TV Guide UK Tonight: Fri 24 Apr 2026 – The Neighbourhood Launches, I’m a Celebrity South Africa Final & Beyond Paradise

Published: 21 April 2026

Tonight’s TV highlights (Friday 24 April 2026): The Neighbourhood premieres on ITV1 at 9pm with Graham Norton hosting a new 11-part reality format and a £250,000 prize. I’m a Celebrity… South Africa runs a two-part live final on ITV1 at 7:30pm and 10pm. Beyond Paradise airs the Green Man episode on BBC One at 8pm. Sunderland v Nottingham Forest kicks off at 8pm on Sky Sports Main Event. Roy Orbison Night runs on BBC Four from 11pm.

Friday night has three big appointment slots and a lot of noise around them. The Neighbourhood premieres on ITV1 at 9pm, with Graham Norton fronting a new reality format built around a fake Peak District village and a £250,000 prize. I’m a Celebrity… South Africa runs a two-part live final on ITV1 at 7:30pm and 10pm, crowning this year’s Legend. BBC One leads with Beyond Paradise at 8pm (the Green Man episode), Have I Got News for You at 9pm and The Young Offenders at 9:30pm. Sky Sports carries Sunderland v Nottingham Forest at 8pm. And BBC Four wraps the night up with a full Roy Orbison Night from 11pm. EastEnders is off on Fridays, if you’re wondering.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• The Neighbourhood ⭐ — ITV1, 9pm — New series. Graham Norton, Peak District, £250,000, six households, a lot of For Sale signs
• I’m a Celebrity… South Africa: Live Final — ITV1, 7:30pm & 10pm — Two-part finale. This year’s Legend crowned
• Beyond Paradise — BBC One, 8pm — The Green Man episode. Off-grid community, property developer, a body painted green
• Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey — BBC One, 7:30pm — Post Office scandal victim Reema sits for artist Jack Dickson
• Sunderland v Nottingham Forest — Sky Sports Main Event, 8pm — Premier League. Forest unbeaten in five
• Roy Orbison Night — BBC Four, from 11pm — Archive performances plus the 1988 Black and White Night concert

What’s New Tonight

One major new start lands on Friday 24 April 2026:

• The Neighbourhood — ITV1, 9pm — Series premiere. Graham Norton hosts a new 11-part reality format filmed at a custom-built Peak District set called “KeepYourEnemies Close”. Six households move into a fake street, compete in tasks, and vote each other out by plonking a giant “For Sale” sign outside a rival’s door. £250,000 prize. Episodes 2 and 3 air Saturday and Sunday. Catch up via ITVX.

What’s Ending Tonight

Two series sign off on Friday 24 April 2026:

• I’m a Celebrity… South Africa — ITV1, 7:30pm and 10pm — Two-part live final. Voting opens and the final trials play out in part one; this year’s Legend is crowned at the end of part two. Catch up via ITVX.
• The Claudia Winkleman Show — BBC One, 10:40pm — Last in series. Claudia Winkleman’s first major post-Strictly project wraps up its six-week run with a compilation revisiting highlights from the green velvet sofa. A second series is expected to be confirmed soon. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Early Evening

Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey – BBC One, 7:30pm

The Post Office scandal and the scale of the injustice shocked the country when the news broke. Reema was one of the wrongly accused subpostmasters. She was sentenced to prison while pregnant, and her personal story (and the stigma she says she still feels) is as distressing tonight as ever. Bill Bailey pairs her with artist Jack Dickson for a portrait that immortalises her and celebrates the wider community of those who were wrongly accused. The finished piece is enormous — “It’s some size!” says Bailey as they unpack it — and Reema, perfectly reasonably, just wants the portrait to be hopeful and happy. It isn’t that and it is that, all at once. Bailey and Dickson both well up at the reveal. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

I’m a Celebrity… South Africa: Live Final Part 1 – ITV1, 7:30pm

The first half of the two-part live final. Voting opens and the final trials are set up before the winner is crowned this year’s Legend. Catch up via ITVX.

