A definitive guide to the best telly on air next week!
Next week we’ve got a fantastic schedule as the long-awaited return of The Great British Bake Off continues Tuesday with the mouth watering chocolate week. Following straight after, Married at First Sight, where four brave new single people get hitched to a complete stranger they meet for the first on their wedding day. Yikes. Thursday welcomes the hilarious and long awaited Taskmaster to its new home on Channel 4, wax seals will open, dreams will be made and/or broken in the most ridiculous and ferociously fought game show on television. On Sunday we have episode 2 of our brand-new reality competition, The Bridge, which challenges 12 contestants to build an 850-foot bridge by hand within 20 days to reach an island on a lake holding a £100,000 prize! Our Sunday film is the ultimate sing along musical, The Greatest Showman.
Monday 12th October
Four In A Bed - 5pm on Channel 4
Four in a Bed returns for a new series. This week's competition begins at Grange Farm Park in Maltby le Marsh, Lincolnshire, run by mum and daughter team Ann Graves and Rebecca O'Brien. First impressions are good for two sets of guests, with couple Emily and Warren marvelling at their luxury room, while father and son Bis and Deep can't wait to dive into their hot tub. But Marilyn and Neil are concerned their bathroom might be a bit cramped. After a day out feeding baby seals at a local seal sanctuary, the B&Bers congregate at the on-site restaurant for dinner, where Marilyn is less than pleased to find out that she and Neil are the only guests without a hot tub. The next day at breakfast, some frank views are exchanged, before Ann and Rebecca dissect their feedback.
My Mortgage Free Home - 9pm on HGTV
Amanda Lamb meet families who want to change their lives by moving to a mortgage free house. Whether they’re looking for a different lifestyle, in search of a smaller property, or on the hunt for more green space, the families are shown what they could buy if they ditched their mortgage debt by selling and using their equity to buy a new home.
Tuesday 13th October
The Great British Bake Off - 8pm on Channel 4
The Great British Bake Off is back but this time, under exceptional circumstances and with some changes. New host Matt Lucas joins Noel Fielding, and as we all adapt to the challenges 2020 has brought us, new bakers form a bubble and enter the iconic white tent to tackle new challenges set by judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. It's Chocolate Week, and the competition starts to heat up as Prue and Paul set three tricky challenges to test the remaining bakers. There's a deceptively simple traybake in the Signature, a Technical packed full of chocolate and nuts and a celebration Showstopper that pushes the bakers' skills with white chocolate to the limit. Who will impress Prue and Paul enough to keep their place in the tent and who will be heading home?
Married At First Sight - 9:15 pm on Channel 4
The new series continues, with four brave single people marrying a complete stranger who they meet for the first time on their wedding day. Having been selected from over 7000 applicants and after undergoing rigorous interviews and psychological tests, the four singletons put their trust in a new panel of elite matchmakers to find them their perfect partner. This new panel of experts includes two of the world's most experienced professional matchmakers who, between them, have successfully paired thousands of couples: American dating guru Paul C Brunson, known as the real-life Hitch and Oprah's 'Love Doctor', and leading UK matchmaker Gen Gresset. They're supported by insight and analysis from clinical psychologist Dr Angela Smith. The morning after their big day, primary school teacher Michelle and her new husband Owen have an awkward start to married life that leaves them questioning their fledgling romance. And following a fairy-tale ceremony, newly-weds David and Shareen hit a bump in the road on their honeymoon when David presents his new bride with an unexpected gift.
All episodes of this series will be available to stream or download for free on All 4 from 6 October following the transmission of episode 1.
Wednesday 14th October
Autumn At Jimmy’s Farm - 8pm on Channel 4
Jimmy Doherty and his team return for autumn, and with the changing seasons they're flat out. The farm takes delivery of 6000 turkeys and gets ready for the births of two dozen piglets. It's love-match time for the rare breed ewes, whose lambs will arrive next spring. The team prepare for the arrival of some new - and unpredictable - animals which could prove a handful for Jimmy and the rangers, and wildlife in the woodland starts to harvest the summer's bounty to get ready for winter. In this first episode, cameras follow Jimmy and his team as the seasons start to change and they prepare the farm and wildlife park for autumn. Life might be unpredictable right now, but the seasons roll on regardless. Autumn at the farm means the first piglets are due - but with sows having up to 10 babies at a time, it's vital to look out for the smallest and most vulnerable. Dealing with lots of piglets is expected, but Jimmy and the team have noticed that the female tapir has been putting on weight. A tapir pregnancy would be unexpected, not least since she's supposed to be on contraception. And Steve McQueen, the escaping meerkat, is finally contained - or is he just trying another method to get out and explore?
The Kennedy’s: Tragedy & Triumph: The Power Of Wealth - 9pm on More4
Brand new: The series that takes viewers behind the public image of America's 'First Family', revealing how personal relationships within the Kennedy dynasty helped shape national and global events from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the struggle for civil rights legislation. The show spans the lives of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and their children, uncovering how and why this one family so significantly impacted 20th century America. In this opening episode, family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy aspires to hold the ultimate position of power by becoming President of the United States, but wartime disgrace extinguishes his dream. His ambitions are passed to his eldest children, but when two tragically die in plane crashes before they turn thirty, the mantle is passed to a reluctant heir. The sickly John F. Kennedy must now shoulder his father's ambitions and the burden of rebuilding the family's reputation.
