TV Guide UK Tonight: Tues 31 Mar 2026 – Babies, England v Japan & Spymasters

Published: 26 March 2026

Tuesday night and Babies is back on BBC One at 9pm for episode two — and after last night’s devastating opener, this one digs even deeper. Over on ITV1 from 7pm, it’s England v Japan at Wembley in what is being billed as Thomas Tuchel’s final home friendly before he names his 2026 World Cup squad. Sky Arts launches an oddly compelling new documentary series at 9pm, Spymasters: the Great Spy Writers, and The Teacher continues on Channel 5 with episode two. EastEnders is on BBC One at 7:30pm, where the paternity situation in Albert Square is about to get much worse.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• Babies ⭐ — BBC One, 9pm — Episode 2 of Golaszewski’s new drama; Essiedu and Cullen are extraordinary
• England v Japan — ITV1, 7pm (k/o 7:45pm) — Tuchel’s last Wembley friendly before the World Cup squad
• Spymasters: the Great Spy Writers — Sky Arts, 9pm — A fascinating new series about espionage and literature
• The Teacher — Channel 5, 9pm — Episode 2; Helen’s situation worsens as the recording surfaces
• The Dog House — Channel 4, 8pm — Grieving great dane Scooby gets a storyline that will undo you
• New Life — Film4, 10:55pm — A proper 2023 thriller if you’re up late

Early Evening

EastEnders – BBC One, 7:30pm

Penny’s world is collapsing in a fairly specific direction tonight. After realising that Vinny cannot possibly be the father of her unborn child, she has to confront the reality that Harry — someone she encountered briefly before his stint in rehab — almost certainly is. The timing is appalling: Harry’s mother Nicola is simultaneously being rushed to hospital worried about her own baby’s wellbeing, and Harry himself is confessing to girlfriend Gina that fatherhood is not something he wants any part of. Suki, who has always had her doubts about Penny’s motives, will not find this information reassuring. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Men’s Football: England v Japan – ITV1, 7pm (kick-off 7:45pm)

This is the one the football world has been quietly paying attention to. Thomas Tuchel has settled into the England job with more composure than many expected, and tonight’s match against Japan at Wembley is understood to be his last opportunity to properly evaluate players on the fringes of his thinking before he commits to a 2026 World Cup squad. Japan are no longer the pushover the fixture might once have suggested — they’ve been one of the most technically accomplished sides in world football for a while now, and Wembley on a Tuesday night is never quite the fortress the crowd hopes it will be.

What Tuchel decides to do with team selection here will be read closely. Anyone who starts and performs well tonight is making a late but serious case for a seat on the plane to North America. Coverage from 7pm on ITV1. Catch up via ITVX.

World Cup Play-Off Final / International Friendly – BBC Two, 7:30pm (kick-off 7:45pm)

BBC Two has its own international football offering tonight, with a World Cup play-off final or friendly providing the evening’s alternative viewing for anyone not following England. Kick-off at 7:45pm. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

Sort Your Life Out with Stacey Solomon – BBC One, 8pm

Stacey Solomon arrives in Milton Keynes to help Ollie Parej, who was made redundant twice and whose anxiety about providing for his wife and five young children manifested in a very particular way: he stopped throwing anything out. The result is a home where the entrance hallway has been quietly colonised by an office, a utility area and some gym equipment, and where 106 storage cubes are apparently insufficient for the volume of things the family owns. The eventual decision to get rid of half their possessions is, it turns out, more liberating than terrifying. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

The Dog House – Channel 4, 8pm

Woodgreen tonight introduces Scooby, a great dane who has lost both of his doggy companions and is quietly, visibly grieving. His owners Karen and Dawn want to find him a new friend — but Scooby’s sheer size and enthusiasm create complications with smaller breeds that any prospective match needs to be assessed against carefully. There’s also a family facing the impossible problem of choosing between two equally appealing dogs (a problem that sounds enviable until you’re in it), and Chloe and Pratik trying to find their first pet together. Reliable, warm, and almost certainly going to make you want a dog. Catch up via Channel 4 streaming.

The Yorkshire Vet – Channel 5, 8pm

Peter Wright performs emergency surgery on a little girl’s pony tonight, which is the kind of sentence that requires no further sell. The fact that he does it out in the open rather than in the surgery tells you something about the urgency of the situation. Catch up via 5 streaming.

Prime Time

Babies ⭐ – BBC One, 9pm

If you watched episode one last night, you’ll know exactly why this is still the must-watch of the evening. If you didn’t — it’s on iPlayer, and you should go and watch it first, because episode two picks up with real confidence and the accumulation of detail from the opening hour matters.

