TV Guide UK Tonight: Fri 13 Mar 2026 – Death in Paradise, Astrid: Murder in Paris & Cheltenham Gold Cup

A Friday with plenty of pull across channels. Death in Paradise returns to BBC One at 9pm in a quieter, more unsettling mode than usual — Mervin Wilson’s PTSD aftermath giving the series a different kind of tension to the traditional whodunit. On BBC Two at the same time, Big Cats 24/7 delivers the kind of wildlife footage that makes you wonder how anyone pointed a camera at it and stayed calm: full lion brawls within touching distance of the trucks. More4 closes out the Astrid: Murder in Paris series at 9pm with what one reviewer calls a genuinely distressing ending. For racing fans, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is the event of the sporting year — live on ITV1 from 4pm. And at 10:40pm, The Claudia Winkleman Show arrives on BBC One with Jeff Goldblum, Jennifer Saunders, Vanessa Williams and Tom Allen in tow. A well-stocked Friday.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Big Cats 24/7 — BBC Two, 9pm — Lions fighting next to the camera trucks. The most visceral wildlife television of the year so far
• Death in Paradise — BBC One, 9pm — Mervin Wilson’s PTSD opens up new emotional territory for the series
• Astrid: Murder in Paris (series finale) — More4, 9pm — A back-to-front case with a distressing but compelling conclusion
• Horse Racing: Cheltenham Gold Cup — ITV1, from 4pm — Galopín Des Champs goes for three Gold Cups
• The Claudia Winkleman Show — BBC One, 10:40pm — New series debut; four interesting guests and a host who knows what to do with them
• Would I Lie to You? The Unseen Bits — BBC One, 8:30pm — Gyles Brandreth, an Italian pop song, and the most outlandish Bob Mortimer claim yet

Early Evening

MasterChef The Professionals — BBC One, 7:30pm

A second wave of professional chefs face the street-food challenge, this time at a London food hall. The brief sounds straightforward enough on paper, but street food done well at scale is one of the harder things a trained chef can be asked to do quickly. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Gardeners’ World — BBC Two, 8pm

Spring is pressing against the door. Monty Don and the dog have been contending with Longmeadow’s flood damage all winter — cutting back the saturated grasses and getting the dahlias ready for the season ahead. Adam Frost is settling into new surroundings after his house move, and Arit Anderson heads to Kew Gardens. Good timing for it — spring gardening after a wet winter is exactly what you want at 8pm on a Friday. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Would I Lie to You? The Unseen Bits — BBC One, 8:30pm

A bonus edition revealing what ended up on the cutting-room floor across the series just finished. Eight additional rounds of panellists trying to pass off falsehoods as gospel or convince their opponents that something genuinely odd is true. Gyles Brandreth performs — and claims to have written — an Italian pop song, which is either extraordinary or entirely plausible depending on how well you know Gyles Brandreth. Bob Mortimer makes a claim described as potentially the most bizarre he has ever made on the show, which is really saying something. A second clips programme follows next week. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Prime Time: 9pm

Death in Paradise — BBC One, 9pm

The show has cycled through several lead detectives over the years, each with their own defining trait: Poole’s stiff, anxious formality; Goodman’s charming eccentricity; Parker’s calculated awkwardness. Mervin Wilson is doing something different. His PTSD following the abduction he survived last week is not played for quick sympathy or conveniently resolved — it is sitting inside the episode and shaping how he deals with everyone around him. His default setting has always been guardedness, and the question the series is now asking is whether that armour is making things better or worse.

It makes for a slightly different viewing experience than the show’s usual sunlit format — the murder plot is present and there is a solution, but the emotional register has shifted. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Big Cats 24/7 ⭐ — BBC Two, 9pm

You sometimes find yourself watching wildlife documentary footage and wondering about the people behind the lens — whether they were frightened, how close they really were, whether the camera truck offered any real protection at all. Tonight’s episode of Big Cats 24/7 makes that question particularly pressing. Gordon Buchanan films at night as lionesses attempt to hold a kill against an encroaching rival pride. While they are doing so, three males from the opposing side arrive and begin fighting — mauling, biting and clawing each other in a brawl that takes place almost within arm’s reach of the cameras.

The resulting footage is extraordinary. The night-vision filming is clear enough that you can see individual animals’ expressions during the confrontation. It is not comfortable to watch. On a lighter note, the episode also captures a young cheetah making her distinctive high-pitched call to her brother when she decides it is time to eat — tonally about as different as you can get, and equally good. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Astrid: Murder in Paris (Series Finale) — More4, 9pm

A curious construction for the final episode: the episode opens having already shown us who tampered with the prop gun that killed one of the two actors on the film set. The job now is not identifying a killer but proving it, and the case shifts direction in ways that neither Astrid nor Raphaëlle fully anticipated. When another body appears, Dr Fournier notes with some dryness that the two of them seem to be meeting with increasing frequency. He is not wrong.

