TV Guide UK Tonight: Tues 22 Sept 2026 – Bake Off, 70 Up & Tempting Fortune

Published: 16 September 2026

Tuesday 22 September 2026. It’s shake-up night on Channel 4: Nigella Lawson takes over the judging table from Prue Leith on The Great British Bake Off at 8pm, and Rob Beckett steps in for Paddy McGuinness on Tempting Fortune at 9.30pm. Over on ITV1, the landmark Up documentary strand comes to an end with 70 Up at 9pm. BBC One has EastEnders at its usual 7.30pm slot and Death in Paradise at 9pm, while BBC Two pairs Saving Lives at Sea with a tough hour of Emergency 24/7.

Quick Picks: Tonight’s Best

• The Great British Bake Off Channel 4, 8pm. Nigella Lawson’s first night in the tent as Prue Leith’s replacement.
• 70 Up ITV1, 9pm. The last-ever episode of the pioneering documentary series.
• Tempting Fortune Channel 4, 9.30pm. Rob Beckett hosts for the first time.
• Emergency 24/7 BBC Two, 9pm. Southmead’s medics deal with another demanding shift.
• EastEnders is on as usual BBC One, 7.30pm.

Early Evening

EastEnders – BBC One, 7.30pm

Cindy spends tonight’s half hour deciding to get even rather than get over it, which in Walford terms means someone is about to have a very bad week. Eve, meanwhile, takes on the thankless job of trying to patch the Panesars back together after Ash walked back in on Monday. Second of this week’s four episodes, Monday to Thursday.

Race Against the Tide – BBC Two, 7.30pm

It’s the grand final tonight, and the last time we’ll see this format for now. Host Iain Stirling has whittled an original field of seven teams down to three, and tonight those three get six hours to build a sandcastle sculpture on St Andrews’ West Sands before the North Sea does what the North Sea always does and wipes the beach clean. There’s something properly satisfying about a competition built entirely on the fact that nothing anyone makes will survive the evening. Expect a collapse or two, some tension between team-mates who’ve clearly had enough of each other by the final, and Stirling’s usual line in cheerful commentary over the whole thing.

DIY SOS – BBC One, 8pm

Nick Knowles and the DIY SOS crew are back for a 35th series, and tonight’s build is described as one of the biggest extensions the show has ever attempted. Raymond, a Glasgow dad of two, has been raising his teenage daughter Nell largely alone since sepsis claimed his wife Gill; Nell lives with a bone condition she was born with. The detail that gets you is that it was Gill herself who originally sketched out this extension, long before she died, and the crew are now racing to build something she never got to see finished. It’s still not officially called The Big Build any more, for what that’s worth, but the format hasn’t changed: an army of tradespeople, a tight deadline, and a family who has no idea what’s coming.

Saving Lives at Sea – BBC Two, 8pm

This episode arrives with more weight attached than usual. There has been recent controversy on the south coast, where anti-migrant activists identified individual RNLI volunteers online and branded them traitors over the charity’s work pulling small boats out of the Channel, and separately, two lifeboats carrying people rescued at sea were kept from docking at Portsmouth, then at Southampton, after protests by locals. None of that is the actual subject of tonight’s film, which instead follows the routine rescues the charity handles all year: kayakers needing help off Pembrokeshire, a Cornish surfer pulled from a rip current, and a heatstroke case on an isolated stretch of Dorset coast. Most of what the RNLI does, in other words, has nothing to do with the row currently surrounding it.

Emmerdale – ITV1, 8pm

The Joe Tate and Caleb feud reaches another grim milestone tonight. Joe already took one of Caleb’s kidneys and derailed his wedding; now he’s gone further still, burying Caleb’s wife Ruby alive in a hole in the ground, while Caleb is meanwhile mourning Dawn, a death Ruby played a part in. Tonight Joe openly taunts him with it, Vinny turns up at Home Farm carrying news, and Joe has stopped pretending to be anything other than dangerous. It’s soap logic at its most extreme, but Emmerdale’s revenge plots commit fully rather than pulling punches.

