Tabla de contenidos para 17-23rd January 2026 en Radio Times

David St John, 77, who’s based in the Midlands, holds the Guinness World Record for the most appearances as a TV quiz contestant — 34 times from 1982 to 2013 — on shows including Eggheads, The Chase and The Weakest Link. He has been champion nine times, winning a total of £5,000. But what’s the answer to his success? Fingers on buzzers… POP QUIZ I sang with pop groups from 1964 to 1972 before going solo as a comedy/vocal act and I’m still at it! I applied for my first TV quiz show in 1982, Sale of the Century, for fun and to boost my profile as an entertainer… and won two motorbikes. That gave me the bug to apply for more. I was determined to win but also happy…

2 Michael McIntyre’s Big Show Saturday 6.45pm BBC One RUNNING A BIG SHOW? That’s a big job. “Michael always jokes that we’ve got four shows in one,” says James Pratt, series producer on Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, “and any of our strands could be a show in its own right.” These strands are the building blocks of Big Show, which is back this week for a ninth series: theatre-based set pieces, a major musical performance, pre-recorded segments and the Unexpected Star of the Show slot, where people are tricked onto stage via a complicated prank to perform for the audience. “Heart and humour,” says Pratt. “That’s at the core of any idea. We never start with logistics or budget.” Few ideas are as reliably chaotic as Midnight Game-show, with comedian/host McIntyre, in…

Tennis: Australian Open From Saturday 12.30am TNT Sports, Radio 5 Sports Extra YOU CAN BREATHE a sigh of relief: women’s tennis is serious again. As the Australian Open begins in Melbourne this weekend, the sport can put recent distractions behind it and concentrate on what matters. Instead of trying to find out if men and women are different (spoiler alert: they are) we can get back to looking for the best player in the world. The rankings say it is Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus. Last month, however, in an exhibition match that prompted a global outbreak of eye rolling, she was beaten 6–3 6–3 by Nick Kyrgios, a male ranked 671 in the world. Among the millions of unimpressed tennis fans was Iga Swiatek. “I don’t watch stuff like that,” she said…

One Last Adventure: the Making of Stranger Things 5 Netflix Available now Turning the upside down inside out with behind-the-scenes secrets on how the fantasy drama’s last episodes were filmed. Ed Sheeran: the Sum of It All ITVX Available from Wednesday The singer is on honest, frank form in this documentary series that was first available to watch on Disney+. Queer Eye Netflix Season 10 available from Wednesday The final season of dazzling and often tear-jerking makeovers sees the Fab Five experts heading to Washington DC.…

ENTERTAINMENT Gladiators 5.45pm BBC One Catch up via iPlayer You might have thought panto season was over, but oh no, it isn’t! Gladiators returns for a third series somehow having kicked up the theatrics, ham acting and teasing trash-talk another notch. One of the Glads is removed from the arena after taking their sore loss out on the set to a cacophony of boos, another puts referee Mark Clattenburg in a bin of balls to rapturous applause and Legend’s pout seems to protrude even more. It’s souped up, and the kids in the live audience can’t get enough. Four more plucky contenders face games old and new, including Destruction: a challenge that involves breaking through walls using a battering ram, and has surely taken inspiration from police documentaries where entry to…

DRAMA After the Flood 9.00pm ITV1 Catch up via ITVX Moral clarity is a rare commodity, so the open-ended conclusion to series one of After the Flood was notable for mirroring the messiness of real life. Rather than providing a neat wrap-up, the plot left us wondering whether PC Jo Marshall (Sophie Rundle) really would report her husband and boss for corruption and, in her superior officer’s case, murder. But that was fine: it can be OK to respect the grey matter of viewers and permit all possible outcomes to linger in the ether. Except TV rarely works that way, and when a drama is successful, the imperative is often there to bring it back. Hence this second outing, which takes place a year later and gets us up to…

NATURE Winterwatch 7.00pm BBC Two Catch up via iPlayer Guaranteed to warm the heart is the return of Winterwatch, with Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams once again acting as conduits between living room and outside world for the next four evenings. Northern Ireland will be the live broadcasting base for the first time, with County Down’s Mount Stewart estate a home to raptors, wading birds and wild fowl by Strangford Lough (including the splendidly named wigeons and whooper swans), ancient woodland and creatures ranging from badgers and otters to pine martens and red squirrels. Our hosts will be crossing their fingers that we see them all. Accompanying the live segments will be those all-important mindfulness moments and a dizzying array of reportage from around the UK, much of it offering…

REALITY The Traitors Final 8.30pm BBC One Catch up via iPlayer SERIES FINALE Several of the Traitors have overplayed their hand this series. And honestly? The same can be said of the show’s producers. In addition to the Scottish Highlands scenery, the beauty of this show lies with its simplicity and the role we get to play at home. We’re the all-knowing seer; revelling in eavesdropping on loaded plots and noting sly glances that we know mean oh so much more. Yet time and time again, we’ve had the wool pulled over our eyes before the rug has been pulled out from underneath us. Secret identities and relationships have been held back to give us an obscured view of the action. It’s as if we’ve had to peer out from behind Claudia…

