What’s On TV Tonight: Monday 5th January 2026

The first Monday of 2026 brings a genuine TV event. ITV’s two biggest soaps are about to collide – literally – in what might be the most ambitious crossover since the Marvel lot assembled. Plus there’s a fresh Lynley reboot, Lucy Worsley poking around Victorian murders, and a properly tense thriller on Film4.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Corriedale – ITV1, 8pm – Corrie and Emmerdale crash together (literally)
• Lynley – BBC One, 8:30pm – Leo Suter reboots the aristocratic detective
• Lucy Worsley’s Victorian Murder Club – BBC Two, 9pm – Atmospheric true-crime history
• The Dive – Film4, 9pm – Claustrophobic underwater thriller

Early Evening (6pm – 8pm)

Richard Osman’s House of Games – BBC Two, 6pm

Richard welcomes Huge Davies, Amy Dowden, Humphrey Ker and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell for another week of word games and general knowledge chaos. Solid early evening viewing if you’ve run out of leftover cheese.

Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes – BBC Two, 6:30pm

The Grantchester actor is on a mission to get us all to slow down and connect with nature. The Reverend Richard Coles joins him in Northumberland for canoe paddling, an ancient hermitage visit, and – inevitably – a singalong. They laugh a lot. It’s surprisingly relaxing.

EastEnders – BBC One, 7:30pm

Walford returns to the present day after that dramatic New Year flash-forward, and there’s plenty going on. Phil and Julie take Nigel to visit a care home, where a nurse explains how residents with dementia are supported. It’s a tender storyline – Nigel’s accepted it’s time for professional care, but when he becomes distressed during the visit, Phil insists his old friend should have a say in where he lives. Later, Nigel speaks fondly about wanting to visit the beach, and there’s a genuinely touching moment between the pair.

Elsewhere, Jean’s behaviour is causing concern following the Christmas fallout, while Kathy and Ian discover Elaine is launching a breakfast offer at Peacock Palace – and badmouthing the café on her leaflets. The rivalry heats up. Available on iPlayer from 6am if you can’t wait.

Prime Time (8pm onwards)

Corriedale – ITV1, 8pm ⭐

Here’s your pick of the night. Forget the Marvel cinematic universe – ITV’s soaps are assembling. Coronation Street and Emmerdale are colliding in a historic crossover, and I mean that literally. The residents of Weatherfield are travelling back from Debbie and Ronnie’s wedding near Hotten when reckless Becky crashes her car, causing a pile-up involving several Emmerdale locals.

Expect carnage, chaos, at least one death – and the genuinely surreal prospect of Ken Barlow making small talk with Kim Tate on the hard shoulder. This also marks both soaps scaling back to five half-hour episodes a week, which sounds like a sensible move for viewers who’d rather not schedule their lives around them.

Protein: Everything You Need to Know – Channel 4, 8pm

Protein has become the nutritional silver bullet. Walk down any supermarket aisle and the P-word is plastered on everything from yogurt to bread to snacks – often to give an aura of “goodness” to ultra-processed junk.

Gemma Atkinson explores whether we’re being conned into buying solutions to problems that don’t exist. There’s a genuinely useful section spelling out how much protein different people actually need. And in the name of science, Atkinson – at 41 – eats her first ever prawn. The look on her face is worth it alone.

Lynley – BBC One, 8:30pm

When the BBC axed The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, they said they wanted to “move on.” Nearly two decades later, here we are again. Leo Suter steps into the role of the aristocratic detective, with Sofia Barclay as working-class sidekick DS Barbara Havers.

The dynamic remains the same – Lynley cares more about justice than his title, Havers stays alert to how wealth and privilege protect suspects. Their first case involves a suspicious death in Norfolk, a well-to-do family, and valuable antiquities. Daniel Mays plays the station boss, adding to his already considerable collection of TV cop roles. It’s conventional but polished – classic BBC drama territory.

