Derek Jacobi’s War Master Returns — plus Channel 4 Heads to Disney+

Evening News · Tuesday 27 October 2026

Derek Jacobi’s War Master is back, and he has decided that if the Time War is going to finish him, he might as well enjoy himself. Tonight’s edition also has Sosie Bacon joining The Black Tapes, monster hunting through a gig-economy app in iHunt, a big deal that brings Channel 4 to Disney+, and Keanu Reeves taking over a Netflix action film from Alan Ritchson.

The News That Matters

Derek Jacobi’s War Master returns in Big Finish’s Deeds Without Name

• What happened: Big Finish released The War Master: Deeds Without Name on Tuesday, a new box set of four full-cast audio adventures set in the world of Doctor Who, with Sir Derek Jacobi back as the Master
• The story: The Master is on the run from the Daleks and the Time Lords alike. Sure that the Time War can’t end well for him, he decides to have some fun. He experiments on the minds of wealthy retirees, is revived by space scavengers who steal his body, helps a scientist bring power to a world in endless night, and even publishes his memoirs, You Don’t Know Jackanapes, spilling secrets from the UNIT years
• Who’s in it: The four stories are by Alison Winter, Mark Bowsher, David K Barnes and Matthew Sweet. Guest stars include Carolyn Seymour (Survivors), Sorcha Cusack, Sarah Hadland (Miranda), Josh Finan, Kieran Hodgson, Kathryn Drysdale (Bridgerton) and Will Keen, with Jon Culshaw as Terry Wogan and Samira Ahmed as herself
• In his words: “The villains are always the best parts, absolutely. Being nasty and evil has somehow more depth than being good and heroic,” Jacobi said
• UK availability: Out now, only from Big Finish: £24.99 as a download, or £30.99 with a four-disc collector’s CD set limited to 1,250 copies

Jacobi first played the Master on television in “Utopia” back in 2007, and only for a few minutes, but his audio series has turned that brief turn into one of Big Finish’s finest runs. Matthew Sweet’s idea of the Master doing the 1970s chat-show and panel-game circuit to promote his memoirs sounds irresistible. It is a busy autumn for Big Finish, after Georgia Tennant’s return as Jenny, which we covered in last Friday’s Evening News. With the TV series between producers, as this morning’s edition explained, audio is where the Whoniverse is most alive right now.

Update: Sosie Bacon joins Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in The Black Tapes

• New development: Sosie Bacon (Smile, Scarpetta) is the female lead opposite Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in MGM+’s supernatural series, Deadline and Variety reported on Tuesday, a day after the series order
• Her role: She plays Alex Regan, the obsessed, methodical physicist who teams up with Coster-Waldau’s psychiatrist Dr Richard Strand to debunk paranormal cases, the infamous black tapes, before they uncover a hidden occult world and a centuries-old apocalyptic conspiracy
• Also coming: Bacon has just wrapped the second season of Prime Video’s Scarpetta with Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis, and stars with her parents, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, in the horror comedy Family Movie, which they also directed
• UK availability: Filming starts in Vancouver in January 2027. MGM+ will release it in the UK, the US and Ireland among other territories. UK date not yet confirmed

When we reported the series order last night, the big question was who would play Alex, the podcast’s narrator and the voice fans know best. Bacon is a strong answer. She carried Smile on pure nerves, and the show needs a believer-in-the-making to balance Coster-Waldau’s sceptic.

Monster hunting goes gig economy in iHunt, with Lilly Wachowski executive producing

• New development: iHunt: Killing Monsters in the Gig Economy, the novel series and tabletop role-playing game by Olivia Hill and Filamena Young, is being made into a film, Variety reported on Tuesday
• The story: In the fictional California city of San Jenaro, three best friends hunt monsters through a gig-work app. The official synopsis calls it horror-comedy “with sharp socioeconomic commentary”. Jess Elgene plays Sandra, a new character created for the film
• Who’s making it: Hill wrote the script. Scott Glosserman, who made Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and is now shooting its sequel, directs. The Matrix’s Lilly Wachowski is an executive producer with Sarah Marie Flores and Lawrence Mattis. A separate TV pilot is in development, with Anne Cofell Saunders (The Boys) attached as showrunner
• UK availability: No distributor or release date yet. UK date not yet confirmed

“If you’ve stood up to eviction and Dracula, you know eviction can be so much scarier,” Hill and Young said, which is about as good a pitch as a horror comedy can have. Glosserman’s Leslie Vernon took the slasher apart with real wit, so he is a smart choice for a film that wants to laugh at monsters and at the app economy at the same time. The project is led by LGBTQIA+ creators, and Hill and Young have built this world over seven novels in ten years.

Channel 4 is coming to Disney+ in the UK and Ireland in early 2027

• What happened: Channel 4 and Disney announced on Tuesday that a Channel 4 service will launch inside Disney+ in the UK and Ireland from early 2027, at no extra cost to subscribers
• What you get: Channel 4’s main channel live in HD, hundreds of hours of on-demand shows, from Big Mood and Tip Toe to 24 Hours in A&E, and several new Channel 4 shows each year on the same day they air
• First new shows: Bella Ramsey’s witness-protection thriller Maya, written and directed by Daisy Haggard, Denise Welch’s comedy Stepping Up, and Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins
• In their words: Channel 4 chief executive Priya Dogra said it shows “how collaboration between broadcasters and streamers can create more choice and value for audiences”
• UK availability: Early 2027 on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland. The exact launch date and full list of shows have not been confirmed yet

This is a big moment for British TV. A public service broadcaster is putting its live channel inside an American streamer, and Disney calls it one of its most significant local deals anywhere in the world. For viewers it means one fewer app to open, and Channel 4 gets its shows in front of millions of Disney+ homes. Channel 4 is still on Freeview, of course, as tonight’s What to Watch Tonight pick, Saint Maud, shows.

Keanu Reeves takes over Netflix action film Maelstrom from Alan Ritchson

• New development: Reeves will star in Maelstrom, a Netflix action film from Jaume Collet-Serra, the director of Carry-On, Deadline and Variety reported. He replaces Reacher’s Alan Ritchson, who left for undisclosed reasons. Netflix declined to comment
• The story: A federal marshal has to protect an arms dealer’s fiancée, who is set to testify against him, through one brutal night as a hurricane cuts off communications, leaves them without back-up and brings the dealer’s men down on their safe house
• Long time coming: The script first sold as a spec to Warner Bros. in 1993. The current draft is by Mark Bianculli, from a first draft by the late Gregory Fitzpatrick. Jeff Robinov and Tabitha Shick produce
• UK availability: It will stream on Netflix in the UK. No release date yet. UK date not yet confirmed

A 1990s action script about a lawman, a witness and a hurricane is about as Keanu as it gets, as anyone who remembers Speed will agree. Collet-Serra knows how to make a lean thriller hum, and Carry-On became one of Netflix’s most-watched films. Reeves’s slate keeps growing: last week he was in talks to join James Wan’s next film, as we reported in the 21 October Morning News.

Will you be watching Channel 4 through Disney+ next year, or sticking with the Channel 4 app?

Back tomorrow with What to Watch Tonight at 7:30am and the Morning News at 8am.