel has to an appointment.

Last Of The Summer Wine is the British sitcom that began on BBC One in 1973 and ran for 31 series and 295 episodes, with Peter Sallis, Bill Owen and Kathy Staff among its stars. Drama shows it two or three times a day, which makes it the most-aired title on the channel.

Father Brown is a period crime drama first shown on BBC One in 2013, starring Mark Williams with Sorcha Cusack. It runs to 11 series and 110 episodes and usually airs at 4.20pm, with a 9pm showing on some nights.

Sister Boniface Mysteries is a detective comedy drama from 2022, built from Father Brown, with Lorna Watson in the lead and Max Brown and Miranda Raison alongside. It has four series and 38 episodes.

Silent Witness is a British crime drama that began in 1996, with Amanda Burton, Emilia Fox and William Gaminara among its cast. It has 27 series and 248 episodes, and on Drama it takes the 9pm slot for short runs rather than nightly.

The Chelsea Detective is a British crime drama from 2022 starring Adrian Scarborough, with three series and 12 episodes. It rotates through the 8pm slot and also appears overnight with sign language.

There are a few shorter visitors too. Kenneth Branagh’s Wallander (2008), with Tom Hiddleston in the cast, took the 9pm slot for four nights, and the Joan Hickson Miss Marple from 1984 had five 8pm outings.

How to watch Drama

On screen the channel now calls itself U&Drama. It is free to air on Freeview channel 20, with U&Drama+1 on Freeview 60. It is on Sky 143, Sky Glass 132 (134 in Scotland), Virgin Media 116 and Freesat 158, and Freely 20. You can watch it live and on demand through U, the free streaming service formerly called UKTV Play. A TV Licence is needed to watch or record it as it is broadcast, as with every live channel in the UK.

Drama and its sister channels

Drama is one of the U& family alongside Dave, Yesterday, Alibi, Gold, W and Eden. Dave is the comedy channel, built on panel shows, with Would I Lie To You? on every day we tracked. Yesterday is factual: classic cars, canals, war history and wildlife documentary. Alibi, Gold, W and Eden complete the group.

If Drama’s mix of detectives and old favourites suits you, ITV3 is the obvious neighbour: another channel built on repeats of well-known British drama. That’s TV also leans on older British programmes, though with more comedy and less crime.

Who it’s for

Drama is for someone who likes a British detective, particularly a gentle one, and is happy to watch something they may have seen before. It is also a good home for anyone who misses the BBC’s 1990s and 2000s medical soaps. It is not the place for new drama, or for following a series from week to week: the evening detectives change every few days, and the only constants are Last Of The Summer Wine at 7.20pm and New Tricks at 10pm.

What channel is Drama on Freeview?

Drama, now U&Drama, is on Freeview channel 20. The +1 version is on Freeview 60.

Can I watch Drama online?

Yes. It streams live and on demand through U, the free service that used to be UKTV Play.

What’s on Drama most evenings?

Last Of The Summer Wine at 7.20pm, a detective series at 8pm and 9pm, and New Tricks at 10pm.

Does Drama show films?

Almost never. Over five weeks we counted close to no films: the schedule is series and sitcoms from start to finish.