TV Guide UK Tonight: Mon 24 Aug 2026 – Buried with Michael Sheen, Long Lost Family & Emmerdale

Monday 24 August 2026. BBC Two hands 9pm to Michael Sheen and a Welsh dumping scandal that has gone unpunished for sixty years, ITV1 revisits the foundlings from Born without Trace, and Channel 4 closes in on the last five Celebrity Hunted fugitives. BBC One has EastEnders back at 7.30pm, and BBC Four gives its whole evening to John Betjeman.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Buried with Michael Sheen BBC Two, 9pm. Sixty years of toxic waste, and nobody held to account.
• Long Lost Family: Born without Trace – What Happened Next? ITV1, 9pm. The updates, years on.
• Emmerdale ITV1, 8pm. Wedding week begins, and it won’t end well.
• John Betjeman Night BBC Four, from 10pm. Metro-land included.
• EastEnders is on tonight — BBC One, 7.30pm.

Early Evening

Mastermind / Only Connect / University Challenge – BBC Two, from 7.30pm

Ninety minutes of quiz, which is either heaven or a reason to change channel. Mastermind opens at 7.30pm with a specialist-subject list running from the Tour de France to George Harrison, Virgil’s Aeneid and Lyndon B Johnson — a decent night for any American classicist who also cycles and likes British rock. Only Connect at 8pm sends Meat and Two Veg up against Six Sevens, whose name will mean nothing to anyone over 25. University Challenge follows at 8.30pm with Pembroke College, Cambridge facing St Andrews.

EastEnders – BBC One, 7.30pm

Back after the weekend break and into the usual Monday slot. Whatever was left unresolved on Thursday picks up here.

Fletchers’ Family Farm – ITV1, 7.30pm

Half an hour of Kelvin Fletcher and family discovering something else that needs fixing. Gentle, and it leads straight into the soaps.

Emmerdale – ITV1, 8pm

This is the week Emmerdale has been building towards. Dawn Fletcher and Joe Tate’s wedding is days away, and Dawn is quietly planning to be in Spain with ex-husband Billy instead. Tonight Caleb tells Joe outright that he helped them make the arrangements, Jimmy is clearly troubled by something he’s sitting on, and new arrival DS Ramsden is keeping an eye on a location that will matter a great deal by the end of the week. Coronation Street follows at 8.30pm.

Martin and Roman’s Irish Road Trip – Channel 4, 8pm

The series finale sends the Kemps along the Northern Irish coast after shapeshifters and selkies, which involves a sea swim Roman gets through on willpower alone and his father declines outright, having found a pub with a fire on. Martin’s real interest has always been the people rather than the folklore, and Londonderry’s Halloween celebrations give him plenty of both.

Sort Your Life Out with Stacey Solomon – BBC One, 8pm

Everything a household owns comes out of the house and goes into a warehouse, laid out in rows, and then the owners have to look at it. The format has not changed since series one because it does not need to.

My Life Is Murder – U&Alibi, 8pm

Motive is usually the hard part in a mystery, but a custody battle over a dog supplies plenty of it. Alexa needs her con artist brother Will to get near the truth, and his connection to the case is the reason she’d rather not ask.

Midsomer Murders – ITV3, 8pm

A feature-length case on ITV3, with Lewis following at 10pm. The reliable option if the 9pm documentaries look like hard work.

Prime Time

Buried with Michael Sheen – BBC Two, 9pm ⭐

Sheen reaches for the Post Office and the privatised water companies as points of comparison, and by the end of the hour that no longer sounds like overstatement. Toxic industrial chemicals were dumped at sites all over Wales, including farmland at Hirwaun owned by the family of a 94-year-old man who watched it arrive. Sheen also meets someone who spent his childhood swimming in a woodland pond full of rusting barrels — four of the friends he played with have since developed rare cancers. Proving a direct link is close to impossible, which is exactly why nothing has been done, and the run of captions before the credits sets out how many ways there are to keep it that way. Also on BBC One in Wales.

Long Lost Family: Born without Trace – What Happened Next? – ITV1, 9pm

Foundlings can spend a lifetime learning nothing at all about where they came from, which is why the update episodes in this strand hit harder than the originals. In 2022 Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell revealed that four years of work had found Natasha a full sibling, Lee-Ann — two babies left in different hospital toilets by the same mother, 18 months apart. Tonight there’s a further update on both, plus a reminder of Liz Deutsch, discovered as a six-week-old in a Birmingham hedge in 1965 and now a professor of nursing practice.

Celebrity Hunted – Channel 4, 9pm

Five fugitives remain, and one of them only got that far by leaving her partner to it at the worst possible moment. The hunters are struggling, and it’s not hard to see why: this lot have been at public events, on friends’ boats and in fast cars, which is not how you disappear. Amy Dowden and Carlos Gu haven’t surfaced for three days, while Brian Conley and his daughter Lucy attempt a false trail that may yet backfire.

PopMaster TV – More4, 9pm

Ken Bruce has been running these rounds for so long on radio that watching him do it on television still feels slightly wrong. He says being on the receiving end of questions would be his idea of hell, and that his own specialist subject would be 1960s Motown, which he rates above anything recorded since. If a Motown answer goes wrong tonight, his reaction is the thing to watch.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – Sky Witness, 9pm

Twenty-odd years on from the episode that defined the show, a new case reaches back to it: a desperate call from a young girl sends Olivia Benson into a race against the clock, and a baby monitor picks up a frightened child’s voice. Det Jake Griffin tries to trace the transmission while Benson faces the question she has faced before, which is where the youngster actually is.