Thursday 15th October
Taskmaster - 9pm on Channel 4
Fresh from its BAFTA triumph, Taskmaster returns for more hilarious idiocy, now in its new home on Channel 4. The Taskmaster is, of course, man-mountain Greg Davies, and as ever, he is assisted by his tiny administrative wonk, Alex Horne. The five lambs to the slaughter for this sparkling season are comedians Daisy May Cooper, Johnny Vegas, Katherine Parkinson, Mawaan Rizwan and Richard Herring. This brand new series features a whole heap of brand new tasks, designed to test the ingenuity and creativity of these talented contestants, from teapot-decorating to footwear-catapulting. During the weird and wonderful challenges, Greg's PA Alex Horne will be looking on, making notes, recording times and gorging on pure, unadulterated stats. After 10 episodes, the winner will walk away with Greg's golden head tucked under one arm and a genuine sense of accomplishment under the other. The losers, meanwhile, may never recover from the wounds inflicted by the Taskmaster's serrated tongue... In episode one, the new batch of contestants get stuck in with giant bears, disappearing cows and flying eggs.
The first nine series of Taskmaster are available to stream or download for free on All 4, from Thursday 15 October.
Live At The Apollo - 10pm on Dave
Alistair McGowan makes a good impression at the iconic London venue. And some naughty humour from Kevin Bridges and Reginald D Hunter.
Friday 16th October
The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice - 8pm on Channel 4
As The Great British Bake Off triumphantly returns to our screens, An Extra Slice is back to bring us more treats from the tent. Each week Jo Brand welcomes a panel of celebrity Bake Off fans to unpack the best bits from the show, as well as unseen footage and an exclusive interview with the baker who's leaving the competition. Jo's joined by Vic Reeves, Melvin Odoom and Steph McGovern, as they dip their fingers into Chocolate Week. There are exclusive unseen clips from the tent and the latest baker to leave the competition tells all. Plus, Tom Allen reviews some of the handiwork offered up by a select group of home bakers and we see the disastrous bakes viewers have created in their kitchens. How did the bakers fair in the deceptively simple traybake Signature? Will the panel go nuts for the Technical? And was it all white on the night in the celebration Showstopper?
Gogglebox - 9pm on Channel 4
Britain's sharpest armchair critics return for a 16th series, to share more of their insightful, passionate and sometimes emotional critiques of the week's biggest and best shows.
Saturday 10th October
Live Heineken Champions Cup Rugby: The Final - 4:15pm on Channel 4
Exeter Chiefs v Racing 92. Lee McKenzie presents the 2020 Champions Cup Final as first time finalists Exeter Chiefs set out to prevent Racing 92 making it third time lucky, after they lost in the 2016 and 2018 finals. Ed Jackson reports, with Miles Harrison and Nolli Waterman, and with all-time top Champions Cup try scorer Chris Ashton providing commentary. Former England captain Dylan Hartley and former Wales, Lions and Racing 92 centre Jamie Roberts join Lee in the studio.
Sunday 18th October
The Greatest Showman - 7pm on Channel 4
Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and Michelle Williams star in this Golden-Globe-winning toe-tapping smash hit musical about the life and times of P.T. Barnum, showman, promoter, self-promoter, entrepreneur and creator of the circus. P.T. Barnum (Jackman) is on a mission. We join him as a child slighted by both his father and the father of the girl he will one day marry and, as a result of this, and future poverty, he becomes driven by the desire to rise above his station and show the poshos what he's made of. For him this means money. Loads of money. Despite poverty, Charity (Williams) marries him anyway and she is happy with their little family's situation. But the entrepreneurial spirit is by then too strong in him. One day, as he creates a light show for his kids, the idea of the Big Top strikes him and the rest is, as they say, history. He gets posho Phillip Carlyle (Efron) to back him in a natty song and dance routine and then, philanthropically, gathers together a disparate band of outsiders under the pretence of showing their beauty and uniqueness to the world. But does his apparent support for his performers tally with his desire to be rich and accepted by the upper classes? Network Premiere.
The Bridge - 9pm on Channel 4
Twelve strangers have come together on a lakeside in the beautiful British countryside, with one thing in common: they want to win a life-changing sum of money. They knew nothing about the epic challenge that awaited them or what they'd need to do to win the cash. A prize of £100,000 lies on an island in the lake, and the 12 must build an 850-foot bridge by hand within 20 days to reach it. It may sound simple, but a series of twists and turns bring moral dilemmas, spark rivalries and test their ability to work together as a team. In the second episode, plumber Luke and hotel entertainer Maura return from their clandestine overnight mission with a huge secret that could jeopardise the bridge build. As bad weather and dubious construction methods hamper the team's progress, Dreamboy Zac's leadership is called into question. With the team way behind schedule, two new arrivals make a surprise entry into the camp, before a dramatic late-night flare leads to a difficult decision.