Prime Time

Beyond Paradise – BBC One, 8pm

Kris Marshall’s Humphrey has a lot on his plate this week. A dogwalker finds a groundsman unconscious and painted green, bound in ivy, and Humphrey and Esther are pulled into the mythology of the Green Man and a community of off-gridders living in the woods. When their woodland home comes under threat from a city property developer, accusations fly. The image of the Green Man keeps appearing at crime scenes, including one painted across the developer’s office as it burns down. Two warring brothers own the land: one wants the diggers in, the other sides with the off-gridders.

This is Beyond Paradise doing what Beyond Paradise does best — a slightly strange case, a town with too many secrets, and Humphrey working his way to the truth with Esther keeping the rest of the show grounded. Kelby is also trying to find a new job after a team departure. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Gardeners’ World – BBC Two, 8pm

Lemons, of all things. Monty Don takes on the myth that you can’t grow them in the UK and shows how to do it properly. He’s also out in the woodland garden and potting up summer bulbs. Jamie Butterworth celebrates euphorbia as an often-underrated border plant from his Essex base, and there’s a visit to garden designer Rosemary Alexander’s West Sussex home garden. Beechgrove Garden at 7:30pm covers new raspberry varieties, and Greatest Gardens (7pm) has Diarmuid Gavin and Carol Klein plus Penny Lancaster touring Northern Ireland. A proper Friday gardening block. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

9pm: The Neighbourhood Launches

The Neighbourhood ⭐ – ITV1, 9pm (NEW SERIES)

ITV’s biggest reality launch of the year. Graham Norton hosts, and the premise is both simple and ruthless. Six real households move into a fake street in a fake Peak District village — a custom-built set called, with no subtlety at all, “KeepYourEnemies Close” — where they live alongside each other as neighbours and rivals. They eat, sleep and socialise together 24/7. They also compete in a series of tasks and challenges, with the ultimate goal of winning a £250,000 cash prize. They vote each other out by plonking a giant “For Sale” sign outside a rival’s door.

It’s an obvious and deliberate swing at the same territory the BBC opened up with The Traitors. There’s a softer suburban Squid Game sensibility running underneath: befriend your neighbours, then stab them in the back for the money. Whether that lands for a mainstream Friday-night audience is the question, but the launch episode moves fast. There’s a lot of contestants to meet at once, and the stakes aren’t as high as the dramatic incidental music would have you believe. But as the weeks go on and the groupings tighten, this could be devilish fun. Eleven parts. Episodes two and three air Saturday and Sunday. Catch up via ITVX.

Have I Got News for You – BBC One, 9pm

Sue Perkins hosts this week, with comedian Finlay Christie and journalist Camilla Long joining Ian Hislop and Paul Merton. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Great British Menu: Banquet Special – BBC Two, 9pm

The first piece of bad news lands early: one of the chosen chefs can’t cook this year’s banquet. Andi Oliver reveals the replacement before informing the rest of the team that they all need to make popcorn canapés. The crew then tackles the logistical problems of cooking in a listed building (no indoor barbecuing, no frying, and the kitchen is a long walk from the banqueting room). They produce spectacular film-inspired food for 80 guests from the film industry. Pompeii-inspired food for cinema people is quite a pitch, and the dishes look the part. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Pompeii: the Secret DNA – Channel 5, 9pm

A bleak documentary tracing the rise and fall of Pompeii — a city once regarded as the peak of Roman sophistication but actually riven with social inequality, violence and unrest. Recent archaeological finds include an unearthed tomb that sheds light on the opulent lifestyles of Pompeii’s elite and a servant’s quarters that lays bare the conditions of the enslaved population. New DNA analysis reveals the extraordinary story of a slave who gained freedom and rose to power. Then Vesuvius erupted. Catch up via 5 streaming.

