BBC One (BBC 1) TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On BBC One Tonight

BBC One is the UK’s most-watched television channel, running around the clock and streaming live on BBC iPlayer. This guide covers tonight’s line-up and the regular weekly schedule, plus where to find the channel across every platform.

Sunday 16 August 2026: It’s the closing day of the European Athletics Championships: Birmingham 2026, the first time the event has been staged in Great Britain. The women’s and men’s marathon finals run through the streets of Birmingham from 7:25am, then the closing evening session from 7:30pm at Alexander Stadium settles the week’s last finals, among them the men’s pole vault, women’s javelin and women’s long jump, plus the mixed 4x100m relay, ahead of the closing ceremony. Live coverage can overrun, so treat the later timings as approximate. Once the athletics wraps, the night closes with Mission: Impossible II at 10:30pm. There’s no EastEnders on a Sunday, and no soap of any kind airs on BBC One tonight.

BBC One Schedule: Sunday 16 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete BBC One schedule for Sunday 16 August 2026, on Freeview 1.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on BBC One today: the daytime schedule

Sunday’s daytime is built around the athletics again. Breakfast runs to 7:25am, then BBC One hands the morning to the closing session of the European Athletics Championships: Birmingham 2026, the marathon finals run as a road race through the city rather than in the stadium.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile takes the late-morning film slot at 10:35am, ahead of Bargain Hunt at 12:15pm (series 69, episode 21). The BBC News at 1pm and the weather lead into Songs of Praise: Countryside and Creation at 1:15pm, where the Rev Kate Bottley visits the Royal Norfolk Show, followed by Money for Nothing at 1:50pm (series 14, episode 6).

The afternoon runs through Escape to the Country at 2:35pm (series 25, episode 13), The Mating Game at 3:05pm (series 1, episode 5) and Homes Under the Hammer at 4:05pm (series 27, episode 3). Early evening brings the 5:05pm news round, BBC London News and the weather, then Countryfile at 5:30pm and Antiques Roadshow at 6:30pm (series 45, episode 5) to close out pre-primetime.

BBC One tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the BBC One primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 16 August 2026, the closing day of the European Athletics Championships.

Antiques Roadshow — BBC One, 6:30pm

The valuers open primetime at a new venue for series 45, episode 5, sizing up whatever the queue has carried in this week. It’s the reliable Sunday-evening opener before the athletics takes over.

European Athletics Championships: Birmingham 2026 — BBC One, 7:30pm

The championships close tonight at Alexander Stadium, with finals in the men’s pole vault, the women’s javelin and the women’s long jump, plus the mixed 4x100m relay, before the closing ceremony brings the week to an end. It’s the last live session of a tournament that has run on BBC One all week, and coverage can push past its scheduled 10pm finish if the programme runs long.

BBC News and Weather — BBC One, 10pm

The 10pm bulletin follows once the athletics coverage clears, running its usual 25 minutes with the national and international headlines.

BBC London News — BBC One, 10:25pm

The regional update takes its short slot before the night’s film.

Mission: Impossible II — BBC One, 10:30pm

John Woo’s 2000 sequel closes the night, swapping the first film’s tech-thriller plotting for slow-motion gunfights and a stolen virus MacGuffin. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt opposite Thandiwe Newton and Dougray Scott.

Popular shows on BBC One

Soaps

EastEnders is the anchor: 7:30pm, Monday to Thursday, running since February 1985 and still among the highest-rated things on British television. Walford is fictional. The Queen Vic is a set at Elstree.

Entertainment and Quizzes

Pointless is the cleverest of the BBC’s teatime quizzes. Find the answers a survey group didn’t think of, score as low as you can: it rewards obscure knowledge over fast fingers, which is why it plays well with people who are terrible at buzzer rounds. Alexander Armstrong has fronted it since 2009.

The Apprentice comes back each autumn for Lord Sugar’s boardroom firings, and Strictly Come Dancing arrives in September and runs to the December final. Blankety Blank, revived with Bradley Walsh, and Celebrity Bridge of Lies with Ross Kemp fill the lighter Saturday teatime slots.

Drama

Death in Paradise is the dependable one, a Caribbean murder procedural that runs the same formula every week and has never pretended otherwise. Casualty has held Saturday nights at 8pm since 1986.

Newer drama tends to arrive as a limited series of three to six episodes at 9pm, rotating through the year rather than occupying a permanent slot.

