TV Guide UK Tonight: Thurs 12 Mar 2026 – Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns, The Apprentice & Platoon

A Thursday with rare seriousness at its centre. Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns arrives on BBC Two at 9pm, thirty years on from the massacre that killed 16 children and one teacher — a powerful documentary that moves from the unbearable to the inspiring as it traces the Snowdrop campaign that changed British law. On BBC Four at the same hour, Oliver Stone’s Platoon screens in its full five-star glory: one of the great American war films, and the best piece of cinema on television this week. On BBC One at 9pm, The Apprentice provides the necessary contrast — the candidates venture into virtual fitness gaming, produce an army of digital frogs, and nearly destroy their own pitch in the process. Earlier, Dragons’ Den at 8pm makes history when an entrepreneur walks into the Den wearing a full chicken suit. EastEnders is on at 7:30pm, Coronation Street‘s murder mystery tightens at 8:30pm, and A Woman of Substance continues on Channel 4 at 9pm. A well-stocked Thursday.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns — BBC Two, 9pm — Essential documentary marking 30 years since the school massacre
• Platoon — BBC Four, 9pm — Oliver Stone’s five-star Vietnam masterpiece. Four Oscars. Still devastating
• The Apprentice — BBC One, 9pm — VR fitness gaming, brand creation and a frog problem that gets out of hand
• Dragons’ Den — BBC One, 8pm — The first chicken suit in Den history, plus a pitch that receives offers for less equity than asked
• Coronation Street — ITV1, 8:30pm — Five murder suspects, one deadline: 23 April
• A Woman of Substance — Channel 4, 9pm — Episode 2 of the Barbara Taylor Bradford adaptation

Early Evening

EastEnders — BBC One, 7:30pm

EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday, and tonight’s episode is on BBC One at 7:30pm as usual. Catch up via BBC iPlayer if you miss it.

Cheltenham Festival Day 3 — ITV1/STV, 12:45pm

The third day of the Festival, live on ITV1 from 12:45pm. If you are not near a television for the afternoon, highlights and race replays are available on ITVX.

Prime Time: 8pm

Dragons’ Den — BBC One, 8pm

The Den has seen some memorable entrances over the years — the coffin and telephone box from earlier this series among them — but nothing quite like tonight’s. An entrepreneur walks in dressed as a chicken, places themselves in front of five of Britain’s most demanding investors, and waits for a reaction. The dragons are in fits. Whether they maintain their composure long enough to write a cheque is a different matter.

Elsewhere in the episode, a low-key pitch produces something apparently unprecedented: multiple offers for the full amount requested, but at less equity than the entrepreneur asked for. If you have watched enough Den to know how rarely a dragon offers more than they need to, you will appreciate why the other investors’ jaws are dropping. There are also oat-based food products and a range of protective lip-care products on offer — the latter giving Deborah Meaden the opportunity to offer Steven Bartlett some unsolicited advice on application technique, which he takes in relatively good part. Peter Jones’s expression suggests he is enjoying himself enormously. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Car SOS — National Geographic, 8pm

Tim Shaw and Fuzz Townshend’s car restoration series returns, and tonight’s project is a 1959 Austin-Healey Sprite — a small sports car with two prominent headlights positioned so high on its bonnet that it resembles nothing so much as a cartoon amphibian on wheels. John, a dad from Hampton in south-west London, bought it as his pride and joy and then watched life get in the way: it has been sitting in a garage for the past 50 years, deteriorating quietly while he got on with other things.

His daughters arranged for the Car SOS team to give it a full restoration, which is touching enough. But the team have saved the real surprise for the reveal: when John finally sees his transformed car again, it is being driven towards him by Joanna Lumley. Whatever John was expecting, it probably was not that. Catch up via Disney+.

Alexander Armstrong in India — Channel 5, 8pm

In Jaipur, Rajasthan, Armstrong discovers a city where the ancient and the contemporary occupy the same streets without apparent conflict. He visits a jewellery shop with the intention of buying “Mrs A” a birthday present and, after being shown items worth considerably more than a sensible man would spend, declines to reveal what he eventually chose. Wise.

He is, by his own account, more drawn to the unexpected corners of a place than the obvious attractions, and Jaipur obliges. He meets a manufacturer of bondage equipment — “we haven’t agreed a safe word,” Armstrong says, nervously — and a man whose daily routine involves feeding the city’s considerable population of macaque monkeys. He then travels south to Karnataka for a safari in Bandipur National Park, where the prize is a tiger sighting that may or may not materialise. Catch up via Channel 5 streaming.

