The heating went on this week, after the usual standoff about whether it was really cold enough. This is what is new to streaming in the UK in October 2026, led by War on NOW, with the home and the date for each. We are a few days late with it. Four of the six landed between Thursday and Friday, so this is less a preview than a list of what you have already fallen behind on.
The first weekend of October did all its business at once. A Sky divorce drama, the return of the Traitors, a Steinbeck binge on Netflix and a Catherine Zeta-Jones revenge caper all arrived inside about twenty-four hours. Nobody can watch all of that by Monday. Nobody was ever going to.
The rest of the month is calmer. One film in the middle, one comedy late on, and the clocks going back on the 25th to hand everyone a spare hour on the sofa.
Six new to streaming in October, sorted
Same bar as ever: the things that will come up at work whether you have seen them or not. Three dramas, one competition show, one film and an honourable mention. Dates are the UK arrivals as announced. Sky's own launch details for War set the weekly pattern the rest of your Fridays now hang off.
War
Dominic West and Sienna Miller divorce each other expensively, and two London law firms bill for every minute of it. Episode one went up on NOW on Friday 2 October, and the other seven follow weekly. The rare drama where rooting for neither side is the whole pleasure.
The Celebrity Traitors
Series two started on BBC One on Thursday 1 October and now goes out on Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm, with every episode on iPlayer afterwards. Ten episodes, two a week, and a castle full of famous people lying badly. The office will want a view by Monday.
East of Eden
Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames in a seven-part Steinbeck adaptation, all of it on Netflix since Thursday 1 October. Two families, two brothers, a great deal of California and a great deal of grief. A proper weekend binge, if you have a weekend and the stomach for it.
Kill Jackie
Catherine Zeta-Jones as a retired smuggler with seven hitmen on her trail, and her decision to deal with them first. All eight episodes landed on Prime Video on Friday 2 October. Stylish, daft in the right places, and the easiest sell on this list.
Tenzing
The 1953 Everest climb, told from Tenzing Norgay's side of the rope, with Tom Hiddleston as Edmund Hillary. It arrives on Apple TV on Friday 16 October. The one film here, and the one you can put on with a parent in the room.
Nobody Wants This
Honourable mention
Series three of the rabbi-and-the-podcaster romcom lands on Netflix on Thursday 22 October, with Joanne and Noah moving in together. Honourable mention rather than a pick, because half-hour comedy rarely needs planning. A week-night chaser after something heavier, which is a compliment.
The six, in more detail
War
George Kay created it, the man behind Lupin and Hijack, and Ben Taylor directs. West plays Morgan Henderson, a British tech entrepreneur. Miller plays Carla Duval, his estranged wife and an international film star. Their divorce becomes a fight between two rival London firms, Cathcarts and Taylor & Byrne, with Phoebe Fox, James McArdle, Nina Sosanya and Pip Torrens doing the billing. Celia Imrie and Nick Mohammed turn up further down the cast list, which is never a bad sign.
There is nothing to catch up on, being a new series. Eight episodes, one a week, keeps it going well into November. That suits it. A divorce this expensive ought to drag a bit. If you want the creator's form first, Hijack is on Apple TV and Lupin is on Netflix, with Lupin's fourth part due there on 23 October. Neither is required. Both explain why people were waiting for this.
The Celebrity Traitors
Claudia Winkleman is back in the knitwear, and Studio Lambert is back in the castle. The new cast is a strange guest list: Michael Sheen, Richard E. Grant, Jerry Hall, Miranda Hart, Bella Ramsey, Hannah Fry, Romesh Ranganathan and Joe Lycett among them. The opener ran long on Thursday 1 October. After that it is BBC One at 8pm on Thursdays and Fridays, and iPlayer for anyone who was out.
The rules take about ten minutes to pick up, so a cold start costs nothing. The real catch-up is social. Ten episodes at two a week runs to the end of the month, and the group chat will move faster than that. Watch on the night or mute the chat. There is no third option that works.
