TV Guide UK Tonight: Thurs 3 Sept 2026 – Taskmaster, Ludwig & Long Lost Family

Updated: 30 August 2026

Thursday 3 September 2026. Channel 4 brings Taskmaster back for its second series of the year, BBC One has Ludwig, and ITV1 returns Long Lost Family. BBC Two finishes A House through Time. Four decent programmes in the same hour, which is either a good night or an annoying one depending on your recorder. EastEnders is on at 7.30pm.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Taskmaster Channel 4, 9pm. New series, and a very good five.
• Ludwig BBC One, 9pm. A killer who beat 48 cameras.
• A House through Time BBC Two, 9pm. Last of the Edinburgh run.
• Long Lost Family ITV1, 9pm. Two reunions, one of them extraordinary.
• EastEnders is on tonight — BBC One, 7.30pm.

Early Evening

EastEnders – BBC One, 7.30pm

Max and Howie’s stag party fills Harry’s Barn with most of the men in Walford, which is never an arrangement that ends quietly. Linda is caught between what she wants and what she knows is sensible, and Max spends the evening trying to talk his way clear of something. The last Albert Square half-hour of the week — all four episodes have been on iPlayer since Monday morning if you would rather take them in one go.

Emmerdale – ITV1, 8pm

Bear sits down with Sarah, Nicola is left cringing and Kim has something on her mind. Coronation Street follows at 8.30pm, where a trip to the salon brings Debbie up against her own history and Jodie’s date with Kit goes down badly with both Shona and Bethany.

Dragons’ Den – BBC One, 8pm

Tinie Tempah is back, and the first pitch is a range of premium alcohol-free wines described by the two entrepreneurs behind it as, essentially, alcohol removed rather than a compromise. Peter Jones is impressed enough to note that it does not taste much like wine, which they take better than you might expect. There is also a plant-based ice cream brand drawing on Indian heritage, and a darts business built around social enterprise that gets Peter and Deborah Meaden up at the oche throwing at each other. Nobody’s arrows are as good as they think.

The Yorkshire Vet – Channel 5, 8pm

The premise tonight is a vet who is frightened of one of his patients: Julian Norton, who does not like snakes, has to examine Summer, a Burmese python with an eye problem. She is neither the biggest nor the most famous animal of the week. Pedro, a breeding bull, has skin-cracking sunburn; Java the beagle has a cancerous ear, which is the bit to look away from; and Mr White, a rooster of extremely poor temperament, once had a thirty-second cameo in a film nobody will name. Channel 5 at 8pm.

Prime Time

Taskmaster – Channel 4, 9pm ⭐

The blazing summer is more or less over, the evenings are drawing in and the leaves are on the turn — but the surest sign that autumn has arrived is a second Taskmaster series inside the same calendar year. The new five are Richard Ayoade, Matt Lucas, Nina Conti, Isy Suttie and Chloe Petts, which on paper is one of the stronger line-ups the show has assembled: two chaos agents, two precision players and Ayoade, who tends to operate in a separate genre entirely.

The in-studio chemistry takes a few minutes to settle, as it always does, and then the tasks do the work. There is a golden apple to be handcuffed to, some deeply impractical furniture removal, and a search for specific items in a belt containing a thousand pockets. The headline is a musical challenge — a first for the series in that all five songs are genuinely performed live and in tune, by people with more talent than they usually admit to. Greg Davies and Alex Horne are on their usual form. Free on Channel 4 streaming afterwards.

Ludwig – BBC One, 9pm

Two people are loitering where they are not currently wanted: John at the police station, Lucy at a newspaper office, both slowly wearing down editor Gareth’s patience. They are after the same thing, which is what happened to Joanne Kemper before her interview with an MP whose affairs will not bear inspection. The trouble is that John cannot resist a puzzle, and before long a murdered influencer in the middle of Cambridge pulls him off course — a killer who crossed a city that never stops watching without registering on a single one of 48 CCTV cameras. It is a locked-room problem dressed up as a modern one, and by the end the Taylors have spotted a pattern running underneath it that is a good deal more sinister than one death.

A House through Time – BBC Two, 9pm

The last of the series, and David Olusoga finishes his alternative history of Edinburgh as he began it: through one address and the people who lived at it. This episode takes in child neglect, gambling debts, conscription, war injuries and imprisonment in the Second World War, and by 1949 a housing stock so far gone that basic amenities were missing entirely and 20 and 22 Calton Hill were condemned. One former resident remembers watching what he describes as a black sea of rats pour out of a nearby demolition. That so many of these houses survived at all is the quiet argument the whole series has been making.

Long Lost Family – ITV1, 9pm

The pre-credit reunion sequence will do for most people before the programme has properly started. Then come the two stories. Avril was 15 when she was sent to a mother and baby home in Carlisle in the 1960s, and has kept a photograph of her first-born beside her bed ever since. Marie was raised by her grandparents in Norfolk, saw her mother rarely and was never told a single thing about her birth father, who has essentially vanished from the record — and Davina McCall has something to tell her about one of the relatives they have found. It runs directly against tonight’s Stolen Babies aftershocks on the same subject, which is not a coincidence anyone planned.

