TV Guide UK Tonight: Sun 19 Apr 2026 – Queen Elizabeth II Documentary, Grace Series Finale & Your Song

Published: 15 April 2026

Sunday 19 April and BBC One has cleared the evening for the Queen. Antiques Roadshow heads to Windsor Castle at 8pm for a special episode marking the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II’s birth – two days before she would have turned 100 – before making way at 9pm for Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century, a documentary with a contributors list that includes Dame Helen Mirren, Barack Obama and Queen Camilla. Meanwhile, Grace wraps up series 6 on ITV1 at 8pm, with Roy and Branson chasing two separate threads at once. Your Song returns on Channel 4 at 9pm for episode 2, and over on U&Drama, Harry Wild takes the investigation to the races.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century ⭐ — BBC One, 9pm — Centenary documentary. Helen Mirren, Obama, Queen Camilla. The Queen’s 100th birthday tribute
• Grace — ITV1, 8pm — Series 6 finale. Roy chases a dead student and new leads on Sandy’s murder
• Antiques Roadshow Royal Special — BBC One, 8pm — Windsor Castle. Fiona Bruce, the coronation gown, and the late Queen’s personal collection
• Your Song — Channel 4, 9pm — Episode 2. Alison Hammond’s emotional music series continues
• Harry Wild — U&Drama, 8pm — Series 4, Ep 3. Day at the races, sabotaged horse, Harry B vs his own father
• Secret Garden — BBC One, 6pm — Attenborough in the Lake District. Swallows, field mice, newts
• World Snooker Championship — BBC Two, from 10am — Day 2 at the Crucible. First round continues

Early Evening

Countryfile – BBC One, 5pm

The weekly countryside check-in before the Queen’s centenary takes over the BBC One evening. Rural issues, farm visits and wildlife from across the UK. Reliable Sunday background viewing for anyone who hasn’t made up their mind about the rest of the evening yet. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Secret Garden – BBC One, 6pm

Episode 3 of David Attenborough’s five-part garden series, and this week it travels to the Lake District – a change of pace from the Oxfordshire waters of episode 2. A country garden in Cumbria turns out to be considerably busier than it looks from the outside: swallows competing for nesting spots, field mice, newts, moles. Things that share your garden without asking permission. The series was partly commissioned to mark Attenborough’s 100th birthday in May, and the Lake District setting suits the slightly wilder, more northern mood of this episode. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Sport: World Snooker Championship

World Snooker Championship – BBC Two/One/Four, from 10am

Day 2 at the Crucible. The first round has another full day of matches to get through, with three sessions running from 10am, afternoon and evening. Yesterday’s opening day will have produced its first set of results and, with any luck, at least one talking point – an early seed in trouble, a qualifier who’s turned up looking entirely unbothered by the occasion. That’s the thing about the Crucible’s first week: it unsettles people who aren’t ready for it and rewards people who are, and you don’t always know which is which until they’re on the table.

BBC coverage continues across BBC Two, BBC One and BBC Four throughout the day, with every frame live on BBC iPlayer. Worth keeping in the background even if the evening has a lot of competition.

Prime Time

Antiques Roadshow Royal Special – BBC One, 8pm

This is not the usual Antiques Roadshow. Fiona Bruce has been granted access to Windsor Castle for a special episode timed to mark the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II’s birth on 21 April 2026. Instead of the familiar public arriving with items wrapped in carrier bags, this one looks at the late monarch’s personal collection – childhood clothes, the coronation gown, pieces bound for a new exhibition at the King’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace.

It works as a curtain-raiser for the documentary that follows at 9pm. The objects tell one kind of story; the film will try to tell the bigger one. Fiona Bruce’s steady hand is well suited to a programme that needs to be reverential without being stuffy, and a Roadshow in Windsor Castle – rather than a county showground – carries a weight that the format doesn’t usually carry. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Grace – ITV1, 8pm (SERIES FINALE)

Series 6 ends tonight with Roy Grace running on two fronts at once. The body of student Charlie Downing has been discovered in a sea lock, and the investigation leads into a university that is keeping more than one secret. At the same time, Roy and DS Branson are following up intelligence from Cassian about Sandy’s murder – the thread that has run underneath this series and gives the finale its emotional weight.

John Simm has been in this role long enough to make the character feel genuinely inhabited rather than performed. He knows when Grace is about to push too far, and he does it anyway, and you can see the cost of it landing before the character does. Laura Elphinstone’s Branson continues to be the steadying presence that the show needs alongside him. The university setting – different from Grace’s usual Brighton streets – gives the episode a slightly different texture, and bringing the Sandy investigation to a head at the same time as a new case means the finale doesn’t coast to a finish.

Based on Peter James’s novel Dead Man’s Grip, and it delivers. Catch up via ITVX.

Late Evening

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century ⭐ – BBC One, 9pm

She would have turned 100 on Tuesday 21 April. The BBC has scheduled this documentary two days early, which feels right – her birthday was always going to be a news event, and a programme that asks serious questions about a life and a reign is better watched on a quiet Sunday evening than in the middle of a week full of commemorations.

