TV Guide UK Tonight: Thurs 24 Sept 2026 – Ludwig, Professor T & Coronation Street

Updated: 19 September 2026

Thursday 24 September 2026. It’s a proper head-to-head tonight: Ludwig’s series finale and Professor T’s last case both land at 9pm, one on BBC One, the other on ITV1. Around them, Channel 4‘s Taskmaster and Channel 5‘s All Creatures Great and Small keep the rest of primetime honest, and EastEnders airs as usual at 7.30pm before the finales take over.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Ludwig BBC One, 9pm. Series finale of the puzzle-consultant procedural — not the end of the show, just the end of this run.
• Professor T ITV1, 9pm. Jasper’s last case of the series, going head-to-head with Ludwig for the 9pm slot.
• Taskmaster Channel 4, 9pm. A new episode built around a table-hiding trick that’s stopped being a secret.
• Dragons’ Den BBC One, 8pm. A personalised pet-portrait pitch turns into an unexpectedly competitive bidding war.
• EastEnders is on tonight — BBC One, 7.30pm, with Lauren facing a decision she cannot dodge.

Early Evening

Pointless – BBC One, 5.15pm

A new episode of the teatime quiz that’s been running long enough to feel like part of the furniture. Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman put fresh pairs through a format that punishes the obvious answer and rewards the one nobody else thought of. Knowing the popular answer scores nothing here; contestants have to gamble on obscurity instead, which flips the usual quiz-show logic on its head in a way that still works after all these years. It’s the sort of programme you can drift in and out of without losing the thread, and that’s probably part of why it’s lasted.

The One Show – BBC One, 7pm

The nightly magazine slot does its usual mix of studio chat, topical items and whatever guest happens to be promoting something that week. Reliable rather than essential, but it sets the tone for the evening ahead on BBC One.

EastEnders – BBC One, 7.30pm

Lauren is backed into a decision with no good answer tonight, and the episode gives her very little room to dodge it. Jack is fighting to keep a lid on his own temper, with mixed success, and Ned is still hunting for a way out of the money trouble closing in on the Hawkins family. Three threads that have been tightening for a fortnight, none of them likely to resolve quietly.

Should I Ask AI? Tonight – ITV1, 7.30pm

Geraint Vincent looks at where artificial intelligence can genuinely save people time or money, rather than just being a novelty. It’s a straightforward current-affairs slot rather than anything flashy, and the title alone tells you most of what you need to know about the angle it’s taking.

Dragons’ Den – BBC One, 8pm

An entrepreneur pitching a clothing and accessories line built around personalised pet portraits turns tonight’s opening negotiation into something closer to a bidding contest between two Dragons than a straightforward investment decision. Elsewhere in the Den, there’s an inventor with a fishing-tackle gadget and a pitch aimed squarely at solving the eternal queue for the women’s toilets. As ever, the fun is less in who gets funded and more in watching the panel’s faces while they work out whether they believe the numbers.

The Yorkshire Vet – Channel 5, 8pm

Rohin Aojula gets called out to a farm where a cow has started walking strangely sideways, and works through the possible causes with the kind of patient, unhurried manner the show has built its reputation on. Elsewhere, veteran vet Peter Wright operates to remove a worrying growth from former footballer Bernie Slaven’s dog, and there’s a trickier procedure on a hedgehog-like tenrec with an infected eye. Gentle, undemanding viewing that trusts its animals to be interesting enough on their own.

The Chelsea Detective – Drama, 8pm

Max is back on his houseboat trying to work out where an unpleasant smell is coming from, which turns out to be the least of his problems once he’s drawn into the affairs of the wealthy Davenstock family. Their inheritance disputes give Drama a case with more old-money intrigue than its usual London backdrop, and Max’s outsider perspective on the family’s entitlement is where most of the episode’s best moments land.

Bangers and Cash – Yesterday, 8pm

A new episode sees Derek Mathewson head to Oswestry hunting a 1927 Sunbeam and a 1957 Morris Isis for the next big sale. Yesterday‘s auction franchise doesn’t need to reinvent itself at this point — the appeal is watching unusual vehicles find new owners, and there’s always at least one lot that surprises everybody in the room.

Emmerdale – ITV1, 8pm

Lewis spends the episode turning over where he actually stands with Vinny, and not liking most of the answers he arrives at. Elsewhere Nicola is weighing on Kev’s mind, and he is sitting on something he still has not told her, held back by how he thinks she will take it — a secret the village will not let him keep for long.

Coronation Street – ITV1, 8.30pm

Christina opens up to George about something she’d rather have kept buried, after work at the funeral parlour throws up a name she recognises from her own history. Eva, meanwhile, gets herself into an alarming situation at the Rovers involving her hair straighteners — lower stakes, but exactly the kind of comic beat the street does well between its heavier storylines.

