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

Published: 24 August 2026

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.

Tuesday 25 August 2026: EastEnders is in its usual 7:30pm slot for episode 135, followed by The Great British Sewing Bee’s music-themed week at 8pm and the second week of heats on Celebrity MasterChef at 9pm. There’s no football or live sport on BBC One tonight — the evening winds down with the 2024 true-story drama Arthur the King from 10:40pm, with Mark Wahlberg and Simu Liu.

BBC One Schedule: Tuesday 25 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete BBC One schedule for Tuesday 25 August 2026, on Freeview 1.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on BBC One today: the daytime schedule

A standard weekday shape today. Breakfast runs its usual three and a half hours from 6am, handing over to Morning Live at 9:30am, which looks at unregulated online pharmacies and how evidence gets built against rogue traders.

Garden Rescue takes 10:30am (series 10, episode 10), with Charlie Dimmock going back to revisit one of her own past projects and giving it a Turkish-inspired makeover, and Homes Under the Hammer follows at 11:15am (series 29, episode 31) touring auction buys in Derbyshire, Essex and Cheshire.

Bargain Hunt opens the afternoon at 12:15pm (series 66, episode 16) from Hungerford in Berkshire, where one find turns up a hidden bakehouse inside an Elizabethan mansion, and BBC News at One with BBC London News runs from 1pm. Money for Nothing at 2pm (series 18, episode 18) has Sarah Moore turning old spindles from a Buckinghamshire recycling centre into candlesticks, and Escape to the Country at 2:45pm (series 25, episode 6) sends Sonali Shah to help a couple from Newport house-hunt in Devon. The Repair Shop returns at 3:30pm (series 14, episode 19) to restore a shipwreck survivor’s statuette, an Iranian baby hammock and a flight case that once belonged to a touring bassist.

The Answer Run, Jason Manford’s rapid-fire 50/50 quiz for couples, continues its second series at 4:30pm, and Pointless closes out the afternoon at 5:15pm (series 30, episode 20) ahead of the evening news.

BBC One tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

No football, cricket or other sport interrupts BBC One tonight — the evening runs its ordinary shape from the news through to a soap, two entertainment formats and a film.

BBC News opens the evening at 6pm, with BBC London News covering the regional agenda at 6:30pm.

The One Show — BBC One, 7pm

The usual mix of studio guests and topical reports fills the half hour before the soap.

EastEnders — BBC One, 7:30pm

Episode 135 lands two blows and one piece of good news: a hard update for Eve and Suki, a rare bit of hope for Denise’s family, and pressure on Penny that visibly gets to her.

The Great British Sewing Bee — BBC One, 8pm

Series 12’s music week has the sewers building a pattern challenge around Madonna’s cone-bra era and turning bedroom cushions and curtains into disco stagewear for the transformation round.

Celebrity MasterChef — BBC One, 9pm

The second week of heats brings Gladiator Emily Steel into the kitchen alongside Nitin Ganatra, Tom Simons, Donna Preston and Eric Underwood, cooking against the clock and being tested on taste and touch alone.

BBC News and Weather returns at 10pm, followed by another BBC London News update at 10:30pm.

Arthur the King — BBC One, 10:40pm

Mark Wahlberg plays an adventure racer chasing redemption over a gruelling 435-mile, ten-day event in the Dominican Republic, with Simu Liu among his teammates and a scrappy stray dog that refuses to be left behind. Based on Mikael Lindnord’s real story, the 2024 film runs to 12:20am.

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?

Tuesday 25 August 2026: EastEnders holds its regular 7:30pm slot for episode 135, with news that hits Eve and Suki hard and a welcome break for Denise’s family. The Great British Sewing Bee brings a music-themed week at 8pm, and Celebrity MasterChef moves into its second week of heats at 9pm. The night ends with the 2024 film Arthur the King, starring Mark Wahlberg and Simu Liu, from 10:40pm.

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

A solid, unshowy Tuesday: EastEnders carries the emotional weight of the night, Sewing Bee’s music week is good value for a format that rarely misses, and Celebrity MasterChef keeps its heats moving with a strong line-up. Nothing here is appointment television for anyone outside the show’s regulars, but there’s no dead air either.

Arthur the King is the pick if you’re staying up — a well-cast true story with a dog at the centre of it does the job a Tuesday-night film needs to do. Nobody is losing much by catching it on iPlayer instead.

Watch

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | BBC One Schedule | Films on TV This Week