Everything worth watching on Sunday 1 November 2026, across 30 channels.

Sunday night belongs to BBC One at eight

See also: Monday's TV guide

Sunday’s real decision is made at 8pm, and BBC One has made it easy: Blue Planet III opens with “Tropical Seas”, an hour of natural history in a slot where most rivals are running antiques, car restoration and quiz shows. Put the evening there. It is the only first episode on the night from a channel with the budget to make it look like an event, and nothing else starting at eight comes close.

What you give up is modest. ITV1 has Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? at the same time, Channel 4 has Kevin McCloud’s Classic Car Road Trips, and ITV3 settles in for a two-hour Midsomer Murders (“Secrets and Spies”, series 12). All reasonable, all easier to catch up with than a blue-chip nature series on the night it starts. If you want the earlier part of the evening on BBC One too, Strictly Come Dancing: Week 6 Results is on at 7.10.

The nine o’clock fight

Nine is where Sunday gets crowded, and nobody wins it outright. BBC One follows the nature series with episode 3 of This City Is Ours. BBC Two has Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, this week from Breckland Lakes in Norfolk, which is the gentler and more dependable hour. Dave has Have I Got News for You. ITV1 goes with Adultery, and Channel 4 starts something called Bradley Walsh’s Million… at 9, with Gogglebox following at 10.05 for anyone who prefers their television watched by other people.

Two long commitments change the sums. Film4 has The Creator, the 2023 film with John David Washington and Gemma Chan, running 160 minutes from nine. Channel 5 is showing Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos live on NFL on 5, a 210-minute slot that will run well past midnight in practice. Both ask for the whole evening, so choose one and commit.

My order for nine: the fishing if you want to wind down, The Creator if you want a film with some scale, the Chiefs only if you were already going to stay up for them.

Later on, and a film worth the wait

Quiet hours reward the patient. BBC Two’s Walk the Line, the 2005 film with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, doesn’t start until 22:45 and runs 130 minutes, so it is a late-night proposition. It follows Later … with Jools Holland at 10, which makes a decent double bill if you are still up. Match of the Day is at 22:30 on BBC One for the football crowd.

Talking Pictures TV has Runaway Train (1985) at 22:10 with Jon Voight and Eric Roberts, easy to miss on a channel most people don’t scan. On the other side, White House Down on 4seven and The Other Woman on E4 are both on at ten, and neither is the reason to stay up.

If you read nothing else

Watch Blue Planet III on BBC One at 8pm. Then Gone Fishing on BBC Two at 9, or The Creator on Film4 if you want something bigger, and Walk the Line late if you still have the energy.


