What to Watch Tonight UK · Wednesday 28 October 2026
Three days to Halloween, and BBC One has Osgood Perkins’s gleefully nasty Stephen King film The Monkey late tonight. Before that, there is the episode of The X-Files that gave us its first great monster, and a ghost story from wartime Tehran that most people missed.
Tonight’s three picks
ON TV TONIGHT: The Monkey (2025) on BBC One at 10.40pm
- Channel: BBC One at 10.40pm in England, until 12.10am (11.10pm in Wales, 11.40pm in Northern Ireland)
- Runtime: 1 hour 29 minutes in the BBC listing
- Age rating: 15
- Written and directed by: Osgood Perkins, from a Stephen King short story
- Starring: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Adam Scott and Elijah Wood
- UK availability: On BBC One tonight, then on BBC iPlayer shortly after broadcast. Also to rent or buy on the main digital stores
Twin brothers find their father’s old wind-up toy monkey, and every time it bangs its drum, someone nearby dies in a horribly creative way. They throw it down a well and try to forget, but years later the deaths start again. Osgood Perkins, who made Longlegs, plays it as a pitch-black comedy, and Theo James is very good as both brothers. It is gory and silly in the best way, a perfect late-night Halloween-week treat.
Perfect if you liked Final Destination, Evil Dead II or Barbarian. For more Stephen King on TV this week, see our picks of The Boogeyman and Misery.
X-FILES CLASSIC: The X-Files — “Squeeze” (1993) on Disney+
- Service: Disney+. Also on Prime Video and Sky Go
- Episode: Season 1, episode 3
- Runtime: About 45 minutes
- Written by: Glen Morgan and James Wong
- Directed by: Harry Longstreet
- Starring: David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, with Doug Hutchison as Eugene Victor Tooms
- UK availability: Streaming now on Disney+
A string of murders in Baltimore has no point of entry, and the victims have had their livers torn out. Mulder notices the same pattern in cases from 1933 and 1963, thirty years apart. The killer is Eugene Victor Tooms, a quiet man who can stretch his body through air vents and chimneys. This was the first “monster of the week” episode, and Doug Hutchison is properly creepy. You may never look at an air vent the same way again.
Perfect if you liked Fringe, Stranger Things or The Silence of the Lambs. Our last X-Files pick was “Home”, you can catch up on Ryan Coogler’s new X-Files, and our X-Files watch guide tells you where to go next.
HIDDEN GEM: Under the Shadow (2016) on Netflix
- Service: Netflix
- Runtime: 1 hour 24 minutes
- Age rating: 15
- Written and directed by: Babak Anvari
- Starring: Narges Rashidi and Avin Manshadi
- Language: Persian, with English subtitles
- UK availability: Streaming now on Netflix. Also to rent or buy on the main digital stores
Tehran, 1988, during the war with Iraq. Shideh is a mother whose medical studies have been blocked, and she is left alone with her young daughter while her husband is sent to the front. When a missile crashes into their block of flats and does not explode, the girl starts to say that something came in with it. Babak Anvari’s debut won a BAFTA, and it is as tense and frightening as anything from Hollywood. It is short, sharp and still badly underseen.
Perfect if you liked The Babadook, The Others or Dark Water. If you want another smart horror on Netflix, try our pick of His House.
Movieversalfilm Takeaway
Start early with “Squeeze” on Disney+, then let Under the Shadow on Netflix get under your skin. If you are still up, BBC One’s The Monkey at 10.40pm is the gory, funny way to end the night.
Plan the week ahead with our UK Release Calendar, and find more picks on What to Watch.
What are you watching tonight?
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