Prime Time

Ludwig – BBC One, 9pm ⭐

This is the one to plan your evening around. Ludwig’s series finale finally puts real weight behind the overarching mystery the show’s been circling since it began — a high-profile death that turns out to have uncomfortable links to a sitting shadow-cabinet politician, dragging John Taylor’s puzzle-consultant disguise into territory well beyond his comfort zone.

What’s kept this show so likeable through two series is that the comedy never gets shoved aside for the plot, and the finale doesn’t change that formula. DC Cole has by now convinced himself the whole thing is an elaborate cover for MI5 involvement, which is funnier the more seriously he takes it, and DI Russell Carter is left trying to keep some semblance of order around him. Whether tonight actually resolves anything about the wider conspiracy or just deepens it is part of the appeal — and either way, this isn’t goodbye: a Christmas special is reportedly already in the works, so John’s double life looks set to continue whether he likes it or not.

Professor T – ITV1, 9pm

Jasper’s own series finale runs on quieter stakes than Ludwig’s but is arguably the more emotionally satisfying of the two. Having spent two series treating caution as a personal virtue, he finally shows small signs of wanting something less controlled — snipping the fingertips off his gloves for drumming lessons is a minor detail, but it’s the kind of thing this character doesn’t do lightly. Whether that same instinct extends to finally admitting something to Helena, given they’re no longer bound by a professional relationship, is the question hanging over the whole episode. Zelda’s wedding gives them both an excuse to talk without it looking like anything more, which is very on-brand for a show that’s always preferred subtext to declarations.

Taskmaster – Channel 4, 9pm

A new episode built around the fact that everybody watching this show eventually learns to check under the table for hidden instructions — so this week’s opening task sends the contestants scrambling to check under every table in the house instead, since the usual trick has stopped being a secret. It’s a small, self-aware joke that says a lot about how comfortable the format has become with its own conventions, fourteen-odd series in, without ever feeling like it’s coasting.

All Creatures Great and Small – Channel 5, 9pm

Siegfried’s modern approach to treating a sick sow doesn’t go down well with two stubborn farmers who’ve been doing things their own way for decades and see no reason to change now, purely because someone with a veterinary degree suggests it. Helen hits a similar wall trying to move part of the herd over to a new breed of cattle, with her father-in-law seemingly waiting for the first sign of trouble so he can say he told her so. It’s a season that keeps circling back to the same idea — that change comes slowly in Darrowby, and everybody, animals included, eventually has to compromise.

Slumdog Millionaire – BBC Four, 9pm

BBC Four gives over its Thursday film slot to Danny Boyle’s 2008 drama, in which a teenager who grew up in Mumbai’s slums finds himself one question away from winning a fortune on a TV quiz show, and has to explain to sceptical police exactly how a boy with no education knows all the answers. Still one of the more inventive ways a film has ever structured itself around a game show format, and it holds up well nearly two decades on.

Top Gun: Maverick – Film4, 9pm

Film4 airs Tom Cruise’s belated sequel, in which Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is dragged back to train a new generation of pilots for a mission that looks close to impossible on paper. It shouldn’t work as well as it does more than thirty years after the original, but the aerial sequences are genuinely spectacular on a big screen or otherwise, and it earns its nostalgia rather than just leaning on it.

The Hunting Party – U&Alibi, 9pm

This week’s case takes a darker turn as the investigation closes in on a suspect whose hallucinations are treated by the writers as the reason behind her violence — a shortcut this genre reaches for far too often, given that most people who experience psychosis are never violent at all. What follows involves an invasive medical procedure that’s played for shock value rather than sensitivity. Worth watching for the central mystery if that’s what you’re here for, but it’s not the show’s most thoughtful hour on the subject.

Late Night

Celebrity Gogglebox – Channel 4, 10pm

Famous pairs take their turn on the sofa-critic format, reacting to the week’s television with noticeably less self-awareness than you’d expect from people used to being watched for a living.

The Killer Nurse: Poisoning on Ward 4 – Channel 5, 10pm

A documentary revisiting a hospital poisoning case, tracing how long it took colleagues and investigators to piece together what was actually happening on the ward. Unsettling in the way the best true-crime documentaries are, precisely because it’s about a place people are supposed to trust.

Newsnight – BBC Two, 10.30pm

BBC Two‘s nightly analysis programme rounds up the day’s political stories with its usual mix of interviews and studio debate.

Question Time – BBC One, 10.40pm

A panel of politicians, commentators and one especially opinionated audience member per week face questions from the studio floor on whatever’s dominated the news agenda. Still one of the better barometers of how an argument actually lands with the public, rather than how it sounds in a press release.

The Magnificent Seven (2016) – ITV1, 10.45pm

Antoine Fuqua’s remake puts Denzel Washington at the head of the seven, with Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Vincent D’Onofrio riding alongside him to defend a mining town from the man who has taken it over. It makes no attempt to replace the 1960 original, and is far happier as a straightforward action western than as a reinvention — which, at 10.45pm, is not a bad thing to be.

