TV Guide UK Tonight: Fri 3 Apr 2026 – The Young Offenders, Have I Got News for You & Big Cats 24/7

Published: 2 April 2026

Good Friday brings a bank holiday schedule with more personality than the usual Friday night. The Young Offenders is back for a fifth series on BBC One at 9:30pm — Conor and Jock reunited, immediately in over their heads, and posing as stag weekenders called Diego and Juan is already one of the better premises the Cork comedy has had. Have I Got News for You leads at 9pm with Roy Wood Jr hosting and Armando Iannucci in the guest chair. Big Cats 24/7 has newborn lion cubs and savannah tension on BBC Two at 9pm. Beyond Paradise tackles a sensitive DID case at 8pm, and Gardeners’ World makes the most of the Easter gardening occasion at 8pm on BBC Two. BBC Four gives The Cure two slots from 9:10pm. No EastEnders tonight — bank holiday.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• The Young Offenders ⭐ — BBC One, 9:30pm — Series 5 premiere. Diego and Juan accidentally take a retired couple hostage. This is going to be wonderful
• Have I Got News for You — BBC One, 9pm — Roy Wood Jr, Armando Iannucci, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. The week’s news has given them plenty to work with
• Big Cats 24/7 — BBC Two, 9pm — Newborn lion cubs in the Okavango and some spectacular inter-pride tension
• Beyond Paradise — BBC One, 8pm — A case involving dissociative identity disorder gives the show’s drama real moral weight tonight
• Gardeners’ World — BBC Two, 8pm — Monty Don planting potatoes on Good Friday. Does it get more seasonal than this?
• The Cure at the BBC — BBC Four, 9:10pm — Archive celebration of the band, plus a full 2024 concert at 10pm

Early Evening

Great British Menu — BBC Two, 7pm

The competition reaches its end-of-heat stages, with judges Tom Kerridge, Lorna McNee and Phil Wang assessing the Northern Ireland heat. Kerridge and McNee have a habit of disagreeing, and Phil Wang’s ambition to advance to the chair position has not gone unnoticed. Film director Lisa Barros D’Sa is the guest, which creates a nice symmetry — several dishes tonight are apparently inspired by her work. Whether that’s a compliment to her films or an indictment of the menus is for the judges to decide. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

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

Artist Caroline Pool takes on an unusual subject: 82-year-old Eddie Brocklesby, who took up triathlons in her eighties after losing her husband and has since competed in enough of them to earn the nickname Irongran. She’s also built a charity around the idea that physical activity in older age changes how people feel about getting older. Pool’s initial challenge isn’t keeping Eddie still — it’s finding a way to paint someone whose story is too large for a simple likeness. The finished portrait is reportedly worth the wait. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Prime Time

Beyond Paradise — BBC One, 8pm

The show returns with a case that puts its central investigative pair in difficult ethical territory. A person with dissociative identity disorder is suspected of a crime based partly on the possibility of a violent alter, and the episode is honest enough to acknowledge that the evidence base for this kind of thinking is shaky at best. People diagnosed with DID are statistically far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators, a fact the script doesn’t ignore. Whether the suspect turns out to be guilty or innocent is the episode’s main reveal, but the more interesting question is whether the investigation itself is fair. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Gardeners’ World — BBC Two, 8pm

Easter weekend is when the gardening year properly starts, and Monty Don marks the occasion by getting potatoes into the ground — which for many gardeners is practically a religious tradition in itself. He’s also sowing seeds for a cut-flower display and working with yew cuttings to show how topiary doesn’t require the kind of specialist knowledge people assume. Two reports round out the programme: one from a spring garden in Horsham, West Sussex, which sounds visually spectacular, and one from Carmarthenshire where a woman who gave up a London career has spent several years building a flower farm from scratch. Gardeners’ World has always been good at these life-change pieces, and this one sounds like a corker. If you’re in the garden this weekend, this is the warm-up you need. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

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

HIGNFY has been on television since September 1990, when the opening episode was discussing Gulf War preparations and a UK recession. Thirty-five-odd years later, the topics have a familiar ring to them — international instability, economic anxiety, the particular chaos emanating from Washington, the state of the main parties at home. The show’s durability is partly the format, partly Merton and Hislop, and partly the fact that no matter how strange things get politically, someone still has to sit there and explain it.

