TV Guide UK Tonight: Sun 20 Sept 2026 – The Split Up, The Blame & Big Brother

Published: 16 September 2026

Sunday 20 September 2026. Three new dramas land within the same hour tonight: BBC One launches Abi Morgan’s The Split Up at 9pm, ITV1 opens The Blame straight after The Box and a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? revival, and Channel 4 moves Apocalypse into its second week at the same time. BBC Two counters with Simon Reeve’s Wilderness in Papua New Guinea, and Big Brother returns to ITV2 for another eviction. It’s also a stacked Super Sunday for football, with Bournemouth v Liverpool and Man City v Sunderland both kicking off at 2pm. EastEnders isn’t on.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• The Split Up BBC One, 9pm. Abi Morgan’s glossy new divorce-law drama, spun off from The Split.
• The Blame ITV1, 9pm. Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth investigate a murder that turns into an internal reckoning.
• Apocalypse Channel 4, 9pm. Week two of the social experiment, and things have already turned feral.
• Big Brother ITV2, 9pm. Another eviction, another Group Chat straight after.
• EastEnders is not on tonight — it returns Monday at 7.30pm.

Early Evening

A Taste for Murder – ITV3, 6pm

ITV3 runs the Italian-set mystery drama back to back from 6pm. Joe becomes the key witness when the host of a murder-mystery night turns up properly dead, and a fishing trip with his friend Gennaro ends up cracking the case. The second half gets nastier: a diving death that looks accidental until Joe and Lara start digging, plus a drugs subplot that lands one of the regulars in real trouble.

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates – Drama, 6pm

Two archive outings for Patricia Routledge’s amateur sleuth on Drama, back to back from 6pm. The first sends Hetty to a fishing village to meet a long-lost cousin; the second brings her brother-in-law Frank to stay, with a vanished Victorian schoolmistress along for the ride.

Countryfile – BBC One, 7pm

Joe Crowley and Tom Heap use the Bayeux Tapestry’s first UK display in almost a thousand years as the hook for a proper history lesson: walking the battlefield it depicts, tracking down the traditional boat-building methods the Norman fleet would have used, and meeting a farmer whose long-horned red cattle descend from the animals stitched into the tapestry itself. Rural TV doing what it does best — genuinely interesting stuff dressed up as a Sunday-evening wind-down.

The Box – ITV1, 7pm

The reality format’s fifth episode ramps things up: a mystery box makes a return appearance, risks start paying off unevenly, and one contestant’s decision sends the whole group into a tailspin. Still finding its feet as a format, but there’s enough genuine tension here to justify the slot before the news.

Celebrity Pottery Throw Down – Channel 4, 7.45pm

Six celebrity novices, no one going home until week four — tonight it’s a children’s desk set and a surprise sprigging challenge under judges Keith Brymer Jones and Rich Miller. Fatima Whitbread is among the potters, and the show gets real mileage out of pairing craft-based low stakes with the odd properly emotional aside about a contestant’s past. Straightforward, likeable Sunday-teatime television.

Prime Time

Antiques Roadshow – BBC One, 8pm

Fiona Bruce takes the Roadshow to Valentines Mansion in Ilford, where the finds range from the poignant to the properly starry: a specialist walks through the late Terence Stamp’s career using rare items his niece has carried in, a movie-props expert values space suits worn by Matt Damon, Leonard Nimoy and Sam Rockwell, and there’s a ruby ring hidden from the Nazis in Yugoslavia and recovered after the war. Sara Pascoe also drops by. The format rarely needs reinventing and this episode is a good reminder why.

Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales – BBC Two, 8pm

A new series opener sends seven celebrities of different faiths, and none, walking a route through north Wales together. The format’s whole appeal is watching people who’d never normally share a conversation, let alone blisters, find common ground on a long walk — and this batch of celebrities looks like a promising mix for it.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – ITV1, 8pm

Back for another run: fifteen questions, four lifelines, one million pounds on the line if a contestant gets all the way there. It’s comfortably one of the most durable formats British TV has ever produced, and it’s oddly well paired tonight with BBC Two’s Slumdog Millionaire two hours later.

22 Kids & Counting – Channel 5, 8pm

Channel 5‘s Radford family documentary returns: Sue starts a weight-loss transformation with social media watching every step, and Aimee’s 20th birthday gets gatecrashed by an unexpected guest. Whatever you think of the format, the family clearly know how to make an episode land.