The Young Offenders – BBC One, 9:30pm

Alex Murphy and Chris Walley are back as Conor and Jock. Romance is in the air — or Jock’s version of it. Deciding it’s high time the lads got girlfriends, Jock declares, “We are going out on the town and we’re not coming back until we have STIs.” The logic is characteristically flawed. Two tourists visiting Cork catch their eye, and the pair end up touring the city’s upscale dating scene, taking in cocktails that are “just a load of booze mixed together and given a fancy name”, crème brûlée (aka “fire custard”) and craic. Posh influencers Charlotte (Niamh Cremin) and Emma (Holly Sturton) have ulterior motives of their own. Silly, warm, pleasingly rude. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Late Night

First Dates – Channel 4, 10pm

Magician Clint tries to conjure a meaningful connection with kooky Finnish artist Sanna. It’s as quietly strange as it sounds. Catch up via C4 streaming.

Death Valley – BBC Three, 10pm and 10:50pm

A rerun double bill of the first series, timed to launch the run-up to series two. Timothy Spall plays John Chapel, retired actor and one-time TV sleuth now living reclusively in Wales as a kind of Droopy with shoes on. Gwyneth Keyworth is the police sergeant who, after a shooting in his neighbourhood, draws him out of his shell. Episode two involves a murdered rambler. A comfort-blanket detective drama, exactly as advertised. Full series on BBC iPlayer.

I’m a Celebrity… South Africa: Live Final Part 2 – ITV1, 10pm

The second half of the live final. The Legend crown is handed out. Catch up via ITVX.

The Claudia Winkleman Show – BBC One, 10:40pm (LAST IN SERIES)

Six weeks in, and La Winkle’s first major post-Strictly project wraps up its run. After a nervous start, the show has found its feet as a warm, witty Friday treat. Guests on the green velvet sofa have been more homegrown than Graham Norton’s Hollywood-heavy line-ups, and the tone runs more whimsical and freewheeling. Tonight’s compilation revisits the best moments from the six-week run, and a second series is expected to be greenlit soon. Not bad for a “tiny orange woman with a fringe” who feared the whole thing would be excruciating. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Roy Orbison Night – BBC Four, from 11pm

A full three-hour BBC Four night dedicated to the Big O. With his otherworldly operatic tenor, Roy Orbison was one of the most distinctive voices of the early rock era. The run starts with archive performances of It’s Over and Oh, Pretty Woman, followed by Handle with Care from his time in 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. The centrepiece is the magnificent Black and White Night — Orbison’s intimate 1988 concert with Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits on stage behind him. That’s followed by the 1975 BBC concert special Roy Sings Orbison. An absolute evening for anyone with ears. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Sport

Football: Sunderland v Nottingham Forest – Sky Sports Main Event, 8pm (k/o 8pm)

A Premier League Friday opener at the Stadium of Light. Forest arrive unbeaten in five under Vitor Pereira and look a different team to the one battling relegation earlier in the season. Sunderland lost 4-3 at Aston Villa at the weekend, ending a two-game winning streak, and Regis Le Bris’s side sits two points off sixth place. Everything to play for at both ends. Live on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Ultra HDR.

Snooker: World Snooker Championship – BBC Two, TNT Sports

Day seven at the Crucible. Second-round matches continue across BBC Two from 10am and 2:15pm, with TNT Sports 3 at 6:30pm and TNT Sports 1 and 3 from 7pm. BBC Four picks up the evening session.

Premiership Rugby Union: Newcastle Red Bulls v Bristol Bears – TNT Sports 1, 7pm (k/o 7:45pm)

Premiership rugby from Kingston Park.