Public Enemies – Film4, 9pm

Michael Mann shooting Depression-era bank robbery on digital video was a strange choice in 2009 and still divides people. Johnny Depp plays Dillinger, Christian Bale plays the agent on him, and the Little Bohemia shootout is worth the two and three quarter hours on Film4 on its own.

Death in Paradise – BBC One, 9pm

BBC One fills the slot with the repeat run. Sunshine, a body, and an inspector who would rather be anywhere else. It has no business being this comforting.

Late Night

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing – BBC Two, 10pm

Half an hour of two men by a river, nominally fishing, actually talking about mortality and sandwiches. There is nothing else like it and there probably never will be.

Have I Got News for You – BBC One, 10.40pm

The late Monday repeat. Still the sharpest half hour on the schedule when the guest host is right.

John Betjeman Night – BBC Four, from 10pm

BBC Four gives the evening to the former Poet Laureate, starting at 10pm with a Reputations profile that doesn’t sanitise him — the charm and the court-jester wit are there, but so is a messy, guilt-ridden life shadowed by depression. Contributors include the then Prince Charles. The films follow: Metro-land at 11.55pm takes its train ride into a vanished England, and A Passion for Churches at 12.45am visits Norfolk buildings both grand and tiny, Cley next the Sea among them. Very little television is made with this kind of care any more.

Jaws 2 – BBC Two, 11.05pm

Following Sunday’s Jaws, BBC Two runs the 1978 sequel late tonight. Nobody believes Chief Brody the second time either.

Sport

Fulham host Chelsea at Craven Cottage in the west London derby, with build-up from 6.30pm on Sky Sports Main Event and Premier League and kick-off at 8pm. US Open qualifying runs on Sky Sports Tennis from 4pm, with further coverage on Sky Sports Main Event at 4pm and 11pm ahead of next week’s main draw. Stage three of La Vuelta is a mountainous 174km run from the French coast up towards the Pyrenees, live on TNT Sports 1 from 1.30pm.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

• BBC iPlayer: EastEnders, Sort Your Life Out, Mastermind, Only Connect, University Challenge, Buried with Michael Sheen, John Betjeman Night, Jaws 2
• ITVX: Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Long Lost Family: Born without Trace – What Happened Next?
• Channel 4 streaming: Martin and Roman’s Irish Road Trip, Celebrity Hunted, PopMaster TV
• NOW: My Life Is Murder, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on tonight (Monday 24 August 2026)?

Yes. EastEnders is on BBC One at 7.30pm, back in its usual weekday slot after the weekend. It’s followed by Sort Your Life Out at 8pm and Death in Paradise at 9pm, and the episode is on iPlayer straight afterwards.

What time is Buried with Michael Sheen on tonight?

Buried with Michael Sheen is on BBC Two at 9pm, and on BBC One in Wales. Sheen investigates industrial waste dumped at sites across Wales over decades, including farmland at Hirwaun, and the illnesses that followed.

What happens in Emmerdale tonight?

Emmerdale is on ITV1 at 8pm and starts the week leading up to Dawn Fletcher and Joe Tate’s wedding. Dawn is secretly planning to leave for Spain with ex-husband Billy, Caleb admits to Joe that he helped them, and new arrival DS Ramsden is keeping watch.

What live sport is on TV tonight: Monday 24 August 2026?

Fulham host Chelsea in the west London derby at Craven Cottage from 6.30pm on Sky Sports Main Event, kicking off at 8pm. US Open qualifying is on Sky Sports Tennis from 4pm, and stage three of La Vuelta is on TNT Sports 1 from 1.30pm.

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

Buried with Michael Sheen on BBC Two at 9pm is the pick. Long Lost Family: Born without Trace – What Happened Next? on ITV1 and the Celebrity Hunted endgame on Channel 4 are both at 9pm too.

What’s on ITV1 tonight?

ITV1 runs Fletchers’ Family Farm at 7.30pm, Emmerdale at 8pm, Coronation Street at 8.30pm and Long Lost Family: Born without Trace – What Happened Next? at 9pm. The Staircase follows at 12.20am.

What time is Death in Paradise on tonight?

Death in Paradise is on BBC One at 9pm, in the repeat run that has been filling the Monday slot. It’s up against Buried with Michael Sheen and Long Lost Family, so it’s one for the recorder.

What is John Betjeman Night on BBC Four?

BBC Four gives its whole evening to the former Poet Laureate from 10pm, opening with a Reputations profile before archive films including Metro-land at 11.55pm and A Passion for Churches at 12.45am.

Is Jaws 2 on TV tonight?

Yes. BBC Two shows Jaws 2 at 11.05pm, two days after Jaws itself aired on the same channel. Both films get another run on BBC Four on Thursday.

Final Verdict

Monday 24 August is a strong night for documentaries. Buried with Michael Sheen is the one to watch and the one to be angry about afterwards. Long Lost Family: Born without Trace is the emotional counterweight at the same time on ITV1, Emmerdale starts the week that changes the village, and John Betjeman Night rewards staying up. EastEnders is on at 7.30pm, and Celebrity Hunted is down to its last five.

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