This Farming Life — BBC Two, 8pm (not Wales)

Rob and Emma face the particular chaos of triplet lambs, which sounds charming in the abstract and tends to be considerably more demanding in practice. Ally and Bethany, meanwhile, have a sheep-gathering problem that requires an unorthodox solution when conventional transport proves inadequate. The series continues to find the drama in everyday farming life without forcing it. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Coronation Street — ITV1, 8:30pm

The flash-forward confirmed a murder on the cobbles by 23 April, and the identity of the victim remains the show’s central mystery. Tonight, all five suspects are moving deeper into their respective crises. Maggie is working hard to keep a family secret precisely where she wants it. Theo’s jealousy over Todd and James’s relationship is curdling into something uglier. Megan’s predatory behaviour is beginning to attract the wrong kind of attention. Jodie has a plan to wreck her sister’s marriage. And Carl — shunned, isolated, and with nowhere left to go — remains the one most viewers are backing to end up under a sheet.

This is Coronation Street, though, which has a long tradition of wrongfooting its audience. Catch up via ITVX.

Prime Time: 9pm

Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns — BBC Two, 9pm

Thirty years ago this month, Thomas Hamilton walked into a primary school gymnasium in Dunblane with four legally held handguns and opened fire. He killed 16 children, all aged five or six, and their teacher. Fifteen others were injured before he turned the gun on himself. Tonight’s documentary begins with Eileen Harrild, the PE teacher whose class Hamilton entered that morning, describing what happened. Her account is calm, precise and almost unbearably vivid — the kind of first-hand testimony that makes the events of a distant morning suddenly and dreadfully present.

Former Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth and his Labour shadow George Robertson both speak about visiting the school in the immediate aftermath. The memory still catches them mid-sentence, three decades later.

The documentary then follows what happened next — the “Snowdrop” campaign, named for the flower that was already beginning to emerge from the ground when the massacre occurred, launched by parents and community members who decided that grief alone was not enough. They wanted handguns banned, and they wanted it done before the snowdrops returned the following year.

What they faced was formidable. The gun lobby was well-organised and well-funded. Many MPs were opposed. The Duke of Edinburgh spoke publicly against a ban. The whole debate was framed, in the lobby’s preferred language, as “facts versus emotion” — as if the parents burying their five-year-olds were incapable of rational argument. They were capable of far more than that. They won.

The film earns its weight. Also on BBC Scotland on Tuesday at 9pm. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

The Apprentice — BBC One, 9pm

Lord Sugar has, over 20 series, sent his candidates to sell fish, arrange flowers, flog hot tubs at a country show and pitch cereal in their underwear. Now he has apparently decided that virtual fitness gaming — exercise products that combine VR headsets, motion-sensing gloves and a special floor mat for fighting off digital adversaries — is a viable commercial sector worth the full Apprentice treatment: design, brand creation, focus group and pitch, all in 48 hours.

One team grasps the brief and delivers something coherent. The other team is distracted by character creation — specifically, by the question of what their game’s cast of virtual combatants should look like. They settle on frogs. They spend what one observer later describes as “the whole time making excuses for the frogs.” By the time they reach the pitch room, their product has become, in effect, a frog-based fitness game, and the investors are not entirely sure how to respond to this. It is a spectacular piece of Apprentice self-destruction, and it confirms that no matter how outlandish the task, the candidates will find a way to make it more outlandish still. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns — BBC Scotland, 9pm (Tuesday)

The documentary also airs on BBC Scotland on Tuesday 10th March at 9pm and is available via BBC iPlayer.

A Deadly Betrayal: True Crime Presents — ITV1, 9pm

Faye Williams was a young single mother from Nottingham who, by all accounts from those who knew her, was optimistic, warm-hearted and looking for love. In 2013 she believed she had found it in Marian Caliman, a 27-year-old Romanian labourer. The friends who appear in this documentary describe the relationship’s deterioration in a pattern that will be painfully familiar to anyone who has studied coercive control: the gradual separation from friends and family, the control over daily life, the escalating threats, the violence, and ultimately, her murder.

ITV’s True Crime strand has built a reputation for handling these cases with appropriate care, and tonight’s documentary is no exception. The testimony from Faye’s friends is quietly devastating — not because of what they reveal about Caliman, but because of how clearly they remember the woman he took from them. Catch up via ITVX.

