What to Watch Tonight UK · Sunday 1 November 2026
Sunday night is sci-fi night. Film4 has Gareth Edwards’ The Creator at 9pm, his tiny-budget debut Monsters is our hidden gem, and The X-Files heads to the Arctic for one of its most frightening early episodes.
Tonight’s three picks
ON TV TONIGHT: The Creator (2023) on Film4 at 9pm
- Channel: Film4 at 9pm, until 11.40pm
- Runtime: 2 hours 13 minutes
- Age rating: 12A
- Directed by: Gareth Edwards
- Starring: John David Washington, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney and Ken Watanabe
- UK availability: On Film4 tonight, and streaming on Channel 4 from today. Also on Netflix
In 2065, after AI is blamed for a nuclear blast in Los Angeles, the West is at war with the machines. Joshua, a burnt-out former soldier, is sent to find the weapon that could end it, and discovers it is a child. Edwards shot much of it on real locations across Asia for a fraction of a normal blockbuster budget, and it looks astonishing. The story borrows from Blade Runner and Apocalypse Now, but on a big screen at home it is a proper Sunday night event.
Perfect if you liked District 9, Children of Men or Rogue One. Stay up and Film4 follows it with Ex Machina at 11.40pm.
HIDDEN GEM: Monsters (2010) on Prime Video, Disney+ and ITVX
- Service: Prime Video and Disney+, included with a subscription, and free with ads on ITVX
- Runtime: 1 hour 34 minutes
- Age rating: 12A
- Written and directed by: Gareth Edwards
- Starring: Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able
- UK availability: Streaming on Prime Video, Disney+ and ITVX. Also to rent or buy on the main digital stores
Before Godzilla, Rogue One and The Creator, Gareth Edwards made this British road movie with a tiny crew, two actors and the visual effects done on his own computer. Six years after a space probe crashes, giant creatures roam northern Mexico, and a photographer has to get his boss’s daughter home to the United States. The monsters are rarely seen. What stays with you is the quiet, the strange beauty and the slow-burning romance. Watch it before or after tonight’s film to see where it all began.
Perfect if you liked Cloverfield, Arrival or Lost in Translation. Plan more nights in with our UK Release Calendar.
X-FILES CLASSIC: The X-Files — “Ice” (1993) on Disney+
- Service: Disney+. The series is also on Prime Video
- Episode: Season one, episode eight
- Runtime: About 45 minutes
- Written by: Glen Morgan and James Wong
- Directed by: David Nutter
- Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Xander Berkeley and Felicity Huffman
- UK availability: Streaming on Disney+ and Prime Video
A research team at a remote Alaskan outpost is found dead, and Mulder and Scully fly in with a small team to find out why. Something in the ice has got into them, and soon nobody trusts anyone, not even each other. It is The X-Files doing its own version of The Thing, on one cold set, and it is still one of the tensest hours the series made. It first aired on 5 November 1993, so it turns 33 this week.
Perfect if you liked The Thing, Alien or Fortitude. See our last X-Files pick, “Squeeze”, catch up on the latest on Ryan Coogler’s X-Files reboot, and find your next episode in our X-Files watch guide.
Movieversalfilm Takeaway
Make it a Gareth Edwards double bill: Monsters first, then The Creator on Film4 at 9pm. If you only have an hour, Mulder and Scully in the Arctic will chill you to the bone.
Find more picks on What to Watch.
What are you watching tonight?
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