Lorraine Kelly’s Norwegian Odyssey Thursday 8.00pm C4 “There are a lot of similarities with Scotland,” says Lorraine Kelly after visiting Norway for her new travelogue. The Glasgow-born presenter should know thanks to her background, and also because her Norwegian Odyssey for Channel 4 involved multiple trips, in both winter and summer, and her advice is unequivocal: “It’s expensive — I’d say that to anybody who’s thinking of going there — but my goodness me, it’s well worth it.” So what was the highlight of your trip, Lorraine? The Northern Lights were unbelievable. I’ve tried to see them before, in Sweden, Finland and Orkney, and never had any luck. In fact, when I was in Sweden, staying at the Ice Hotel (icehotel.com), people were able to see them in Dundee but we saw…

1 TV Gladiators Saturday 5.45pm BBC One Fury (pictured) and the rest of the superhuman supremos don the lycra and pick up their pugil sticks for a third series of speed, strength and, most importantly, showboating. FEATURE P10 2 TV The Traitors Wednesday, Thursday 8.00pm Friday 8.30pm BBC One Claudia Winkleman presides over another nail-biting finale where the Faithfuls have one last chance to weed out any remaining Traitors. But as series four draws to a close, who will walk away with the prize pot? FEATURE P20 3 TV A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Monday 3.00am/9.00pm Sky Atlantic Game of Thrones gets another spin-off, but with no dragons in sight. Instead, we’re following a minor knight and squire named Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell),…

3 Mock the Week Coming soon to TLC Just over three years after it was cancelled by the BBC, topical panel show Mock the Week is returning soon to free-to-air channel TLC — with a familiar face at the helm. “It was only a couple of months ago that I first heard rumblings,” says comedian and longtime host Dara O Briain. “God, it might have been November… I mean, I’m not going, ‘I remember the moment the big red phone in my office rang. It’s the Mock phone, finally…’ But it’s all moved pretty quickly, as befits the show. “Honestly, you can be too precious,” he adds. “I didn’t sit for a long time going, ‘Will this in any way damage the legacy of the show that we’ve left behind?’ It’s just…

The TraitorsWednesday—Thursday 8pm, Friday 8.30pm BBC One PERHAPS IT’S A coincidence, perhaps it’s clever casting – or perhaps it says something about how, as a society, we underestimate certain types of people. But every year on The Traitors, amidst the back-stabbings, round tables and snazzy cloaks there’s always one breakout star who defies convention, trends and ideas of what sells on TV. They’re always a woman, always over 50, and always a fan favourite across generations, no matter how good they are at the game. It started with Amanda Lovett in the first series in 2022, when the 54-year-old estate agent entered the castle and was chosen as a Traitor. She made it to episode 10 before being banished, but had already won the social media war with her ruthless personality,…

FOOTBALL Africa Cup of Nations final Sunday 6.30pm (k/o 7pm) E4 The Africa Cup of Nations reaches its climax at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat. At the time of writing, reigning champions Ivory Coast, 2023 runners-up Nigeria, hosts Morocco and Mohamed Salah’s Egypt were still among the teams left in the hunt for the iconic golden trophy, each living up to their pre-tournament promise. Saturday’s third-place play-off match between the two losing semi-finalists is also live on E4 (kick-off 4pm). FOOTBALL Premier League: Manchester United v Manchester City Saturday 11.00am (k/o 12.30pm) Sky Sports Main Event/Premier League, Talksport United fans will be hoping for a brighter future following the departure of manager Ruben Amorim, but few will be relishing the prospect of hosting their noisy neighbours this weekend. Erling Haaland…

FILM P Polite Society ★★★★ 12 9.00pm Film4 Catch up via C4 streaming Between series one and two of her brassy Muslim punk-band sitcom We Are Lady Parts (both series available on C4 streaming) writer/director Nida Manzoor pulled together this riotous 2023 action comedy. It brings a martial arts twist to the tale of a sparky British-Pakistani teenager (Priya Kansara) who is determined to prevent her sister’s arranged marriage. Manzoor wrote the script years before sitcom success, but its mix of genres (family drama, high-school comedy, action/sci-fi thriller) scared off backers until she was better known. Kansara is central to the movie’s success, alternately funny and vulnerable, angsty and violent, and her casting resolved Manzoor’s biggest headache. “I’ve been living with this bloody psychotic character in the head for over 10 years,”…

In Our Time Thursday 9.00am Radio 4 MISHA GLENNY REALLY didn’t expect to get this job. “I was astonished, flabbergasted, absolutely thrilled,” he says of his appointment as presenter of In Our Time. In bagging the role, Glenny follows Melvyn Bragg, who presented the programme from 1998 to 2025. “This is one of the crown jewels of Radio 4 and Melvyn is such a towering figure,” Glenny says when we meet in Broadcasting House. “It’s an immense privilege and honour to be asked to take it on.” Like many of the two million listeners keen to feed their curiosity, there was one episode that hooked Glenny; the “absolutely brilliant” January 2008 programme on plate tectonics. “I was late and rushing to get out of the house but just had to listen to…