East of Eden
Netflix's seven-part version of the Steinbeck novel, with Zoe Kazan running it. Pugh is Cathy Ames, Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist are the Trask brothers, Hoon Lee plays Lee and Ciarán Hinds is Samuel Hamilton. It spans the years from the turn of the century to the First World War, and it does not hide the Cain and Abel business underneath. The risk is the usual one with prestige adaptations: reverent to the point of slow.
No homework, unless you count the novel, which nobody you live with is going to read this week. Seven episodes is a long weekend, or a week of school nights at one apiece. It went up on the 1st with everything else, so it is competing with War and the Traitors for the same evenings. Give it the quieter nights. It earns them.
Kill Jackie
Zeta-Jones plays Jackie Price, who left international drug smuggling behind twenty years ago for a quiet life selling fine art through creative tax arrangements. Then she learns a crew of assassins known as the Seven Demons has been hired to kill her, and she goes after them first. Damon Thomas from Killing Eve directs, Tom Butterworth from Gangs of London runs it, and Daniel Ings, Ron Perlman, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Bill Paterson are along for it.
Nothing to catch up on. It is adapted from a novel, The Price You Pay, which you can safely leave on the shelf. All eight episodes were up on Friday, which makes it the obvious pick for a wet Saturday with a takeaway on the way. Seven hitmen, eight episodes: the maths is not complicated.
Tenzing
Jennifer Peedom directs. Genden Phuntsok plays Tenzing Norgay, Tom Hiddleston plays Edmund Hillary, and Willem Dafoe is Colonel John Hunt, the expedition leader. Caitríona Balfe is in it too. Apple's own description puts the weight on the gap between the Western climbers and the Sherpa who reached the top with Hillary, which is a more interesting film than another one about plucky chaps and frostbite.
It premieres on Apple TV on Friday 16 October, everywhere at once. No catch-up, unless you count the history lesson most of us half remember from school. It is the one thing on this list that works with a parent visiting, which in mid-October is not a small consideration. Put it on after Sunday dinner and let the arguments about who got there first run their course.
Nobody Wants This
Kristen Bell and Adam Brody are back as Joanne, the podcaster, and Noah, the rabbi, and this time they are moving in together. That is either the end of the romcom or the start of the sitcom, and series three is where we find out which. It sits at the bottom of the list because it is the least urgent thing here, not the least good.
The first two series are on Netflix, in half-hour episodes, and they go down in a couple of evenings. Worth doing if you have not, because the jokes lean on knowing everyone's family. Series three lands on Thursday 22 October, which leaves you nearly three weeks. Plenty of time, which is exactly how people end up not doing it.
The rest of the month, briefly
The Traitors keeps its two nights a week, with Uncloaked alongside and Ed Gamble back in charge of it. On Sunday 11 October, Time returns to BBC One for a third series, with all three episodes on iPlayer that day. David Tennant leads this one as a prison officer at a young offender institution, and Siobhan Finneran returns as the chaplain. It stands alone, and it will not cheer anybody up.
Treasure Island starts on Paramount+ on 12 October, weekly into mid-November, with Hayley Atwell and David Oyelowo. The Diplomat comes back on Netflix on 15 October, with Lupin following on the 23rd. Disclosure Day is rent or buy only here this month, on Sky Store, if you want a big Spielberg night at a price. There is more on the scary stuff later in the month.
How to pace this without losing November
A word on shape. The front of the month is the heavy end, and it is already behind us. War and the Traitors are weekly, so they look after themselves. East of Eden and Kill Jackie are the ones sitting there in full, waiting to be chosen. Do one this week and the other next, and nothing is lost.
Tenzing has the middle of the month to itself. Then the clocks go back on Sunday 25 October, three days after Nobody Wants This lands. That extra hour is roughly one episode of something. Spend it wisely, or spend it asleep, which is also fine.
None of which settles the real problem, which is the quarter of an hour between turning the telly on and agreeing on anything. Add the ones you fancy, swipe them with whoever shares the sofa, and put on the first thing you both said yes to. If you need something sooner, the what to watch this week page is refreshed through the month. The getting started guide covers setting your services. That is everything new to streaming in the UK in October worth clearing an evening for. Available in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and the United States.