Vera – ITV3, 8pm

A repeat outing on ITV3 for Brenda Blethyn’s Northumberland detective, back in the coat and hat for another slow-burn case against the usual bleak coastal backdrop. Comfort viewing if you’ve seen it before, and a perfectly good entry point if you haven’t.

The Great British Bake Off – Channel 4, 8pm ⭐

This is the one to watch tonight. Prue Leith has left the judging panel after a decade, and Nigella Lawson takes her seat alongside Paul Hollywood for the first time, with Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond still running the tent. It’s the biggest change to the show’s format in years, and the opening episode leans into it: Nigella’s first signature challenge asks the twelve remaining bakers to attempt a chocolate Guinness cake, while the technical is apparently one of her own favourite recipes, and by all accounts not an easy one to pull off blind. The line-up this year runs from 21-year-old Mo to 63-year-old Connie, with a decent spread of ages in between, so there should be plenty of different approaches to watch. Noel still has his usual opening ritual of picking out whichever contestant gives the daftest answer to his first question, so expect that tradition to survive even if everything else around it has changed.

Coronation Street – ITV1, 8.30pm

Straight after Emmerdale, and the heavier of the two tonight. Sally is worried enough about Lucy’s violent outburst to start saying so out loud, Lisa has to step in when Kit’s temper goes at work, and George offers Christina a promotion that she’ll probably come to regret accepting. Corrie is much better at this kind of accumulating domestic dread than it gets credit for.

Prime Time

Death in Paradise – BBC One, 9pm

Worth flagging early: this is a repeat, first shown back in 2023, not a new episode. Naomi (Shantol Jackson) and Neville (Ralf Little) investigate after an astronomer falls to his death from a cliff on Saint Marie, in what turns out to be a properly tricky locked-room puzzle dressed up as an accident. If you’ve already seen it, there’s better new drama elsewhere on tonight’s schedule; if you haven’t, it’s a solid mid-table entry in a show that’s now comfortably past its own high point but still reliably pleasant Tuesday-night filler.

Emergency 24/7 – BBC Two, 9pm

Worth clearing up first: this is on BBC Two, not BBC One, whatever some listings say. BBC One’s 9pm belongs to Death in Paradise tonight. This is also the last episode in the current run, filmed at Southmead Hospital in Bristol. Among tonight’s patients is Kye, a young man brought in after collapsing at his GP’s surgery, who tells staff his daily drinking runs to several cans of strong cider on top of cocaine use, leaving him with an arm infection that now needs treating. Also featured are a biker in his eighties named Ken, and Lady Carole, a baronet’s widow who is booked in for an operation. The show doesn’t soften any of it, and it shouldn’t.

70 Up – ITV1, 9pm

The Up strand ends here, after nearly sixty years of returning to the same group of people every seven years. Tonight’s participant Peter says, when asked to think about how his life will be remembered, that he simply wants to leave behind people who’ll speak well of him. Not everyone in the series feels warmly about the project itself: some contributors think director Michael Apted, who died in 2021, turned up already convinced of who they’d become, and others question how much they really understood about what they were signing up for as seven-year-olds. There’s archive footage tonight of the original 70-year-olds interviewed back when the project began, in the earlier 7.30pm instalment, for anyone wanting the full picture before the final episode airs. It’s routinely named among the best things British television has ever produced, and tonight’s the last chance to see why, before a look back at the whole series airs tomorrow.

Forever Home – Channel 5, 9pm

Channel 5‘s Graham Norton adaptation keeps stacking on twists. An unexpected buyer snaps up the family home on Stable Row, leaving Carol with no option but to move in with her parents again, and a hard truth about her own history surfaces at the worst possible moment. It’s Robert’s account of a half-remembered conversation, though, that lands the biggest gut-punch of the episode. This is the penultimate instalment, with the whole story wrapping up tomorrow night at 9pm.