Roy Wood Jr is hosting for the third time, which means he’s past the “nervous guest host” phase and into the more interesting “has a strong handle on the room” phase. He also hosts CNN’s US version of the show, so this is familiar territory for him in multiple senses. Armando Iannucci in the guest chair is about as good as it gets — the man who created The Thick of It and Veep knows political dysfunction better than most people in Britain, and he won’t be short of material. Channel 4 News US editor Anushka Asthana provides the week’s transatlantic context. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Big Cats 24/7 — BBC Two, 9pm

The Okavango soap opera continues, and tonight’s episode is one of the stronger ones. The hunting behaviour on display is extraordinary — patient, calculated, more strategic than the words “animal instinct” usually suggest — and the lioness storyline is the heart of it this week. A camera car discovers she’s had two cubs, which should be good news, except that her sisters, equally young and equally inexperienced as aunts, are not exactly rolling out the welcome mat. The dynamic between the females is edgy and specific, and the show resists the temptation to over-narrate what’s happening. It’s also picking up from a cliffhanger involving a different storyline — no spoilers here, but last week’s ending left things on a knife edge. Full series on iPlayer. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

The Young Offenders ⭐ — BBC One, 9:30pm (NEW SERIES)

After four series and a film, The Young Offenders has quietly become one of those British sitcoms people love more than they can explain. The show is technically about petty crime. It’s actually about friendship, Cork, and the specifically Irish mode of getting into terrible situations while remaining utterly confident you can get out of them.

Conor (Alex Murphy) and Jock (Chris Walley) start series five in separate countries — both having served time, both having nominally agreed to grow up and behave themselves. The reunion lasts about five minutes before the old patterns reassert themselves. Tonight’s plot involves the pair posing as stag weekenders under the names Diego and Juan — which, if you’ve watched the previous four series, tells you everything you need to know about how well this is going to go — and ending up in a remote house with an unwilling retired couple as their accidental houseguests. The lads, to their credit, find they have more in common with this couple than expected. The bickering and knockabout chaos are present and correct, but the show has always been better than it looks on paper because it actually likes its characters. Full series available on BBC iPlayer.

Late Night

The Claudia Winkleman Show — BBC One, 10:30pm

Claudia Winkleman does the late Friday chat show thing with a proper guest list tonight: James McAvoy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Rita Wilson, and comedian Russell Howard. McAvoy and Mbatha-Raw are both currently promoting films — should be a decent late-night hour. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

The Cure at the BBC — BBC Four, 9:10pm

How do you summarise the Cure? They’ve made some of the most miserably compelling post-punk records of the 1980s and some of the catchiest pop singles of the same decade, often on the same album. This BBC archive piece collects their television appearances and studio sessions, with Boys Don’t Cry, Close to Me and Friday I’m in Love among the highlights. At 10pm, a 2024 Radio 2 in Concert recording picks up the story with Robert Smith leading the band through material from Songs of a Lost World alongside the catalogue classics. Not a bad way to spend Good Friday night, that. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

6 Music Festival — BBC Four, 11:30pm

The BBC Radio 6 Music Festival took over multiple venues across Greater Manchester last weekend, and the highlights programme pulls together performances from Bloc Party, Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, neo-psychedelic outfit the Horrors, BBC Introducing Artist of the Year 2025 Jacob Alon, electronic artist Kelly Lee Owens, Anglo-French noise rock act Mandy Indiana, and post-punk disco instigators Yard Act. A late-night treat for anyone who’s still awake. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Also Worth Noting

Gogglebox (Channel 4, 9pm) — The nation’s armchair critics deliver their verdicts on the week’s TV. Reliable bank holiday viewing.

Rob Beckett: Giraffe (Sky One, 9pm) — The 2024 London Palladium stand-up special. Rob Beckett is a dependably funny live act, and the Palladium is the right room for it.

Sport

Good Friday is one of the best days of the football and rugby calendar, with Championship clubs and Super League clubs all playing in traditional bank holiday fixtures.

Football: Championship — Three matches on Good Friday: Middlesbrough v Millwall (k/o 12:30pm, live on Sky Sports Football and free on ITV1), Oxford United v Hull City (k/o 3pm, Sky Sports Football), and Coventry City v Derby County under the lights (k/o 8pm, Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Main Event).

Rugby League: Super League — St Helens v Wigan Warriors (k/o 3pm) live on Sky Sports Main Event. The Good Friday derby is one of the standout fixtures of the Super League season.