EVEN NIGEL PLANER’S own mum used to confuse him with Neil the hippy, the character he created for The Young Ones back in 1982. “She usually got my name right, at least,” he sighs, admitting that his friends sometimes don’t, “but she did think I was vegetarian, simply because he was.” He’s not the first actor, of course, to become indelibly conflated with a part he’s played. But with a career that’s also taken in TV shows from Blackadder to Blackeyes, West End musicals, writing poetry and plays and more than 100 episodes of The Magic Roundabout, it must annoy him, no? “Should I be like a lot of comedians, and go, ‘I don’t want to talk about that’? My colleague Adrian [Edmondson, who played punk Vyvyan in The Young…

1 Gladiators Saturday 5.45pm BBC One ‘When kids ask me how old I am, I often say, “I’m 1,000 years old and I’m a demigod”’NITRO NITRO aka Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, 37 What’s the biggest myth about being a Gladiator? The biggest myth about being a Gladiator is that you don’t want the contender to do well, because you actually do. Obviously, we’re the strength and the speed and the power. But ultimately they’re the soul of the show, right? What’s your Achilles’ heel? It’s probably The Edge, which is played at a very great height. I’m a very grounded person. If there was one event that I could choose not to do, it would be that one. Kids look up to all of you like gods. How do you handle that? I…

FANTASY A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms 3.00am (Mon morning), 9.00pm Sky Atlantic Catch up via Now NEW SERIES Nearly seven years after Game of Thrones ended, we’re back in Westeros for our second spin-off (following prequel House of the Dragon, which returns later this year). But this tale, adapted from short stories written by Thrones author George RR Martin, is a less grand affair than its predecessors. The series focuses on Dunk, a working-class chap who’s become a knight — albeit a poor one — known as Ser Duncan the Tall. When his master dies, Dunk decides to risk everything at a local tournament. He’s so down-at-heel he doesn’t even have a squire, so when a mysterious bald lad named Egg offers to help, he’s not too choosy. Westeros is…

DOCUMENTARY Long Lost Family 9.00pm ITV1 Catch up via ITVX Family relationships can be complicated when adoption is involved or when people are trying to protect the feelings of others. However, the secrets kept by Scott’s family are staggering. Aged 12, he learnt that the people he believed to be his “parents” were really his grandparents, while his birth mother was his “older sister” Pauline who, he later discovered, had had three babies before him. When his big sister Tina is finally traced, their reunion is heart-warmingly affectionate. The other search in this edition is on behalf of Jackie, who has known for decades about the existence of her younger sister, who was adopted at birth, but hadn’t felt she should try finding her while their mother was still alive. Now she finally meets…

PICK OF THE WEEK HISTORY The Mystery of… Nazis on the Lough Historian Ian Kershaw explains how in the late 1930s the Marquess of Londonderry found himself in Remains of the Day-type attempts to make nice with the Nazis. Descendants drawl their recollections, nobody is entirely sure whether Ribbentrop actually fell into Strangford Lough during a visit and a teenage-sounding voiceover from BBC Radio Ulster puts as much distance as possible between these regrettable events and the present-day province. DAVID HEPWORTH DOCUMENTARY Two Nottingham Lads There’s history, and there’s living history. And what we have here is living history of the most jaw-dropping kind. Paul Kenyon — File on 4’s formidable investigative reporter — gets to grips with the tale of two Nottingham men and how they ended up on…

PERFECT STRICTLY PAIR I feel that the BBC need look no further for the new presenters of Strictly Come Dancing than Helen Skelton and La Voix. They were superb together when La Voix was a guest presenter on Morning Live at Christmas (16 December BBC One). Their chemistry and respect for each other was a joy. Perfect for Strictly. Anne Cleasby Leeds, West Yorkshire IS THIS PROGRESS? Whatever Happened to Progress? (Radio 4) drew attention to the problems that accompany progress. To prove the point, the programme was constantly interrupted by muzak, an annoying extra now featured in the majority of radio and television programmes. Do producers have so little trust in the merit of their content that they must throw everything they have at every programme? Brian Beton Great…

What’s the view from your sofa? Bradley There’s a plain wall with a telly fixed to it, with lamps on either side. Seriously, it’s very traditional. Barney When I’m in Cardiff filming Casualty, the TV’s on a free-standing unit, there’s an Ikea fake plant in the corner, and a little painting on the wall. What have you enjoyed watching on TV recently? Bradley Barney’s my oracle. Originally he said we had to watch Breaking Bad, then he said we had to watch Better Call Saul, and now we’re watching Vince Gilligan’s new series… Barney …Pluribus. There’s also a comedy series I love called The Studio starring Seth Rogen, which is in my top five series of all time. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Gladiators…