Red Eye – ITV1, 9pm

“Shot fired!” shouts Clay Brody (Martin Compston), bolting up a stairwell straight into the aftermath of last night’s cliffhanger. All that sprinting must’ve left him clammy, because it’s not long before he’s needlessly changing his shirt – revealing a tattoo that hints at the assassin’s identity.

Said assassin, incidentally, has somehow made himself a coffee and booked a meeting room while between murders. He’s now holed up and spying on everyone. It’s utterly daft, but this continues to be some of the most enjoyable nonsense on television.

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins – Channel 4, 9pm

Billy Billingham says he’s looking for misfits who can use past hardships to their advantage. These 14 celebrities certainly have the personal issues for it, judging by their emotional revelations.

Tonight they’re sent in pairs to patrol a deserted village with orders to engage the enemy if necessary. Several mistakenly shoot their own teammates. Hard to blame them when a DS is screaming obscenities at you and everything’s chaos. Neighbours’ Ryan Moloney is apparently so maddening the others would probably bump him off without a backwards glance.

Lucy Worsley’s Victorian Murder Club – BBC Two, 9pm

Lucy Worsley forms an association to investigate a series of dismemberments in Victorian London. She’s treading a fine line – true-crime accounts like this can easily forget compassion for the victims. Thankfully, Worsley acknowledges the awfulness of this killer’s habit of scattering female body parts while devoting proper screen time to the women’s stories.

The perpetrator remains unidentified, which gives proceedings a gothic guessing-game quality. Atmospheric stuff if you’re in the mood for something darker.

The Dive – Film4, 9pm

Director Max Erlenwein takes the 127 Hours formula and puts it underwater. Sophie Lowe and Louisa Krause play scuba-diving sisters who come unstuck when a rockfall traps one of them, and the other must find a way to get her out.

Erlenwein’s a diver himself and wanted to convey the beauty of the undersea world by shooting as much on location as possible. “But it’s very challenging to shoot underwater,” he admits. “It’s ridiculous. I can’t recommend it.”

Sport

Day three of the fifth and final Ashes Test from Sydney kicks off at 11pm on TNT Sports 1. Earlier, there’s Four Hills Championship ski jumping from Austria at 3:15pm on TNT Sports 1 – breathtaking stuff if you’re working from home.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

ITVX: Corriedale, Red Eye (full series)
BBC iPlayer: EastEnders (from 6am), Lynley (full series), Lucy Worsley’s Victorian Murder Club
Channel 4 streaming: Celebrity SAS, Protein: Everything You Need to Know
Channel 4 streaming: The Dive available after broadcast

Frequently Asked Questions

What time is the Corriedale crossover on TV?

The Corriedale crossover is on ITV1 at 8pm tonight (Monday 5th January 2026). It’s an hour-long special where Coronation Street and Emmerdale collide in a spectacular crash.

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

Our top pick is the Corriedale crossover on ITV1 at 8pm – a historic moment as Coronation Street and Emmerdale unite in a spectacular stunt with carnage, chaos and at least one death.

What time is the new Lynley on BBC One?

Lynley is on BBC One at 8:30pm tonight. Leo Suter stars as the aristocratic detective in this reboot of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.

What’s on BBC Two tonight?

BBC Two’s highlight is Lucy Worsley’s Victorian Murder Club at 9pm – a new series investigating dismemberments in Victorian London.

What time is The Dive on Film4?

The Dive is on Film4 at 9pm tonight. It’s a tense 2023 thriller about scuba-diving sisters trapped underwater.

What time is EastEnders on tonight?

EastEnders is on BBC One at 7:30pm tonight (Monday 5th January 2026). It’s the first regular episode after the New Year flash-forward, featuring Phil and Nigel’s emotional care home visit and the ongoing Jean Slater storyline.

Final Verdict

The Corriedale crossover is tonight’s unmissable event – it’s not often you get Ken Barlow and Kim Tate in the same scene. If soaps aren’t your thing, Lynley brings polished detective drama to BBC One, while Lucy Worsley’s Victorian Murder Club offers atmospheric true-crime for history buffs. Night owls should consider The Dive on Film4 – properly claustrophobic thriller stuff.

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.