A Woman of Substance — Episode 2 — Channel 4, 9pm

Young Emma Harte, played by Jessica Reynolds, continues to endure the cruelties of life in the Fairley household — where the men of the family pursue their various unpleasant agendas and Adele, played by Leanne Best, proves herself a masterclass in scheming by degrees. Barbara Taylor Bradford’s original novel was never a gentle story, and this adaptation makes no attempt to soften it: this is considerably harsher territory than the glossy period dramas that tend to dominate Sunday evenings.

In the parallel 1970s New York timeline, the older Emma appears to be discovering that getting out and getting on was only ever the first part of the battle. There may be more people trying to deceive her than she realised. The full series is available on Channel 4 streaming.

The Hotel Inspector — Channel 5, 9pm

Alex Polizzi is not a woman who softens an assessment to spare feelings, and tonight she does not begin with reassurance. The hotel she is visiting has grubby rooms, barely any furniture, fake flowers — which she regards with the particular contempt of someone who has spent years making this case — and what she describes as a complete absence of warmth. With an occupancy rate to match, it is hard to argue with her diagnosis.

The owners absorb the criticism with reasonable grace — which is usually the sign that they are willing to act on it — and Polizzi rewards them by offering to help transform two of their rooms into proper country-pub accommodation. But there is a second problem beyond the décor: the locals have stopped using the pub. Polizzi turns her attention to why that has happened and what might be done about it. Reconnecting a hospitality business with its community is, in some ways, a harder task than choosing new curtains. Catch up via Channel 5 streaming.

Late Night

Platoon — BBC Four, 9pm

Five stars. Oliver Stone was 22 when he arrived in Vietnam as an infantryman, and Platoon — made almost 20 years later — feels like the work of someone who needed every one of those intervening years to process what he experienced. It is not a war film that asks you to admire its heroes. It is a war film that asks you to consider what happens to ordinary young men when the structures that keep human behaviour in check are removed.

Charlie Sheen plays Chris Taylor, a college dropout who volunteered and quickly discovers that the war he imagined bears no resemblance to the one he is fighting. The film’s central tension is between two sergeants: Barnes, played by Tom Berenger, whose face carries the literal scars of a man who has made brutal pragmatism his philosophy; and Elias, played by Willem Dafoe, who still believes something worth believing in. Taylor has to choose which of them represents the version of himself he can live with.

The production was shot in the Philippines on a tight budget and a punishing schedule. Stone did some of his own special effects work, detonating fuel bombs across the jungle set while directing the actors. The result is a film that feels genuinely physical — the heat, the disorientation, the constant threat — in ways that more expensive productions sometimes fail to achieve.

It won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, and remains the only major Vietnam War film made by someone who was actually there in the infantry. A 1990 interview between Stone and Jeremy Isaacs follows at 10:55pm. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Sport

Golf: The Players Championship — Round 1 from TPC Sawgrass, Florida, on Sky Sports Golf from 11:30am and Sky Sports Main Event from 12 noon.

Racing: Cheltenham Festival Day 3 — Live on ITV1/STV from 12:45pm.

Darts: Premier League — Day 6 from Nottingham on Sky Sports Main Event from 7pm.

Tennis: Indian Wells Open — Singles quarter-finals on Sky Sports ME/Action from 5:30pm; Sky Sports Main Event from 11pm.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

BBC iPlayer: Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns, The Apprentice, Dragons’ Den, EastEnders, This Farming Life, Platoon
ITVX: Coronation Street, A Deadly Betrayal: True Crime Presents, Cheltenham Festival
Channel 4 streaming: A Woman of Substance (full series)
Channel 5 streaming/My5: Alexander Armstrong in India, The Hotel Inspector
Disney+: Car SOS (National Geographic)
Sky Sports: The Players Championship, Cheltenham Festival, Premier League Darts, Indian Wells Open

Frequently Asked Questions

What time is the Dunblane documentary on BBC Two tonight?

Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns is on BBC Two at 9pm tonight (Thursday 12th March 2026). The documentary marks 30 years since Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and one teacher at Dunblane Primary School, and follows the Snowdrop campaign that secured a handgun ban in the face of significant political opposition. Former PE teacher Eileen Harrild opens the film with her first-hand account. It also airs on BBC Scotland on Tuesday at 9pm. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

What time is The Apprentice on BBC One tonight?