Big Brother – ITV2, 9pm

ITV2‘s house continues as normal tonight, with the usual mix of task-based drama and late-night arguments nobody outside the house would remember by morning. No specific plot details were confirmed ahead of broadcast, but nightly instalments have kept the format ticking along reliably since its reboot.

Gogglebox – E4, 9pm

E4 runs a double bill tonight, the sofa critics working through the past week’s television across two back-to-back episodes. Reliable filler, and better with the sound up than most channel-hopping alternatives at this time of night.

No Hard Feelings – Film4, 9pm

Film4‘s comedy slot goes to this 2023 hit, Jennifer Lawrence playing a woman hired by anxious parents to help their sheltered son gain some confidence before he leaves for college. Rated 15 for a reason, but funnier and warmer than the premise alone suggests.

Tempting Fortune – Channel 4, 9.30pm

Rob Beckett takes over hosting from Paddy McGuinness for this third series, in which twelve strangers spend two weeks trekking through the Malaysian jungle while a shared prize pot of £300,000 slowly shrinks every time someone gives in to temptation. This year the group is split into two competing teams rather than one, which adds a layer of internal rivalry to the usual list of extravagant purchases on offer, including a taxi ride costing a genuinely absurd £2,000 and one contestant’s weakness for an eye-wateringly priced steak bake.

Late Night

Colin from Accounts – BBC Two, 10pm

Following on from last night’s episode, Gordon invites Ashley away for the weekend. She’s pictured a romantic couple’s break; what she gets is a work trip, with colleagues Brett and Chiara tagging along uninvited. A flat car battery and a run of missing mobile phones do the rest, and the pair spend the whole episode realising they might not be reading the situation the same way at all. Still one of the better sitcoms currently going, even in its more farcical episodes.

Downton Abbey – ITV3, 10pm

A repeat for the period drama that turned Sunday-night costume television into a genuine export success. Comfortable, familiar, and exactly what it says on the tin at this time of night.

Have I Got a Bit More News for You – Dave, 10pm

Dave runs two of these back to back, from 9pm and again at 10pm. The extended cut is the version worth having: the extra minutes are mostly tangents and half-finished arguments that got trimmed for BBC One. Repeats age oddly, since the headlines being mocked have long since been overtaken, but the panel’s exasperation holds up fine.

Fury – BBC One, 10.40pm

If you’re still up, BBC One follows Question Time with David Ayer’s 2014 tank film, set in Germany in the closing weeks of the war as a raw replacement is dropped into a crew that has been fighting together far too long to want him. Brad Pitt leads, but it’s Logan Lerman as the newcomer who carries it. Grim, claustrophobic and not remotely interested in glory, which is rather the point. Runs to about quarter to one.

First Dates – E4, 11.05pm

More awkward restaurant introductions on E4, the format still reliably delivering both genuine chemistry and cringing silences in roughly equal measure.

A Deadly Betrayal: True Crime Presents – ITV1, 11.15pm

Late-night true crime on ITV1, part of an ongoing strand digging into cases where the person closest to the victim turned out to be the one responsible. Not for anyone who needs to be up early.

Sport

Cricket’s the headline sporting action tonight, with England starting a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street, live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from midday. Highlights follow later on BBC Two at 11pm for anyone who missed the live coverage. Over on TNT Sports 1, the Road World Championships continue with a run of time trials through the afternoon and evening: the elite mixed team event at 1.15pm, followed by the women’s junior individual time trial at 5pm and the men’s junior individual time trial at 8pm. And if you’re still up in the small hours, TNT Sports 1 also carries New York Yankees against Tampa Bay Rays from around 12.05am, live baseball to see out the night for anyone not ready for bed.

Tonight by Channel

A channel-by-channel breakdown of Tuesday 22 September 2026, so you can jump straight to the one you actually watch.