Cricket: County Championship – Surrey v Essex – Sky Sports Cricket, 10:50am

Red-ball cricket from the Kia Oval.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

BBC iPlayer: Extraordinary Portraits, Beyond Paradise, Have I Got News for You, The Young Offenders, Great British Menu, Gardeners’ World, Death Valley (full series), The Claudia Winkleman Show, Roy Orbison Night
ITVX: The Neighbourhood, I’m a Celebrity… South Africa
Channel 4 streaming: First Dates
5 streaming: Pompeii: the Secret DNA
Sky Sports / NOW Sports: Sunderland v Nottingham Forest

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on tonight (Friday 24 April 2026)?

No, EastEnders is not on BBC One tonight. EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday in 2026. Tonight’s BBC One line-up leads with Beyond Paradise at 8pm, Have I Got News for You at 9pm and The Young Offenders at 9:30pm. EastEnders returns on Monday. The full week is available on BBC iPlayer.

What time is The Neighbourhood on ITV1 tonight?

The Neighbourhood launches on ITV1 at 9pm tonight (Friday 24 April 2026). Graham Norton hosts the new 11-part reality format. Six households compete for a £250,000 prize at a custom-built Peak District set. Episodes 2 and 3 air Saturday and Sunday. Catch up via ITVX.

What time is I’m a Celebrity South Africa final on tonight?

I’m a Celebrity… South Africa runs a two-part live final on ITV1 tonight (Friday 24 April 2026) at 7:30pm (part one) and 10pm (part two). The Legend crown is handed out at the end of part two. Catch up via ITVX.

What time is Beyond Paradise on BBC One tonight?

Beyond Paradise is on BBC One at 8pm tonight (Friday 24 April 2026). Tonight’s case is The Green Man, with Humphrey investigating a groundsman found painted green in an off-grid community. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Is Sunderland v Nottingham Forest on TV tonight?

Yes. Sunderland v Nottingham Forest is live on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Ultra HDR tonight (Friday 24 April 2026), kick-off 8pm at the Stadium of Light. Sky Sports subscription or NOW Sports pass required.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight (Friday 24 April 2026)?

The Neighbourhood on ITV1 at 9pm is the headline launch — Graham Norton fronting a new reality format in a fake Peak District village for a £250,000 prize. I’m a Celebrity… South Africa runs a two-part live final on ITV1 at 7:30pm and 10pm. Beyond Paradise returns at 8pm on BBC One with the Green Man episode. For football, Sunderland v Nottingham Forest kicks off at 8pm on Sky Sports.

What’s on BBC Four tonight (Friday 24 April 2026)?

Roy Orbison Night runs on BBC Four from 11pm — a three-hour tribute to the Big O. Archive performances of It’s Over, Oh, Pretty Woman and Handle with Care (with the Traveling Wilburys) open the night, followed by the 1988 Black and White Night concert (Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits) and the 1975 BBC concert special Roy Sings Orbison. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Is there any comedy on TV tonight (Friday 24 April 2026)?

Yes — Have I Got News for You is on BBC One at 9pm with Sue Perkins hosting. Finlay Christie and Camilla Long join Ian Hislop and Paul Merton. The Young Offenders follows on BBC One at 9:30pm, with Conor and Jock taking a daft tour of Cork’s upscale dating scene. Both available via BBC iPlayer.

Final Verdict

The Neighbourhood earns the star tonight almost on principle. ITV has built a lot of show around one big idea, and the idea is good. Graham Norton hosting the sort of Friday-night format ITV used to own in the 2000s is the right pitch, and the Peak District set is a proper piece of reality-TV architecture. Whether it sustains over eleven weeks is the question, but the launch does its job.

Beyond Paradise at 8pm on BBC One is comfortable Friday watching done well, and the Green Man episode is one of the better ones of the series. Kris Marshall has been on this kind of show long enough to know exactly how to carry it.

Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey at 7:30pm is the quiet pick. Reema’s Post Office episode is properly moving television, handled with the care the subject deserves.

And if you’ve made it to 11pm, Roy Orbison Night on BBC Four is a full three-hour archive feast, capped with the 1988 Black and White Night concert. Worth staying up for.

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