Tonight, Stephen and Lisa make what should be a routine appointment with their GP to request a referral to a fertility specialist. What they get instead is a doctor who tells them, essentially, that a couple of miscarriages aren’t worth getting in a flurry about. Stay positive. Try breathing. It is one of the most quietly infuriating scenes television has produced in a while, because anyone who has been in that consultation room — or knows someone who has — will recognise it immediately. The frustration isn’t that the GP is a monster; it’s that he’s so casually dismissive of something that has cost them so much.

Elsewhere, Dave (Jack Bannon) is introducing his new girlfriend Amanda (Charlotte Riley) to his young son in a way that is engineered for maximum awkwardness — partly by circumstance and partly by Dave himself, who seems incapable of letting a conversation proceed without steering it into territory that makes everyone uncomfortable.

Paapa Essiedu and Siobhán Cullen continue to be extraordinary. There is a look between them after the GP appointment that communicates everything the script doesn’t need to spell out. And then Lisa finally snaps — not in the way dramas usually arrange these moments, but in the way it actually happens: suddenly, disproportionately, and with absolute inevitability. The series is available in full on BBC iPlayer.

Spymasters: the Great Spy Writers – Sky Arts, 9pm (New Series)

The first episode of a new documentary series from Sky Arts that takes the relationship between espionage and literature as its subject. This is more cryptic and elliptical than a conventional documentary — it weaves passages from Kipling, le Carré and Conrad over archival footage of Kim Philby, speeding trains and Cold War-era Europe, and it doesn’t always show its working. Some people will find that approach intriguing; others will find it frustrating.

The stronger sections are the ones that examine writers who crossed from fiction into actual intelligence work — W. Somerset Maugham, who spied for British intelligence during the First World War, and John Buchan, who worked in wartime propaganda. Best of all is the treatment of Eric Maschwitz: a man who was, simultaneously or sequentially, editor of the Radio Times, head of BBC light entertainment, a lyricist responsible for “These Foolish Things” and “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square”, and — according to this documentary — a proper spy. That is a biography worth a series of its own. Catch up via Now.

The Teacher – Channel 5, 9pm

Episode two, and the situation that Helen Simpson created in the first episode is beginning to solidify into something she won’t be able to talk her way out of. Head teacher Simon Cookson has addressed the staff with the kind of measured seriousness that means things are bad: “It’s imperative we find out what or who drove them to this.” Helen is questioned by police and discovers, to her horror, that Cressida had been secretly recording her outburst in detention. The footage exists. Helen says nothing.

Meanwhile, a separate thread is quietly developing: another teacher is having hushed corridor conversations with a male student in a way that doesn’t look professional. The series is stacking its revelations carefully, and Victoria Hamilton remains very good at playing a woman who is simultaneously guilty and convinced she isn’t the problem. Full series on 5 streaming.

Miss Scarlet – Alibi, 9pm

A lighter episode tonight, which follows a formula the show does comfortably well: a slightly absurd central case (a stolen racehorse) combined with interpersonal awkwardness between Eliza and Inspector Blake, who are attempting to have a conversation about something other than work and finding it unexpectedly difficult. Unexpected child-minding duties for Eliza, a domestic Barnabas navigating unemployment in househusband mode, and guest turns from David Verrey and Elisabeth Dermot Walsh as Lord and Lady Roberts — divorced, and with all the residual atmosphere that entails. Catch up via Now.

Vicky Pattison: Maybe, Baby? – E4, 9pm

Part one of this two-part documentary follows Vicky Pattison at 37, happily married and professionally sorted, as she examines the question she’s been putting off: does she want children, and should she have them? The fact that she’s asking both questions — not just the medical one — is what distinguishes this from other celebrity fertility documentaries. She’s frank throughout, talking to her best friend Ferne McCann, her mum, and her husband Ercan with a directness that the format can sometimes drain out of people. Part two concludes tomorrow. Catch up via Channel 4 streaming.

Late Night

Three Dads and a Baby: Storyville – BBC Four, 10pm

Norwegian documentary that begins with a man walking into a Finnish clinic and announcing that an embryo is about to be implanted in his uterus. This is Kris, who transitioned legally in 2009 and chose to retain his uterus so he could carry a child by IVF. He is in a committed three-way relationship with David and Sindre; all three will be fathers. The film doesn’t interrogate this arrangement, but presents it as what it appears to be — stable, carefully considered and full of ordinary parental hope. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

New Life ★★★★ (15) – Film4, 10:55pm

A 2023 genre thriller from first-time feature director John Rosman that is better than its slot suggests. Jess (Hayley Erin) is running — making a desperate push for the Canadian border for reasons that are initially withheld. Government agent Elsa (Sonya Walger) is closing in. Rosman holds back the explanation for as long as he can and then delivers it as a gut-punch. He cited The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” as influences, which sounds wilfully obscure until you see the film and understand what he means. If you’re still up at eleven, it’s worth it. Catch up via Channel 4 streaming.