Britain’s Gaza Secrets Exposed – Channel 4, 11.05pm

Dispatches examines the government’s handling of alleged Israeli conduct in Gaza, drawing on Whitehall documents that haven’t previously been made public. Serious, sober current affairs to close out the night rather than anything designed for easy viewing.

Sport

Thursday’s sporting action starts at lunchtime and runs well into the evening. England’s second men’s ODI against Sri Lanka gets under way at midday on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket, live from Headingley, with the series still up for grabs. Sky Sports Golf carries day one of the French Open from 12.30pm, played at Guyancourt, a short way outside the French capital. The evening’s biggest fixture is genuinely free to watch, though: Wales open their Nations League campaign against Portugal on BBC Two, kicking off at 7.45pm, which is worth flagging given how much football has drifted behind paywalls in recent years.

Tonight by Channel

A channel-by-channel breakdown of Thursday 24 September 2026, so you can jump straight to the one you actually watch.

BBC One

• 5.15pm — Pointless
• 7pm — The One Show
• 7.30pm — EastEnders
• 8pm — Dragons’ Den
• 9pm — Ludwig
• 10.40pm — Question Time

BBC Two

• 7.30pm — Football: Portugal v Wales
• 10.30pm — Newsnight

ITV1

• 7.30pm — Should I Ask AI? Tonight
• 8pm — Emmerdale
• 8.30pm — Coronation Street
• 9pm — Professor T
• 10.45pm — The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Channel 4

• 9pm — Taskmaster
• 10pm — Celebrity Gogglebox
• 11.05pm — Britain’s Gaza Secrets Exposed

Channel 5

• 8pm — The Yorkshire Vet
• 9pm — All Creatures Great and Small
• 10pm — The Killer Nurse: Poisoning on Ward 4

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

• BBC iPlayer: Ludwig, Dragons’ Den, Pointless, EastEnders, Question Time, Newsnight, Slumdog Millionaire
• ITVX: Professor T, Coronation Street, Should I Ask AI? Tonight, The Magnificent Seven
• Channel 4 streaming: Taskmaster, Celebrity Gogglebox, Britain’s Gaza Secrets Exposed
• My5: All Creatures Great and Small, The Yorkshire Vet, The Killer Nurse: Poisoning on Ward 4
• U: The Chelsea Detective, Bangers and Cash, The Hunting Party

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on tonight (Thursday 24 September 2026)?

Yes. EastEnders airs on BBC One at 7.30pm tonight, as it does every Monday to Thursday. Tonight Lauren is cornered into a decision with no good answer, Jack is struggling to keep his temper in check, and Ned is looking for a way out of the Hawkins family’s money trouble.

What time is Ludwig on tonight?

Ludwig is on BBC One at 9pm tonight, and it’s the series finale, going head-to-head with Professor T’s own finale on ITV1 in the same slot.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight (Thursday 24 September 2026)?

Ludwig’s series finale on BBC One at 9pm is the pick of the night, though Professor T’s own finale on ITV1 at the same time is a genuine rival for attention.

What live sport is on TV tonight (Thursday 24 September 2026)?

England play Sri Lanka in the second men’s ODI on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from midday at Headingley, Wales face Portugal in the Nations League on free-to-air BBC Two from 7.45pm kick-off, and Sky Sports Golf has day one of the French Open from 12.30pm.

What’s on ITV1 tonight?

ITV1’s evening runs Should I Ask AI? Tonight at 7.30pm, Coronation Street at 8.30pm, and Professor T’s series finale at 9pm, followed by The Magnificent Seven at 10.45pm.

What channel is Professor T on?

Professor T is on ITV1 at 9pm tonight, and this episode is the series finale.

What film is on TV tonight?

Top Gun Maverick is on Film4 at 9pm, with the western The Magnificent Seven following on ITV1 at 10.45pm and Slumdog Millionaire on BBC Four, also at 9pm.

Is Ludwig ending for good?

No. Tonight’s episode is only the finale of this series, not the show itself — a Christmas special has reportedly already been commissioned, so David Mitchell’s puzzle-solving act isn’t done yet.

What time does Question Time start tonight?

Question Time is on BBC One at 10.40pm tonight, after the ten o’clock news.

Is Coronation Street on tonight?

Yes, Coronation Street is on ITV1 at 8.30pm tonight, with Christina confiding a secret from her past to George.

Final Verdict

Ludwig‘s series finale is the story of the night, and the fact it’s going head-to-head with Professor T‘s own send-off makes 9pm the most competitive slot of the week rather than the usual one-horse race. Taskmaster and All Creatures Great and Small give the rest of primetime real weight, and Dragons’ Den is worth catching for the pet-portrait pitch alone. EastEnders is on as normal at 7.30pm.

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