Sister Boniface Mysteries – Drama, 8pm

Door-to-door saleswomen roll into Great Slaughter promising makeovers and leave murder behind instead, sending Mrs Clam undercover to work out who’s really selling what. Cosy Sunday-night crime, done with a straight face and a decent joke rate.

The Split Up – BBC One, 9pm ⭐

This is the one to watch tonight. Abi Morgan’s spin-off from The Split moves the action to a glossy Manchester divorce-law firm handling the kind of settlements most of us will never see, and it opens with the succession plan already falling apart: Aria, the daughter tipped to take over the family firm, gets blindsided by her father Dhruv’s shock announcement just as she’s ready to step up.

Ritu Arya carries the lead role with the same mix of steel and exhaustion that made The Split work, and Sanjeev Bhaskar is clearly enjoying playing a patriarch who keeps wrong-footing his own daughter for reasons that aren’t yet clear. There’s a starry celebrity-divorce subplot running alongside the main firm politics too, which should keep the tabloid-adjacent viewers just as happy as the ones here for the legal drama. Six episodes, and the whole run lands on iPlayer at once — the kind of show that’s built for a weekend binge as much as a weekly watch.

The Blame – ITV1, 9pm

A new crime drama built on an uncomfortable premise: five years after a real case shook public trust in policing, DI Emma Crane and DI Tom Radley investigate a 16-year-old skater’s killing in Wakestead, a town invented for the series, only for Emma to start suspecting the institution she works for, and possibly her own colleagues, rather than an outsider. Michelle Keegan is doing noticeably more restrained work here than her usual register, and Douglas Booth makes a decent sparring partner. A second episode follows on Monday.

Apocalypse – Channel 4, 9pm

Week two of the social experiment that strips a group of contestants of food, water, power and, it turns out, basic manners. Tonight it’s a stolen tin of processed meat and some kidnapped chickens that tip an already tense camp into open warfare, complete with baseball bats and at least one contestant sounding almost disappointed it isn’t actually the apocalypse. Ridiculous television, but rarely boring.

Wilderness with Simon Reeve – BBC Two, 9pm

Reeve treks into Papua New Guinea’s Torricelli Mountains, up Mount Sulen, hunting the tenkile — a tree kangaroo so rare that most of the country has never seen one — battling insect bites and worse the whole way up. He’s 54 now and shows no sign of slowing down; if anything the physical toll of these trips seems to be part of the appeal for him and for viewers who’ve followed the series from the start.

Big Brother – ITV2, 9pm

Another week, another eviction, and the format’s still leaning hard into the round-the-clock surveillance angle that made it must-watch television in the first place. The Group Chat follows immediately after for the evicted housemate’s exit interview and the usual reaction from Kate Lawler and GK Barry.

A Man Called Otto – Film4, 9pm

Tom Hanks plays a widower whose entire personality has curdled into rule-enforcement and general grumpiness, right up until a new family moves in next door and starts, very slowly, wearing him down. It’s shameless in exactly the way you’d expect from a film that wants you crying by the end, but Hanks sells the transition well enough that it mostly works anyway.

The Rolling Stones: Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush – Sky Arts, 9.20pm

Sky Arts turns its evening over to the Stones: Concert for George kicks things off at 6.30pm with Clapton, Tom Petty and Dhani Harrison paying tribute to George Harrison, before this archive concert film catches the band’s surprise 1999 show for 1,800 fans at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, and the night closes with a look back at Exile on Main St. A genuinely nice run for anyone who fancies a music-doc evening instead of the drama pile-up everywhere else.

Late Night

Slumdog Millionaire – BBC Two, 10pm

Danny Boyle’s Oscar-sweeping 2008 film follows a Mumbai orphan one question away from the Millionaire jackpot, and the framing device — flashing back through his life to explain how he knows each answer — still holds up as one of the cleverer structural tricks in a mainstream film this century.

Gogglebox – Channel 4, 10pm

The sofas react to the week’s television as usual, with Celebrity Gogglebox following at 11pm for viewers who want the famous-face version too.

The Day After Tomorrow – 4seven, 10pm

4seven has Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal in the 2004 disaster film where a sudden global freeze traps a father racing to reach his son. Silly in the details, but the giant-set-piece stuff still lands.