The film covers seventy years of British history through the prism of one woman at the centre of it. Empire, Suez, the Swinging Sixties, Thatcher, Diana, devolution, the 2012 Olympics, Covid. The country changed almost beyond recognition while she was there, and the documentary tries to map that change against the woman at the centre of it — not as a figurehead but as someone with views, instincts, and a very particular idea of what her job actually was.

The contributors are the thing here. Dame Helen Mirren played the Queen on screen and brings an actor’s close reading of the role. Barack Obama met her, was evidently moved by the meeting, and speaks about it with the kind of care he reserves for things he means. Queen Camilla’s contribution is personal in a way that most royal contributions to these films are not – she knew her. And Sir David Attenborough, who also appears, has known the Queen since the 1950s and remembers a person that most of the archive footage can’t quite reach.

The centenary timing is significant. Born 21 April 1926. It has been less than four years since she died. That proximity does something to the film that a more distant retrospective wouldn’t have – the people talking about her still remember what it felt like when she was there, and what it felt like when she wasn’t. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Your Song – Channel 4, 9pm

Episode 2, and Alison Hammond’s new format returns to do what it did last week: take a real person’s life story, commission an original song to tell it, then have that song performed live by a surprise artist in front of an audience. The premise sounds like something that could easily tip into sentimentality, but the debut episode found a tone that kept it the right side of the line.

Paloma Faith and Sam Ryder judge, which is an unusual combination – Faith is a performer who understands what it takes to carry emotion in a song, Ryder brings a different kind of pop instinct. The format allows both of them to actually have something to say rather than just react. Whether episode 2 sustains the premiere’s momentum is the real question this week. Catch up via Channel 4 streaming.

Also Tonight

Harry Wild – U&Drama, 8pm

Series 4, episode 3. Jane Seymour’s retired professor-turned-amateur detective takes a day trip to the races, which ends badly when a horse is deliberately sabotaged and its jockey thrown. Harry B’s theory lands close to home: he believes the horse’s owner is responsible, and that owner is his own father, Duncan. The show has always used family complications as its sharpest dramatic tool, and this is the most direct it’s been with that particular device. Catch up via UKTV Play.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

BBC iPlayer: Secret Garden, Antiques Roadshow Royal Special, Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century, World Snooker Championship
ITVX: Grace Series 6 (all four episodes)
Channel 4 streaming: Your Song
UKTV Play: Harry Wild Series 4
Sky Sports: Manchester City v Arsenal, Everton v Liverpool (live, subscription required)

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on tonight (Sunday 19 April 2026)?

No, EastEnders does not air on Sundays. It runs Monday to Friday on BBC One. Catch up on any missed episodes via BBC iPlayer.

What time is Grace on ITV1 tonight?

Grace series 6 episode 4 — the series finale — is on ITV1 at 8pm tonight (Sunday 19 April 2026). Roy Grace and DS Branson investigate the death of student Charlie Downing while pursuing new leads on Sandy’s murder. Catch up via ITVX.

What time is the Queen Elizabeth II documentary on BBC One tonight?

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century is on BBC One at 9pm tonight (Sunday 19 April 2026). The hour-long documentary marks what would have been her 100th birthday on 21 April. Contributors include Dame Helen Mirren, Barack Obama, Queen Camilla and Sir David Attenborough. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

What time is Antiques Roadshow on BBC One tonight?

Antiques Roadshow Royal Special is on BBC One at 8pm tonight (Sunday 19 April 2026), filmed at Windsor Castle to mark the Queen’s centenary. Fiona Bruce presents. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

What time is Your Song on Channel 4 tonight?

Your Song episode 2 is on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight (Sunday 19 April 2026). Alison Hammond presents as another person’s life story is turned into an original song and performed live. Paloma Faith and Sam Ryder judge. Catch up via Channel 4 streaming.

What football is on TV today (Sunday 19 April 2026)?

Manchester City v Arsenal is live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League, kick-off 4:30pm. Earlier at 2pm on Sky Sports: Aston Villa v Sunderland, Everton v Liverpool, and Nottingham Forest v Burnley. A Sky Sports subscription is required.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight (Sunday 19 April 2026)?

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century on BBC One at 9pm is the standout of the night — a centenary documentary with access and contributors that BBC schedules rarely produce at the same time. Before that, the Antiques Roadshow Royal Special at Windsor Castle at 8pm is worth watching as a warm-up. For drama, Grace finishes series 6 on ITV1 at 8pm with a finale that gives John Simm two separate threads to resolve.

Final Verdict

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century at 9pm on BBC One is the evening’s centrepiece. The centenary timing, the contributors, and a broadcast window that gives it space to breathe — this is the kind of programme that ends up being referenced for years.

Grace at 8pm on ITV1 is a satisfying series closer. Two cases running in parallel, a university with secrets, and the Sandy thread finally moving — Simm makes it worth your Sunday night.

Antiques Roadshow at Windsor Castle at 8pm is an unusually good version of a programme that’s usually comfort television. The coronation gown in front of Fiona Bruce at Windsor is, whatever you think of Antiques Roadshow, a thing worth seeing.

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