Astrid’s analytical approach leads her and Raphaëlle towards an answer that turns out to be more alarming than either expected. Viewers who have invested in the series should be warned: this ends on genuinely difficult ground. Not exploitative, but not easy. Catch up via Channel 4 streaming.

The Affair — ITV1, 9pm

Seasons 1 to 3 of this American drama arrive on ITVX today, and ITV1 broadcasts the opening episode tonight. Noah is a New York writer with what looks like an enviable life, who meets a waitress called Alison at a Hamptons diner. He is immediately drawn to her. The episode then splits its account of what follows in two: first from Noah’s perspective, then from Alison’s. Their memories of the same encounter are not simply different in emphasis — they are substantially contradictory.

The structure alone is good enough, but there are hints early on that something much darker — possibly a murder — sits somewhere in the future of this storyline. Dominic West and Ruth Wilson are both excellent, and the format keeps you permanently uncertain about whose version you should trust, which turns out to be an unusually uncomfortable place to sit for an hour. Catch up via ITVX.

Irish Music Night — BBC Four, from 9:05pm

BBC Four’s approach to St Patrick’s Day proximity is comprehensive. St Patrick’s Day at the BBC (9:05pm) pulls together archive performances from U2, Thin Lizzy, the Pogues and the Cranberries — whose track Zombie has apparently found a second life as a Gen Z anthem, which would have been a strange sentence to write in 1994. Other Voices 2026 at 10:05pm provides a more contemporary frame of reference. Van Morrison plays a full concert at 11:50pm. For anyone who wants the historical context underneath the footage, The Irish Rock Story airs at 2:05am with archive material from Dublin and Belfast. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Late Night

The Claudia Winkleman Show — BBC One, 10:40pm

Claudia Winkleman has spent the better part of two decades being the most likeable person in any room she enters — the Strictly ballroom, the Traitors castle, a BBC Radio 2 studio, take your pick. Now she has a chat show of her own, and her pre-launch assessment that she will “obviously be awful” at it should be taken with the same amount of salt you would apply to anything self-deprecating from someone who has been hosting live television flawlessly for years.

The opening guest list is strong: Jeff Goldblum, who remains one of the more reliably surprising interviews in Hollywood; Vanessa Williams, navigating both US and West End credentials; and the comedy pairing of Jennifer Saunders and Tom Allen, who between them could carry an hour without any input from the host at all. The show is recorded close to transmission, which means no advance preview copies were circulating when the listings went to press — which is either a sign of confidence or caution, and possibly both. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy — ITV1, 10:55pm

As Gacy grows more inebriated in conversation with his defence lawyer Sam Amirante, the justifications multiply: self-defence, blackmail, the character of his victims. The documentary uses these claims as a frame while showing, in flashback, what the murders actually involved. What emerges is a portrait of a man who deployed charm as a weapon — pleasant and accommodating right up to the moment he was not. The footage charts the gap between the public persona and what lay beneath with a directness that some viewers will find very difficult. Full series available via ITVX.

Girl ★★★ (12) — BBC Two, 11pm

London playwright Adura Onashile’s 2023 feature debut is a small film that earns its modest scale. Déborah Lukumuena plays Grace, a 25-year-old mother whose anxiety about the outside world has led her to keep her daughter Ama — played by Le’Shantey Bonsu — effectively confined to their flat. The film is loosely drawn from Onashile’s own childhood experience in a single-parent household, and that proximity gives it an emotional honesty that more constructed narratives sometimes lack. Onashile keeps the backstory deliberately indistinct; what matters is where Grace is now and whether she can find her way out of it. Both lead performances are very good. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Sport

Horse Racing: Cheltenham Gold Cup — Live on ITV1 from 4pm. Galopín Des Champs bids for a third Gold Cup win — he won in 2023 and 2024 before finishing second in 2025.

Football: Championship — Wrexham v Swansea — Kick-off 8pm on Sky Sports Football. North Wales hosts south Wales at the Racecourse Ground.

Rugby League: Challenge Cup — Wakefield Trinity v Leeds Rhinos — Kick-off 8pm on BBC iPlayer. Fourth round, Yorkshire derby.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

BBC iPlayer: Death in Paradise, Big Cats 24/7, Would I Lie to You? The Unseen Bits, Gardeners’ World, MasterChef The Professionals, The Claudia Winkleman Show, Irish Music Night, Girl
ITVX: The Affair (Seasons 1–3 available now), Cheltenham Gold Cup, Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy
Channel 4 streaming: Astrid: Murder in Paris (full series)
Channel 5 streaming/My5: Building the Impossible with Rob Bell
Sky Sports: Wrexham v Swansea City (Championship)

Frequently Asked Questions

What time is Death in Paradise on BBC One tonight?