Sport

Men’s Football: England v Japan — Live on ITV1 from 7pm, kick-off 7:45pm. Thomas Tuchel’s last Wembley friendly before his World Cup squad announcement.

World Cup Play-Off Final / International Friendly — BBC Two from 7:30pm, kick-off 7:45pm.

Cricket: IPL — Punjab Kings v Gujarat Titans — Live on Sky Sports Cricket from 2:50pm, Sky Sports Main Event from 3pm.

Cricket: Women’s ODI — New Zealand v South Africa — TNT Sports 2 from 10:30pm.

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

BBC iPlayer: Babies (full series), EastEnders, Sort Your Life Out with Stacey Solomon, Three Dads and a Baby: Storyville, Muslim Matchmaker, World Cup football (BBC Two)
ITVX: England v Japan
5 streaming: The Teacher (full series 3), The Yorkshire Vet
Channel 4 streaming: The Dog House, Vicky Pattison: Maybe, Baby?, New Life (Film4)
Now: Spymasters: the Great Spy Writers, Miss Scarlet

Frequently Asked Questions

What time is EastEnders on tonight Tuesday 31 March 2026?

EastEnders is on BBC One at 7:30pm tonight (Tuesday 31st March 2026). Penny realises Harry is the father of her unborn child — not Vinny — while Harry’s mother Nicola is rushed to hospital. Harry tells girlfriend Gina he doesn’t want to be a father. Suki’s suspicions about Penny’s motives are likely to intensify. Catch up via BBC iPlayer.

What time is Babies on BBC One tonight?

Babies episode 2 is on BBC One at 9pm tonight (Tuesday 31st March 2026), continuing directly from the launch last night. Stefan Golaszewski’s new drama stars Paapa Essiedu and Siobhán Cullen. Tonight Stephen and Lisa try to get a fertility referral from a GP who doesn’t take their miscarriages seriously, while Dave introduces new girlfriend Amanda to his son. The full series is on BBC iPlayer.

What time is England v Japan on ITV1 tonight?

England v Japan kicks off at 7:45pm on ITV1 tonight (Tuesday 31st March 2026), with coverage beginning at 7pm. It is Thomas Tuchel’s last home friendly before he names his 2026 World Cup squad. Catch up via ITVX.

Is this Thomas Tuchel’s last match before the World Cup squad announcement?

Yes. England v Japan at Wembley tonight (Tuesday 31st March 2026) is Thomas Tuchel’s final home friendly ahead of naming his England squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America. Fringe players will be desperate to make an impression. ITV1 from 7pm, kick-off 7:45pm.

What time is Spymasters the Great Spy Writers on Sky Arts?

Spymasters: the Great Spy Writers begins at 9pm on Sky Arts tonight (Tuesday 31st March 2026). The first episode of the new series covers the line between spy fiction and real intelligence work, featuring le Carré, Kipling, Conrad, Somerset Maugham, John Buchan, and the remarkable Eric Maschwitz. Catch up via Now.

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

Our top pick for Tuesday 31st March 2026 is Babies on BBC One at 9pm — episode two of Golaszewski’s new drama picks up exactly where last night’s devastating opener left off, and Paapa Essiedu and Siobhán Cullen are giving performances that are hard to look away from. If you want live sport, England v Japan on ITV1 from 7pm is the headline event of the evening. And Spymasters on Sky Arts at 9pm is one of the more unusual and intriguing documentary series to launch this week.

Final Verdict

Babies at 9pm on BBC One is the clear choice again tonight. Episode two confirms that this is not a drama that peaked in its opening hour — it’s building carefully and the performances are getting better, not coasting. The GP scene alone will stay with you.

England v Japan on ITV1 from 7pm is the big live event of the evening, and the World Cup squad angle gives it real stakes beyond the result. Tuchel’s last look at the wider squad before he has to decide who goes to North America.

Spymasters: the Great Spy Writers on Sky Arts at 9pm is the most interesting new documentary launching tonight — slow and a little cryptic in places, but the Eric Maschwitz section is something else entirely, and the series has an unusual sensibility that sets it apart from standard TV history.

The Teacher on Channel 5 at 9pm continues to develop its central tension competently, and Victoria Hamilton remains the best reason to stay with it.

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