Men’s Golf: Valero Texas Open — Day two from San Antonio live on Sky Sports Golf from 1:15pm, then Sky Sports Main Event from 10:30pm.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

BBC iPlayer: Beyond Paradise, Gardeners’ World, Have I Got News for You, Big Cats 24/7, Great British Menu, Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey, The Cure at the BBC, The Young Offenders, The Claudia Winkleman Show, 6 Music Festival
Channel 4 streaming: Gogglebox
Sky/Now: Rob Beckett: Giraffe (Sky One), Championship football, Super League rugby, Valero Texas Open golf (Sky Sports)

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on TV tonight on Good Friday?

No, EastEnders is not on tonight (Good Friday 3rd April 2026). The BBC does not broadcast EastEnders on bank holidays, so the soap won’t air on Good Friday or Easter Monday. It will return to its regular Monday-to-Thursday schedule once the Easter weekend is over. Catch up on recent episodes via BBC iPlayer.

What time is The Young Offenders on BBC One tonight?

The Young Offenders Series 5 is on BBC One at 9:30pm tonight (Good Friday 3rd April 2026). This is the series premiere. Conor (Alex Murphy) and Jock (Chris Walley) are back together after separately serving time in different countries, and the opening episode involves them posing as stag weekenders called Diego and Juan and accidentally taking a retired couple hostage at a remote house. Brilliant from the off. Full series available on BBC iPlayer.

What time is Have I Got News for You on tonight?

Have I Got News for You is on BBC One at 9pm tonight (Good Friday 3rd April 2026). Roy Wood Jr hosts for the third time, with regular panellists Paul Merton and Ian Hislop joined by guests Armando Iannucci and Channel 4 News US editor Anushka Asthana. Plenty of material in the week’s news to keep everyone occupied. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

What time is Big Cats 24/7 on tonight?

Big Cats 24/7 is on BBC Two at 9pm tonight (Good Friday 3rd April 2026). Tonight’s episode features a lioness in the Okavango who has given birth to two cubs, and her younger sisters who are struggling with the concept of being aunts. Last week’s cliffhanger is also resolved. The full series is available on BBC iPlayer.

What’s on BBC Two tonight on Good Friday?

BBC Two tonight (Good Friday 3rd April 2026) has Great British Menu at 7pm with the Northern Ireland heat end-of-heat episodes and guest director Lisa Barros D’Sa. Gardeners’ World follows at 8pm with Monty Don’s Easter planting, a spring garden report from Horsham and a Carmarthenshire flower farmer feature. Big Cats 24/7 takes the 9pm slot. All three available on BBC iPlayer.

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

The Young Offenders Series 5 on BBC One at 9:30pm is our top pick for tonight — the Good Friday premiere of the Cork sitcom’s fifth run looks like the show at its most inventive. Have I Got News for You at 9pm on BBC One with Armando Iannucci as guest is not to be missed if you want the week in politics treated with the contempt it deserves. Big Cats 24/7 on BBC Two at 9pm is the best wildlife series on television right now. And The Cure’s two BBC Four slots from 9:10pm are a proper late-night treat.

What’s on BBC One tonight on Good Friday?

BBC One tonight (Good Friday 3rd April 2026) has Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey at 7:30pm, Beyond Paradise at 8pm, Have I Got News for You at 9pm, The Young Offenders Series 5 premiere at 9:30pm, and The Claudia Winkleman Show from 10:30pm. No EastEnders tonight — bank holiday.

Final Verdict

The Young Offenders is the pick of Good Friday night. Series 5 opens with Conor and Jock in exactly the kind of situation they always end up in — chaotic, self-created, and somehow ending in an unexpected human connection. Alex Murphy and Chris Walley have been doing this for four series and a film now, and they’re only getting better at it.

Have I Got News for You at 9pm on BBC One is the ideal warm-up. Roy Wood Jr plus Armando Iannucci plus Merton and Hislop is a strong lineup for a week that has given British political satire no shortage of targets.

Big Cats 24/7 on BBC Two is quietly the best nature series on telly right now. Newborn lion cubs, fractious sisters, and last week’s cliffhanger resolved — hard to ask for more.

And if you’re still up, The Cure at the BBC followed by the 2024 concert on BBC Four from 9:10pm is two hours of music television you won’t regret staying awake for. Happy Good Friday.

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