TV Guide UK Tonight: Sat 17 Oct 2026 – Strictly Icons Week, The Voice UK & The Equalizer

Updated: 17 October 2026

What’s on TV tonight, Saturday 17 October 2026: Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One at 6.15pm, The Voice UK on ITV1 at 8.35pm and Match of the Day on BBC One at 10.30pm. BBC One also has Marble Hall Murders at 9.20pm, Channel 4 has The Equalizer at 9pm, Channel 5 profiles Claudia Winkleman, BBC Two goes back to 1986 and BBC Four has a French New Wave film. EastEnders isn’t on.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Strictly Come Dancing BBC One, 6.15pm. Icons Week, live until 8.35pm.
• The Voice UK ITV1, 8.35pm. The Battles carry on.
• Marble Hall Murders BBC One, 9.20pm. Episode four of six.
• The Equalizer Channel 4, 9pm. Denzel Washington’s 2014 thriller.
• EastEnders is not on tonight. It returns Monday at 7.30pm.

Watch: What’s On TV Tonight

Early Evening

The Great British Bake Off – Channel 4, 5.15pm

The Great British Bake Off is on Channel 4 at 5.15pm, a repeat of this week’s Bread Week, which went out earlier in the week, so skip it if you’ve already seen who sank and who rose. Bread is where a confident cake baker can come unstuck. It ends at 6.25pm, and Channel 4 News follows before the film.

The Celebrity Inner Circle – BBC One, 5.30pm

The Celebrity Inner Circle is on BBC One at 5.30pm, episode six of eight. Dr Amir Khan, Larry Dean, Anna Williamson, Emmanuel Sonubi and Flavia Cacace are each paired with a contestant, and have to steer them towards the money while everyone tries to spot who’s bluffing. It’s a mild, chatty lead-in to Strictly, and a quiz where the real game is reading faces rather than knowing answers. It runs for 45 minutes and finishes at 6.15pm, just as the dance show starts on the same channel.

Where Eagles Dare – BBC Two, 6.05pm

Where Eagles Dare is on BBC Two at 6.05pm, with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood leading a small team into a mountaintop castle in the 1968 adventure. Alistair MacLean wrote the screenplay, and the cable-car fight is the part most people recall. It runs to 8.35pm, so it fills the whole stretch that BBC One gives to Strictly, which makes it the obvious alternative for anyone in the house who isn’t a dance fan. It’s long, loud and old-fashioned in the best way.

Midsomer Murders – ITV3, 6.05pm

Midsomer Murders is on ITV3 at 6.05pm, with two John Nettles episodes back to back. Country Matters has a supermarket row in Elverton-cum-Latterly ending in a stabbing, and Last Year’s Model follows at 8.05pm with Barnaby doubting a woman’s guilt at her own murder trial. Vera is on at 10.05pm. For a Napoleonic adventure instead, ITV4 has Sean Bean in Sharpe’s Sword at 6.50pm.

Mary Celeste: Solving the Mystery – Channel 5, 6.10pm

Mary Celeste: Solving the Mystery is on Channel 5 at 6.10pm. The ship was found drifting and empty in 1872, with no obvious sign of a struggle, and the theories have never stopped. This documentary argues modern science can offer an answer. It’s a good appetiser before the longer Channel 5 evening. The Fastnet race disaster documentary follows at 7.10pm, then Claudia Winkleman at 8.35pm, so the channel has a documentary run lined up if you want to stay put.

Blue Planet II – Yesterday, 6pm

Blue Planet II is on Yesterday at 6pm. Episode six, Coasts, has sea lions hunting tuna and puffins carrying food back to their chicks. David Attenborough narrates, and it still looks better than most things made since. Yesterday then swaps to car restoration, while Really has The Repair Shop from 5pm and Quest repeats the series at 9pm.

Prime Time

Strictly Come Dancing – BBC One, 6.15pm ⭐

Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC One at 6.15pm tonight and runs until 8.35pm, and it’s the one to watch. It’s Icons Week, so each couple performs a routine in tribute to one of the most influential names in music.

Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe present, with Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke judging. Themed weeks usually produce at least one jaw-dropping transformation and one hilariously wrong costume, so keep the phone ready. Our Strictly guide covers the viewing options, and the results show is on Sunday at 7.10pm.

Knight and Day – Channel 4, 6.55pm

Knight and Day is on Channel 4 at 6.55pm. Tom Cruise plays a rogue agent who drags Cameron Diaz around the world after she bumps into him at an airport. James Mangold directed the 2010 film and nothing in it is meant to be taken seriously. Cruise does that cheerful, slightly unhinged grin as well as anyone. It finishes at 9pm, right as The Equalizer starts.

Ghosts – Dave, 7.10pm

Ghosts is on Dave from 7.10pm, nearly two hours of the Button House sitcom, including The Bone Plot, in which a documentary crew turns up and the ghosts misbehave. It’s one of the few comedies the whole house can watch. If you’d rather have crime, Drama has The Brokenwood Mysteries from 7pm and 5USA has NCIS: Los Angeles all evening.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – ITV2, 8pm

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is on ITV2 at 8pm, the 2018 sequel with Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander, Jude Law as a younger Dumbledore and Johnny Depp as Grindelwald. It follows the first film at 5.25pm, so you could do the pair. It’s busy and dark, with plenty to look at and too many plot threads. The film continues until 10.40pm.

The Voice UK – ITV1, 8.35pm

The Voice UK is on ITV1 at 8.35pm, series 14, episode eight, and the Battles are in full swing. Emma Willis hosts, and will.i.am, Sir Tom Jones, Kelly Rowland, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones put acts head to head, with guest mentors in the rehearsal rooms. Win Win with Postcode Lottery fills the 7.30pm slot before it. Choosing between two acts you like is the most uncomfortable part.

Wisdom of the Crowd – BBC One, 8.35pm

Wisdom of the Crowd is on BBC One at 8.35pm, and John Bishop hosts episode five of eight, and the pot has reached £55,000. Contestants go up against a studio crowd’s pooled guesses, and the fun is in how often the group gets a question right. It’s light, brisk and gives your ears a rest after two hours of dancing music. The format is simple enough to play along with from the sofa, and it ends at 9.20pm, when Marble Hall Murders takes the slot.

Forty Hits of 1986 at the BBC – BBC Two, 8.35pm

Forty Hits of 1986 at the BBC is on BBC Two at 8.35pm, with George Michael, Simply Red, A-ha, Samantha Fox, Pet Shop Boys and Eurythmics among the acts in this archive run through 1986. It’s a long watch at nearly two and a half hours. A second helping, TOTP 1986: Big Hits, follows at 11.05pm. Whether 1986 was a good year for pop is a fair argument to have over it.

Claudia Winkleman: Behind the Fringe – Channel 5, 8.35pm

Claudia Winkleman: Behind the Fringe is on Channel 5 at 8.35pm, a profile of the presenter known for Strictly Come Dancing and The Traitors, from her early days as a young pundit to the fringe that became her trademark, with friends and colleagues weighing in. It suits a night when Strictly is already on elsewhere. William & Harry: Love & Betrayal starts at 10.05pm on Channel 5.

The Equalizer – Channel 4, 9pm

The Equalizer is on Channel 4 at 9pm. Denzel Washington plays Robert McCall, a quiet Boston hardware-store worker with a very specific past, in Antoine Fuqua’s 2014 thriller. When a young woman he’s befriended is beaten, he decides to act. It is violent in places, and the film takes its time getting there, which is the point. Chloë Grace Moretz and Marton Csokas co-star. It runs to 11.40pm, when the sci-fi adventure 65 begins. For more westerns and action, 5Action has A Fistful of Dollars, 5Star has The Chronicles of Riddick and Legend has Steven Seagal in Black Dawn, all at 9pm.

American Star – Film4, 9pm

American Star is on Film4 at 9pm, a 2024 film from director Gonzalo López-Gallego, with Ian McShane as a veteran hitman sent to an island for one last target. It’s a slow, sunny crime story where the scenery does as much work as the plot, and McShane has the weathered face the part needs. It runs to 11.10pm. If you want something louder, Film4 has Battleship at 6.25pm, and Lisa Frankenstein follows at 11.10pm.