The Apprentice is on BBC One at 9pm tonight (Thursday 12th March 2026). The candidates take on a virtual fitness gaming task, designing and branding VR exercise products before pitching to investors. One team’s efforts are comprehensively undermined by their decision to populate their game with an army of virtual frogs. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Is EastEnders on TV tonight?

Yes, EastEnders is on BBC One at 7:30pm tonight (Thursday 12th March 2026). EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

What time is Platoon on BBC Four tonight?

Platoon is on BBC Four at 9pm tonight (Thursday 12th March 2026). Oliver Stone’s 1986 Vietnam War film stars Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe, and won four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. A 1990 interview between Stone and Jeremy Isaacs follows at 10:55pm. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

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

Our top pick for Thursday 12th March 2026 is Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns on BBC Two at 9pm — a powerful documentary marking 30 years since the massacre that follows the Snowdrop campaign from grief to legislation. Platoon on BBC Four at 9pm is a genuine five-star war film, the best cinema available on television this week. The Apprentice on BBC One at 9pm delivers reliable fun with a VR gaming pitch that goes memorably wrong. Dragons’ Den at 8pm opens with an entrepreneur in a chicken suit.

What’s on BBC One tonight?

BBC One tonight (Thursday 12th March 2026) includes EastEnders at 7:30pm, Dragons’ Den at 8pm — featuring the first chicken-suited pitch in the Den’s history and a low-key pitch that receives offers for less equity than requested — and The Apprentice at 9pm, where virtual fitness gaming, VR headsets and an abundance of digital frogs combine to produce one team’s downfall.

What time is Coronation Street on tonight?

Coronation Street is on ITV1 at 8:30pm tonight (Thursday 12th March 2026). The flash-forward murder mystery continues, with five suspects — Maggie, Theo, Megan, Jodie and Carl — in increasingly perilous situations as the 23 April deadline approaches. Catch up via ITVX.

Is there live sport on TV tonight?

Yes. The Players Championship golf begins Round 1 from TPC Sawgrass on Sky Sports Golf from 11:30am and Sky Sports Main Event from 12 noon. Cheltenham Festival Day 3 is live on ITV1 from 12:45pm. Premier League Darts Day 6 comes from Nottingham on Sky Sports Main Event from 7pm. The Indian Wells Open singles quarter-finals are on Sky Sports ME/Action from 5:30pm and Sky Sports Main Event from 11pm.

Final Verdict

Dunblane: How Britain Banned Handguns on BBC Two at 9pm is the standout of the night. Thirty years on, and the documentary gets it right — beginning with Eileen Harrild’s first-hand account, moving through the parents’ testimony, then turning to the Snowdrop campaign and the political battle that few expected them to win. The framing of the debate as “facts versus emotion” — as if the parents’ experience was somehow less valid than the gun lobby’s statistics — is as infuriating now as it was then. The film does not let that go unchallenged.

For the best film on television this week, look no further than Platoon on BBC Four at 9pm. Oliver Stone’s Vietnam masterpiece is as raw and morally serious as it was when it took four Oscars nearly four decades ago. Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe are all extraordinary, and the film’s central question — which version of human nature do we choose when all external constraints are removed — does not date. If you have not seen it, tonight is the night.

The Apprentice on BBC One at 9pm is the evening’s light relief, and it does what the show does best: takes an industry, wraps it in time pressure and competitive anxiety, and watches what falls apart. Virtual fitness gaming was always going to produce chaos. The frogs were an unexpected contribution, and a memorable one.

Dragons’ Den at 8pm is one of the better episodes this series. A chicken suit, a Den first on the equity offer, and Deborah Meaden offering Steven Bartlett unsolicited lip care advice: not your average boardroom hour.

Coronation Street at 8:30pm is maintaining its murder mystery with real discipline: five suspects, all credibly in danger, with no obvious tell. A Woman of Substance on Channel 4 at 9pm is darker than most period drama — which is what makes it worth watching. The Hotel Inspector on Channel 5 at 9pm gives Alex Polizzi a hotel with problems she wastes no time addressing.

Sport fans have a full afternoon at Cheltenham, The Players Championship into the evening on Sky, Premier League Darts from Nottingham, and the Indian Wells quarter-finals for late-night watching.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight Thursday | What’s On TV Tonight Thurs 5 Mar 2026 | What’s On TV Tonight Fri 13 Mar 2026

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.