Benidorm Is Murder – Channel 5, 9pm

Series finale, and the format finally closes the doors. A thoroughly disreputable guest is killed during a lock-in at the Tavern, and with everyone sealed inside and nowhere to go, Dennis has to turn detective purely to keep himself out of the frame. John Hannah has spent the run looking put-upon for good reason — his ex-wife Tiff and her slippery fiancé own half his business and are enjoying it — and the lock-in gives him one contained hour to work in. Neat, and a better finish than the series looked like it was heading for.

Sandi’s Ireland: a Literary Journey – More4, 9pm

Two parts, and Toksvig is a good enough interviewer to let other people talk. Marian Keyes explains the Irish habit of finding love and comedy in the most mundane material and humour in the darkest, which is as neat a summary of the national literary temperament as you will get. There is a decent case made for Maria Edgeworth, who was widely respected by her peers, outsold Jane Austen in her lifetime and has since more or less disappeared. More4 at 9pm.

Hit Point – U&Dave, 9pm

Stakeouts are where television detectives are forced to talk, and this episode makes proper use of it — Leo and Bella end up working out what each of them could actually forgive in a partner, by way of a comparison involving Eva Braun that Leo really should have thought about first.

The Hunting Party – U&Alibi, 9pm

Plenty of people quietly suspect that social media influencers spread misinformation, sell unattainable lifestyles and hasten the general collapse. Rather fewer act on it. Lou Kaplan has, catfishing content creators with promises of collaboration before turning their own output into something much worse.

Elsewhere at 9pm: Sky Atlantic has Fightland, and Rewind TV revives Time Gentlemen Please at 9.30pm, with Al Murray’s landlord discovering that his new boss is a woman.

Late Night

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK – BBC Three, 10pm

RuPaul returns with Michelle Visage and Alan Carr as a fresh set of queens take the stage.

Sport

The second of three women’s one-day internationals between England and Ireland, from the OurCoop County Ground in Derby, is on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from 12.30pm. Day five of the US Open at Flushing Meadows is on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Tennis from 3.30pm. Stage two of the men’s Tour of Britain, 180.2km from Boston to Skegness, is live on TNT Sports 1 from 10.30am.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

• BBC iPlayer: EastEnders, Dragons’ Den, Ludwig, A House through Time, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
• ITVX: Long Lost Family, Emmerdale, Coronation Street
• Channel 4 streaming: Taskmaster, Sandi’s Ireland: a Literary Journey
• 5: The Yorkshire Vet, Benidorm Is Murder
• U: Hit Point, The Hunting Party
• NOW: Fightland

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on tonight (Thursday 3 September 2026)?

Yes. EastEnders is on BBC One at 7.30pm in its usual Thursday slot, before Dragons’ Den at 8pm and Ludwig at 9pm. It runs Monday to Thursday, so this is the last episode of the week — all four have been on iPlayer as a boxset since Monday morning.

What time is Taskmaster on tonight?

Taskmaster returns to Channel 4 at 9pm with the opening episode of series 22, the second run of the year. Greg Davies and Alex Horne are joined by Richard Ayoade, Matt Lucas, Nina Conti, Isy Suttie and Chloe Petts. It’s free on Channel 4 streaming afterwards.

Who is on the new series of Taskmaster?

The series 22 five are Richard Ayoade, Matt Lucas, Nina Conti, Isy Suttie and Chloe Petts. Tonight includes a musical task in which all five songs are performed live and in tune, along with a golden apple, some extreme furniture removals and a search through a belt of a thousand pockets.

What happens in Ludwig tonight?

Ludwig is on BBC One at 9pm. John and Lucy are both loitering where they are not needed while trying to establish what happened to Joanne Kemper before her interview with a questionable MP. The murder of the week involves an influencer whose killer crossed the city without appearing on any of 48 CCTV cameras.

What live sport is on TV tonight: Thursday 3 September 2026?

The second women’s one-day international between England and Ireland from Derby is on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from 12.30pm. Day five of the US Open is on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Tennis from 3.30pm. Stage two of the Tour of Britain, from Boston to Skegness, is on TNT Sports 1 from 10.30am.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight (Thursday 3 September 2026)?

Taskmaster on Channel 4 at 9pm. Ludwig, A House through Time and Long Lost Family are all opposite it in the same hour, so something is going on the recorder whatever you choose.

What is on ITV1 tonight?

ITV1 has Emmerdale at 8pm, Coronation Street at 8.30pm and Long Lost Family at 9pm, with Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell reuniting two families separated in the 1960s. All are on ITVX afterwards.

What is A House through Time about tonight?

The final episode is on BBC Two at 9pm. David Olusoga completes his history of Edinburgh through a single house, covering child neglect, gambling, conscription and wartime imprisonment, and the condemning of 20 and 22 Calton Hill in 1949.

Is Dragons’ Den on tonight?

Yes, BBC One at 8pm, with Tinie Tempah back in the Den. The pitches include a premium alcohol-free wine, a plant-based ice cream business with an Indian heritage, and a darts social enterprise.

Final Verdict

Everything worth watching has been stacked into the same hour. Taskmaster is the pick — a genuinely strong five and a musical task the show has never quite pulled off before — with Ludwig the smartest hour of drama and the last A House through Time the one that will stay with you. Long Lost Family does what it always does, extremely well. EastEnders is on at 7.30pm and it’s the last of the week.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight Thursday | What’s On TV Tonight Wed 2 Sept 2026 | What’s On TV Tonight Fri 4 Sept 2026