Death in Paradise is on BBC One at 9pm tonight (Friday 13th March 2026). This week DI Mervin Wilson’s PTSD from his abduction ordeal puts the series in unfamiliar emotional territory — his guardedness may be doing more harm than good. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Is the Astrid series finale on More4 tonight?

Yes. Astrid: Murder in Paris reaches its series finale on More4 at 9pm tonight (Friday 13th March 2026). The episode opens having already revealed who tampered with the gun on the film set — the challenge is now proving it. The conclusion is described by reviewers as genuinely distressing. Catch up via Channel 4 streaming.

Is EastEnders on TV tonight?

No, EastEnders does not air on Fridays. The show runs Monday to Thursday on BBC One at 7:30pm. If you missed Thursday’s episode you can catch up via BBC iPlayer.

What time is the Cheltenham Gold Cup on TV?

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is live on ITV1 from 4pm today (Friday 13th March 2026). Galopín Des Champs attempts to become a three-time winner of the race. Coverage is also available via ITVX.

What time is The Claudia Winkleman Show on BBC One tonight?

The Claudia Winkleman Show launches tonight on BBC One at 10:40pm (Friday 13th March 2026). The opening episode guests are Jeff Goldblum, Vanessa Williams, Jennifer Saunders and Tom Allen. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight?

Our top pick for Friday 13th March 2026 is Big Cats 24/7 on BBC Two at 9pm — Gordon Buchanan filming lion battles at night with the animals barely yards from the cameras. It is extraordinary wildlife television. Death in Paradise on BBC One at 9pm is this series at its most interesting emotionally. Astrid: Murder in Paris closes its run on More4 at 9pm with a well-constructed finale. For sport, the Cheltenham Gold Cup on ITV1 from 4pm is the race of the jump season.

What’s on BBC One tonight?

BBC One tonight (Friday 13th March 2026) includes MasterChef The Professionals at 7:30pm, Would I Lie to You? The Unseen Bits at 8:30pm — with archive material including a Gyles Brandreth Italian pop song — Death in Paradise at 9pm, and the debut of The Claudia Winkleman Show at 10:40pm with Jeff Goldblum, Vanessa Williams, Jennifer Saunders and Tom Allen.

Is there live sport on TV tonight?

Yes. The Cheltenham Gold Cup is live on ITV1 from 4pm. Wrexham v Swansea City in the Championship kicks off at 8pm on Sky Sports Football. Wakefield Trinity v Leeds Rhinos in the Challenge Cup fourth round is live on BBC iPlayer from 8pm.

Final Verdict

Big Cats 24/7 on BBC Two at 9pm is the standout of the night. Gordon Buchanan’s night-time lion footage — brawling males feet from the camera trucks, lionesses defending a kill against a rival pride — is visceral and genuinely tense. The contrast with the young cheetah summoning her brother for lunch is the sort of gear-change that keeps you watching week after week.

Death in Paradise on BBC One at 9pm is doing something quietly ambitious with Mervin Wilson’s PTSD. The show has always lived or died on the watchability of its lead detective, and making Wilson genuinely vulnerable rather than charmingly eccentric opens up interesting ground. The murder plot delivers, but the character work is what makes it worth watching this week.

Astrid: Murder in Paris closes its run on More4 at 9pm. The back-to-front structure — we know who did it, we need to prove it — works well for a finale, and the show earns its difficult ending rather than reaching for it. Not comfortable, but rewarding.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup on ITV1 from 4pm is the sporting event of the week, possibly the month. Whether Galopín Des Champs makes history with a third win is the question the racing world has been building towards all season.

The Claudia Winkleman Show at 10:40pm is worth staying up for. Jeff Goldblum, Jennifer Saunders, Vanessa Williams and Tom Allen is a guest list assembled by someone who understands that a good chat show depends less on celebrity wattage than on people who have something to say and a host who knows when to listen.

Would I Lie to You? The Unseen Bits at 8:30pm on BBC One is a solid Friday warm-up — bonus rounds from the series just concluded, including what sounds like the peak Bob Mortimer claim of the run. Gardeners’ World at 8pm on BBC Two is the gentle counterweight to the evening’s more demanding programming. The Affair on ITV1 at 9pm launches its three-season ITVX run with an opening episode that establishes the unreliable-narrator format with real skill.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight Friday | What’s On TV Tonight Thurs 12 Mar 2026 | What’s On TV Tonight Sat 14 Mar 2026

Clint Edgar

Clint is a writer and self-proclaimed professional binge-watcher who treats the "Skip Intro" button with the suspicion it deserves. When he isn't dissecting plot holes or getting emotionally invested in fictional characters, you can find him scrolling through streaming queues or arguing about why The Office is a masterpiece. Clint lives in London with a dangerously comfortable couch and a remote control that he guards with his life.