Celebrity Gogglebox – E4, 9pm

Celebrity Gogglebox is on E4 at 9pm, series two, episode six, with the celebrity couples and friends reacting to the week’s television. The families on the regular Gogglebox are back at 10pm, which means a full evening of people talking over the telly. Strictly is likely to turn up in both. E4 also has a Simpsons run from 5pm. Elsewhere at 9pm, More4 has 24 Hours in A&E and 4seven has Grand Designs, while That’s TV has Shameless at 9.55pm.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines – GREAT! Action, 9pm

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is on GREAT! Action at 9pm. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as the T-800 in the 2003 sequel, with Claire Danes and Nick Stahl fleeing a deadlier machine. Jonathan Mostow directed, and the crane chase is the highlight. It runs with ad breaks until 11.25pm. GREAT! Movies has John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 at 9pm, and GREAT! TV has the new Empire at 8pm.

The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven – Sky Arts, 9pm

The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven is on Sky Arts at 9pm, a 2016 documentary on Don and Phil Everly, the duo whose close harmonies influenced the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel. Don died in 2021, so it now works partly as a tribute, with Don looking back on the music and on two brothers who didn’t always see eye to eye. Sky Arts follows it with the Sky Arts Awards at 10.20pm.

Forever Amber – Talking Pictures TV, 9.05pm

Forever Amber is on Talking Pictures TV at 9.05pm, with Linda Darnell starring in Otto Preminger’s 1947 costume drama, set in Restoration England, with Cornel Wilde as a dashing love interest. It’s long, lurid and rather glorious, with a heroine who climbs from poverty to the king’s court by whatever means are available. It was a scandalous hit in its day. It finishes at 11.50pm. Elsewhere, Blaze has Holy Marvels with Dennis Quaid at 8pm.

Marble Hall Murders – BBC One, 9.20pm

Marble Hall Murders is on BBC One at 9.20pm, episode four of six. The murderer in the Corfu story claims another victim. In the modern strand, Eliot is getting worse and Susan finds herself under suspicion. Keep track of the names, because the puzzle only pays off if you do, and if you’ve missed the first three episodes they’re on iPlayer. It ends at 10.10pm, when the news takes over.

Cleo from 5 to 7 – BBC Four, 9.45pm

Cleo from 5 to 7 is on BBC Four at 9.45pm. Agnès Varda’s French New Wave film follows a young singer, played by Corinne Marchand, through an evening in Paris while she waits for a medical test result. Celia Imrie introduces it at 9pm in a World Cinema Classics short. It’s frequently on lists of the great films of the 1960s. Really has Help! My House Is Haunted at 9pm if you need something less thoughtful.

Late Night

Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening – ITV1, 10.10pm

Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening is on ITV1 at 10.10pm. Alison Hammond brings her son Aidan, Iain Stirling brings his mother Alison and Carol Vorderman brings her son Cameron, and all three get tested on how well they know each other. Parent-and-child quizzes are a safe formula for comedy, because the answers are rarely what anyone expected, and Romesh is good at stoking the argument. Romesh hosts and enjoys the squirming. English Football League Highlights are on ITV1 at 11.05pm.

Match of the Day – BBC One, 10.30pm

Match of the Day is on BBC One at 10.30pm with Premier League highlights, with Everton v Chelsea and Newcastle v Aston Villa among the day’s games. It runs until 11.40pm, when Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark begins. The live games are on pay TV, so this is the free-to-air chance to see the goals.

Sport

Football on TV tonight: ITV4 has a Football League highlights programme at 9pm, Match of the Day is on BBC One at 10.30pm and ITV1 has English Football League Highlights at 11.05pm. Everton v Chelsea is live on TNT Sports at 12.30pm, and Newcastle v Aston Villa is live on Sky Sports at 5.30pm. Our football on TV today page lists the day’s televised games and kick-off times. Away from football, ITV1 has Champions Day from Ascot from 12.45pm and BBC Two has the World Track Cycling Championships from Shanghai from 10.15am. Premier Sports has England v Tonga in the men’s Rugby League World Cup, with a 10.05am UK kick-off.