Sport

Football dominates the day: Celtic host Rangers in the Scottish Premiership from noon, before English attention shifts to a genuine Super Sunday double-header at 2pm — Bournemouth against Liverpool and Man City against Sunderland, both live on Sky Sports, with Fulham hosting Manchester United completing the set at 4.30pm. Cricket’s domestic Cup Final between Leicestershire and Middlesex is live from 10.30am on Sky Sports Cricket, and the PGA Championship reaches its final day live from Wentworth from 9am, with BBC Two running highlights at 6pm for anyone who’d rather watch the short version. Match of the Day rounds off the night on BBC One at 10.30pm, Kelly Cates running through the best of Sunday’s Premier League action.

Tonight by Channel

A channel-by-channel breakdown of Sunday 20 September 2026, so you can jump straight to the one you actually watch.

BBC One

• 7pm — Countryfile
• 8pm — Antiques Roadshow
• 9pm — The Split Up

BBC Two

• 8pm — Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales
• 9pm — Wilderness with Simon Reeve
• 10pm — Slumdog Millionaire

ITV1

• 7pm — The Box
• 8pm — Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
• 9pm — The Blame

Channel 4

• 7.45pm — Celebrity Pottery Throw Down
• 9pm — Apocalypse
• 10pm — Gogglebox

Channel 5

• 8pm — 22 Kids & Counting

Sky Sports Main Event

• 11am — Football: Celtic v Rangers
• 1pm — Football: Bournemouth v Liverpool
• 4pm — Football: Fulham v Man Utd

Drama

• 6pm — Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
• 8pm — Sister Boniface Mysteries

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

• BBC iPlayer: The Split Up, Countryfile, Antiques Roadshow, Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales, Wilderness with Simon Reeve
• ITVX: The Blame, The Box, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Big Brother
• Channel 4 streaming: Apocalypse, Celebrity Pottery Throw Down, Gogglebox
• My5: 22 Kids & Counting

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on tonight (Sunday 20 September 2026)?

No. EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday on BBC One at 7.30pm, so Sunday is one of its regular nights off along with Friday and Saturday. It returns Monday 21 September at 7.30pm.

What time is The Split Up on tonight?

The Split Up is on BBC One at 9pm tonight. It’s the opener of a new six-part series, a spin-off from The Split, and the whole run is available on iPlayer from broadcast.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight (Sunday 20 September 2026)?

The Split Up on BBC One at 9pm is the pick of tonight’s three big launches, though The Blame on ITV1 and Big Brother’s return on ITV2, both also at 9pm, are close behind.

What live sport is on TV tonight (Sunday 20 September 2026)?

It’s a full Super Sunday: Bournemouth host Liverpool and Man City play Sunderland, both kicking off at 2pm on Sky Sports, before Fulham v Man Utd at 4.30pm. Celtic v Rangers kicks off at noon on Sky Sports, and the PGA Championship’s final day is live from Wentworth from 9am.

What’s on ITV1 tonight?

ITV1 has three fresh episodes back to back: The Box at 7pm, the quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? at 8pm, and new crime drama The Blame at 9pm, followed by an early repeat of The Blame at 11.45pm for anyone who missed it.

What time is The Blame on ITV1?

The Blame is on ITV1 at 9pm tonight, with Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth as the two detectives investigating a teenager’s murder. A second episode follows on Monday at 9pm.

What film is on TV tonight?

BBC Two has Slumdog Millionaire at 10pm, Film4 has A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks at 9pm, and 4seven has disaster film The Day After Tomorrow at 10pm.

Is Big Brother on tonight?

Yes, Big Brother is on ITV2 at 9pm, with housemates facing another eviction vote, followed by The Group Chat at 10pm.

What time does Match of the Day start?

Match of the Day is on BBC One at 10.30pm, with Kelly Cates running through highlights of the day’s Premier League fixtures.

Is Apocalypse a new series tonight?

No, Apocalypse continues on Channel 4 at 9pm with its second episode, following last week’s launch. It’s the reality format that drops contestants into an abandoned town with no food, water or power.

Final Verdict

Three new dramas landing in the same hour is an unusually stacked way to start a week of TV, but The Split Up just edges it as tonight’s must-watch — Abi Morgan rarely misses with this kind of glossy, grown-up drama, and Ritu Arya looks like exactly the right lead to carry it. The Blame is the one to keep an eye on if you want something bleaker, and Apocalypse is there for anyone who just wants people arguing over stolen chickens. Football fans have the better end of the deal regardless, with four live Premier League and Scottish games before Match of the Day ties it all together. EastEnders returns Monday at 7.30pm.

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