What’s on tonight — Sunday 1 November 2026

Time Channel Programme
19:00 4seven A Place in the Sun: Languedoc-Roussillon, France
19:00 5Star Police Interceptors: Episode 6
19:00 BBC Two BBC Young Musician 2026: 2026:The Final
19:00 Blaze Henry Cole’s Great British Treasure Hunt: Episode 1
19:00 Channel 5 Great Hotels Through Time: The Plaza: New York’s Grand Hotel
19:00 Really A Place in the Sun: Granada, Spain
19:00 Sky Arts The Handel Scandal: The Making Of The Messiah
19:00 Talking Pictures TV The Bargee
19:00 BBC Four Antiques Roadshow
19:00 Channel 4 Kevin McCloud’s Listed Britain
19:00 Dave Our Guy in India
19:00 Drama Sense and Sensibility
19:00 ITV1 Celebrity Catchphrase
19:00 Quest The Yorkshire Auction House
19:00 Yesterday Canal Boat Diaries
19:10 BBC One Strictly Come Dancing: Week 6 Results
19:15 Film4 Horizon Line
19:25 More4 Four in a Bed: Guesthouse East
19:25 That’s TV Birds of a Feather
19:26 GREAT! Action This Week Back Then
19:30 GREAT! Romance A Snowy Christmas: Episode 1
19:31 GREAT! Action The Vikings: Episode 2
19:32 GREAT! TV Good News from GREAT!
19:37 GREAT! TV The Karate Kid Part III: Episode 2
19:45 E4 The Great British Bake Off: The Great New Year Bake Off
19:55 ITV2 FYI Daily
19:55 More4 Four in a Bed: Shirley B&B
19:55 That’s TV Ronnie Barker: The Best Of
20:00 4seven Griff Across the Alps: Episode 1
20:00 5Star Police Interceptors: Episode 7
20:00 BBC One Blue Planet III: Tropical Seas
20:00 Blaze History’s Greatest Mysteries: The Battle of Los Angeles
20:00 Channel 5 Air Fryers vs Microwaves: Which Is Better?
20:00 ITV2 Bruce Almighty: Episode 2
20:00 ITV3 Midsomer Murders: Secrets and Spies
20:00 Legend The Twilight Zone: In Praise of Pip
20:00 Really A Place in the Sun: Almunecar
20:00 Sky Arts Jerry Lee Lewis and Friends
20:00 BBC Four A Stitch in Time
20:00 Channel 4 Kevin McCloud’s Classic Car Road Trips
20:00 Dave Will and Ralf Should Know Better
20:00 Drama Sister Boniface Mysteries
20:00 ITV1 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
20:00 Quest The Repair Shop
20:00 Yesterday Dream Car Fixers
20:05 5USA Columbo: Strange Bedfellows
20:25 GREAT! Romance Good News from GREAT!
20:30 GREAT! Romance A Snowy Christmas: Episode 2
20:30 Legend The Twilight Zone: Steel
20:30 More4 Four in a Bed: Payment Day
20:30 BBC Four Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village
21:00 4seven Gogglebox: Episode 9
21:00 5Action Cops: Over the Hill
21:00 5Star Call the Bailiffs: Time To Pay Up: Episode 5
21:00 BBC One This City Is Ours: Episode 3
21:00 BBC Two Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing: Breckland Lakes, Norfolk – Bream
21:00 Blaze Secrets Declassified With David Duchovny: Deep Cover
21:00 Channel 5 Live: NFL on 5: Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos
21:00 E4 One Born Every Minute: Episode 2
21:00 Film4 The Creator
21:00 GREAT! Action Venom: Episode 1
21:00 GREAT! TV Sleeping With the Enemy: Episode 1
21:00 ITV2 Big Brother: Episode 43
21:00 ITV4 Under Siege: Episode 1
21:00 Legend The Last Stand
21:00 More4 999: On the Front Line: Episode 7
21:00 Really Long Lost Family: What Happened Next: Episode 1
21:00 BBC Four Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius
21:00 Channel 4 New: Bradley Walsh’s Million…
21:00 Dave Have I Got News for You
21:00 Drama Silent Witness
21:00 ITV1 Adultery
21:00 Quest The Repair Shop On The Road
21:00 That’s TV Benidorm
21:00 Yesterday Bangers & Cash: Restoring Classics
21:05 Talking Pictures TV Fox: The Perfect Scapegoat Syndrome
21:20 Sky Arts I Am Patrick Swayze
21:25 GREAT! Romance Laughing All the Way: Episode 1
21:30 5Action Cops: Hefty Amounts
21:30 BBC Two A Course Called Ireland: The High Notes
21:30 That’s TV Benidorm
21:52 GREAT! TV Good News from GREAT!
21:55 That’s TV Goodnight Sweetheart
21:56 GREAT! Action This Week Back Then
21:57 GREAT! TV Sleeping With the Enemy: Episode 2
22:00 4seven White House Down
22:00 5Action Inside HMP Whitemoor: Evil Behind Bars
22:00 5Star 999: Emergency Call Out: Episode 1
22:00 5USA Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Disrobed
22:00 BBC One BBC Weekend News
22:00 BBC Two Later … with Jools Holland: Episode 4
22:00 Blaze Witches of Essex: Hatfield Peverel (1566)
22:00 E4 The Other Woman
22:00 GREAT! Movies To Be Announced
22:00 ITV2 Big Brother: The Group Chat: Episode 35
22:00 ITV3 Vera: Tender
22:00 ITV4 FYI Daily
22:00 More4 Paramedics: Episode 3
22:00 Really Who Do You Think You Are?: Reggie Yates
22:00 BBC Four The BBC Television Shakespeare
22:00 Dave QI
22:00 ITV1 ITV News
22:00 Quest The Repair Shop
22:00 Yesterday Bangers & Cash
22:01 GREAT! Action Venom: Episode 2
22:05 ITV4 Under Siege: Episode 2
22:05 Channel 4 Gogglebox
22:10 Talking Pictures TV Runaway Train
22:20 GREAT! Romance Good News from GREAT!
22:20 ITV1 John Wick
22:25 BBC One BBC London
22:25 GREAT! Romance Laughing All the Way: Episode 2
22:30 BBC One Match of the Day
22:30 That’s TV On The Buses
22:40 Dave Mock the Week
22:45 BBC Two Walk the Line