What’s On Streaming

BBC iPlayer: Strictly Come Dancing, Marble Hall Murders, Wisdom of the Crowd, The Celebrity Inner Circle.

ITVX: The Voice UK, Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening.

Channel 4: The Equalizer, Knight and Day.

5: Claudia Winkleman: Behind the Fringe, Mary Celeste: Solving the Mystery.

Tonight by Channel

A channel-by-channel breakdown of Saturday 17 October 2026, so you can jump straight to the one you actually watch.

BBC One

• 5.30pm — The Celebrity Inner Circle
• 6.15pm — Strictly Come Dancing
• 8.35pm — Wisdom of the Crowd
• 9.20pm — Marble Hall Murders
• 10.30pm — Match of the Day

BBC Two

• 6.05pm — Where Eagles Dare
• 8.35pm — Forty Hits of 1986 at the BBC

ITV1

• 8.35pm — The Voice UK
• 10.10pm — Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening

Channel 4

• 5.15pm — The Great British Bake Off
• 6.55pm — Knight and Day
• 9pm — The Equalizer

Channel 5

• 6.10pm — Mary Celeste: Solving the Mystery
• 8.35pm — Claudia Winkleman: Behind the Fringe

The Viewing Schedule

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on tonight (Saturday 17 October 2026)?

No. EastEnders does not air on Saturdays, and BBC One goes from Strictly Come Dancing at 6.15pm to Wisdom of the Crowd at 8.35pm without it. The soap returns on Monday 19 October at 7.30pm on BBC One.

What time is Strictly on tonight?

Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC One at 6.15pm tonight (Saturday 17 October 2026) and finishes at 8.35pm, a run of two hours 20 minutes. It’s Icons Week, and Wisdom of the Crowd follows on BBC One.

What time is the Strictly results show this weekend?

Not tonight. The Strictly results show is on Sunday 18 October at 7.10pm on BBC One. Saturday’s 6.15pm programme is the live dance show.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight (Saturday 17 October 2026)?

Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One at 6.15pm. For drama, try Marble Hall Murders on BBC One at 9.20pm. For a film, The Equalizer is on Channel 4 at 9pm and Cleo from 5 to 7 is on BBC Four at 9.45pm.

What football is on TV tonight?

On free TV, ITV4 has Football League highlights at 9pm, Match of the Day is on BBC One at 10.30pm and ITV1 has English Football League Highlights at 11.05pm. Earlier, Everton v Chelsea is live on TNT Sports at 12.30pm and Newcastle v Aston Villa is live on Sky Sports at 5.30pm.

What time is Match of the Day on tonight?

Match of the Day is on BBC One at 10.30pm tonight and ends at 11.40pm. Everton v Chelsea and Newcastle v Aston Villa are among the games, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark follows at 11.40pm.

What’s on ITV tonight?

ITV1 has The Voice UK at 8.35pm and Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening at 10.10pm. Win Win with Postcode Lottery is on at 7.30pm, English Football League Highlights follow at 11.05pm, and Champions Day from Ascot fills the afternoon from 12.45pm.

What films are on TV tonight?

The Equalizer is on Channel 4 at 9pm and American Star is on Film4 at 9pm. Earlier, BBC Two has Where Eagles Dare at 6.05pm, Channel 4 has Knight and Day at 6.55pm and ITV2 has Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald at 8pm. BBC Four has Cleo from 5 to 7 at 9.45pm.

What time is The Voice UK on tonight?

The Voice UK is on ITV1 at 8.35pm tonight and ends at 9.50pm. The coaches are will.i.am, Sir Tom Jones, Kelly Rowland, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones.

What time is Marble Hall Murders on?

Marble Hall Murders is on BBC One at 9.20pm tonight, episode four of six, and ends at 10.10pm. Lesley Manville stars as Susan Ryeland.

Final Verdict

Strictly is the main event, with Marble Hall Murders to follow on BBC One. The Voice UK is the safe option on ITV1, and The Equalizer is Channel 4’s big film.

For something different, try BBC Two’s 1986 pop archive or BBC Four’s Cleo from 5 to 7.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Films on TV Tonight | Freeview Channel Guide