BBC One

• 7.30pm — EastEnders
• 8pm — DIY SOS
• 9pm — Death in Paradise
• 10.40pm — Fury

BBC Two

• 7.30pm — Race Against the Tide
• 8pm — Saving Lives at Sea
• 9pm — Emergency 24/7
• 10pm — Colin from Accounts

ITV1

• 8pm — Emmerdale
• 8.30pm — Coronation Street
• 9pm — 70 Up
• 11.15pm — A Deadly Betrayal: True Crime Presents

Channel 4

• 8pm — The Great British Bake Off
• 9.30pm — Tempting Fortune

Channel 5

• 9pm — Forever Home
• 10pm — Surgeons: A Matter of Life or Death

TNT Sports 1

• 1.15pm — Cycling: Road World Championships Mixed Team Time Trial
• 5pm — Cycling: Road World Championships Women’s Junior Time Trial
• 8pm — Cycling: Road World Championships Men’s Junior Time Trial
• 12.05am — Baseball: New York Yankees v Tampa Bay Rays

E4

• 9pm — Gogglebox
• 11.05pm — First Dates

ITV3

• 8pm — Vera
• 10pm — Downton Abbey

The Viewing Schedule

What’s On Streaming

• BBC iPlayer: EastEnders, Race Against the Tide, DIY SOS, Saving Lives at Sea, Death in Paradise, Emergency 24/7, Colin from Accounts
• ITVX: Emmerdale, Vera, 70 Up, A Deadly Betrayal: True Crime Presents
• Channel 4 streaming: The Great British Bake Off, Tempting Fortune, Gogglebox
• My5: Forever Home, Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders

Frequently Asked Questions

Is EastEnders on tonight (Tuesday 22 September 2026)?

Yes. EastEnders airs as normal at 7.30pm on BBC One tonight, one of its four weekly episodes.

What time is The Great British Bake Off on tonight?

The Great British Bake Off is on Channel 4 at 8pm tonight, Nigella Lawson’s first episode as judge after replacing Prue Leith.

Who has replaced Prue Leith as a judge on Bake Off?

Nigella Lawson takes over the judging role from Prue Leith tonight, joining Paul Hollywood alongside hosts Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond.

What channel is Emergency 24/7 on tonight?

Emergency 24/7 is on BBC Two at 9pm tonight, not BBC One as some listings suggest. BBC One’s 9pm slot belongs to Death in Paradise instead.

Is Forever Home ending tonight?

No. Tonight’s episode of Forever Home on Channel 5 at 9pm is the penultimate one; the series concludes tomorrow, Wednesday, at 9pm.

Is 70 Up the last episode of the series?

Yes. 70 Up airs on ITV1 at 9pm tonight as the final instalment of the long-running Up documentary strand.

What’s the best thing to watch on TV tonight (Tuesday 22 September 2026)?

The Great British Bake Off’s shake-up episode on Channel 4 at 8pm is the story of the night, with 70 Up’s final-ever instalment on ITV1 at 9pm a close second.

What live sport is on TV tonight (Tuesday 22 September 2026)?

England play the first of three ODIs against Sri Lanka from Chester-le-Street, live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket from midday, with Road World Championships time trials on TNT Sports 1 through the afternoon and evening.

What’s on Channel 4 tonight?

Channel 4’s evening is built around The Great British Bake Off at 8pm and Tempting Fortune at 9.30pm, both introducing new hosts this series.

What time is Death in Paradise on?

Death in Paradise is on BBC One at 9pm tonight, though it’s a repeat from 2023 rather than a new episode.

Final Verdict

The Great British Bake Off‘s first episode with Nigella Lawson in the judge’s chair is the one everyone will be talking about tomorrow, and it earns the attention. 70 Up closing out its long run on ITV1 deserves a watch even if you’ve never seen the earlier films. Emergency 24/7 is tougher going but worth it, and Tempting Fortune gives Channel 4 a decent follow-up with Rob Beckett settling into the host’s chair. EastEnders is on as usual at 7.30pm.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight Tuesday | What’s On TV Tonight Monday | What’s On TV Tonight Wednesday