Sport

BBC One carries Match of the Day on Saturday nights, still the UK’s most-watched football highlights programme, plus major international tournaments, Wimbledon shared with BBC Two, the FA Cup and Sports Personality of the Year each December.

Factual and News

Panorama, on air since 1953, is the current affairs strand. Countryfile takes Sunday evenings, usually with a Natural History Unit documentary and Antiques Roadshow after it.

How to watch BBC One live and on demand

Channel Numbers

Here’s where to find BBC One depending on your platform:

BBC One is free-to-air on all of these platforms, with no subscription required. The regional version you receive is determined by your postcode.

BBC iPlayer

BBC One streams live and free on BBC iPlayer at bbc.co.uk/iplayer, and via the iPlayer app on smart TVs, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and most streaming sticks.

Most BBC One programmes stay on iPlayer for 30 days after transmission. EastEnders sometimes sticks around longer.

Freely

BBC One is available on the Freely platform, the free streaming service set up jointly by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 for broadband-connected televisions. If you have a Freely-enabled smart TV, BBC One is on channel 1.

Do You Need a TV Licence?

Yes. Watching BBC One live requires a valid TV Licence, whether that’s via aerial, satellite, cable or an online stream, and so does watching iPlayer content on the day of broadcast. As of April 2026 a colour licence costs £180 a year.

BBC One regional variations and the nations

BBC One is not a single national feed. It splits into regional and national opt-outs that swap network programmes for local ones.

In England, that mostly means the 6:30pm news: BBC North West Tonight, BBC London, Look North and the rest, made in regional centres around the country, with further opt-out windows during the day.

The devolved nations get more than that. BBC One Scotland, BBC One Wales and BBC One Northern Ireland share most of the network schedule but run their own news and commissions, with Wales Today and BBC Newsline as the respective evening bulletins.

Every regional and national variant is on BBC iPlayer. On satellite or cable, the version you get is tied to your registered postcode.

BBC One HD is available on all the main platforms and is the default for most viewers with an HD set. There’s no separate BBC One +1 channel.

Frequently Asked Questions

What channel number is BBC One on Freeview?

BBC One is on channel 1 on Freeview. If you have a Freeview HD receiver or an HD-ready TV with a built-in tuner, BBC One HD is on channel 101. Both carry your regional version of the channel.

What channel is BBC One on Sky?

BBC One is on channel 101 on Sky. This applies to Sky Q, Sky Stream and Sky Glass. The regional opt-out you receive depends on the postcode registered to your Sky account.

What channel is BBC One on Virgin Media?

BBC One is on channel 101 on Virgin Media.

What channel is BBC One on Freesat?

BBC One is on channel 101 on Freesat. The regional version is determined by the postcode entered during your box’s initial setup.

What time is EastEnders on BBC One?

EastEnders airs on BBC One at 7:30pm, Monday to Thursday, and has done since the Friday episode was axed in 2022. During Wimbledon fortnight those episodes sometimes shift over to BBC Two if the tennis runs long into the evening. Every episode lands on BBC iPlayer from 6am on the day of broadcast.

What’s on BBC One tonight?

Sunday 16 August 2026: it’s the closing day of the European Athletics Championships: Birmingham 2026. The women’s and men’s marathon finals run through the streets of Birmingham from 7:25am, and the closing evening session from 7:30pm settles the week’s last titles at Alexander Stadium, including the men’s pole vault, women’s javelin and women’s long jump finals and the mixed 4x100m relay, before the closing ceremony; treat later timings as approximate since live coverage can run over. There’s no EastEnders, or any soap at all, on a Sunday. The night closes with Mission: Impossible II at 10:30pm.

Does BBC One have adverts?

No. BBC One carries no commercial advertising on any platform, and nor does any other BBC channel. The BBC is funded entirely by the TV Licence fee.

Can I watch BBC One online without a TV aerial?

Yes. BBC One streams live on BBC iPlayer and on Freely for broadband-connected TVs, so no aerial or satellite dish is needed. You do need a broadband connection, a free BBC account and a valid TV Licence. The iPlayer app runs on smart TVs, phones, tablets, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and most major streaming devices.

Verdict

The European Athletics Championships close out on BBC One tonight, and the closing evening session from Alexander Stadium is the last live sport of the week before the ceremony brings the curtain down. Expect the schedule to slip past 10pm if coverage overruns, which live athletics usually does.

Mission: Impossible II closes the night once the athletics wraps. It’s the John Woo sequel rather than the original, heavier on stunt spectacle than the first film’s plotting, and a reasonable way to see out a Sunday.

Watch

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