RadioTimes.com understands that the soap will be repeated on Saturdays and Sundays following the channel’s relaunch.

By Patrick Cremona

Published: Tuesday, 25 January 2022 at 12:00 am


The relaunch of BBC Three as a linear channel is getting closer by the day – and there’s some good news for EastEnders fans ahead of the channel’s return to the air.

RadioTimes.com understands that BBC Three will be airing repeats of each week’s episodes over the weekend – the first time repeats have been shown for the soap since the omnibus was scrapped in 2017.

Rather than showing all the week’s episodes back to back, the new schedule is currently set to see Monday’s and Tuesday’s episodes shown again on Saturdays evenings, while Thursday’s and Friday’s instalments will get another outing on Sunday evenings.

Of course, fans who miss any episodes of the soap will also still be able to catch up with the drama on BBC iPlayer, as is currently the case.

The EastEnders omnibus previously aired on the BBC every week from the show’s launch in 1985 until 2015, when the decision was made to discontinue the repeats.

In 2016, UKTV channel W began to show the repeats instead, but this only lasted for a year before the omnibus was scrapped outright.

BBC Three returns as a linear channel on Tuesday 1st February, more than five years after it originally closed down to become an online-only platform.

The BBC has teased that the channel – which will be available to watch on Freeview, Sky, Virgin and Freesat every night from 7pm – will feature “a rich content mix of drama, comedy, entertainment, documentaries, news and sport”.

Read more: 6 EastEnders spoilers for next week: Harvey visits Aaron in prison

EastEnders continues tonight at 7:30pm on BBC One. Visit our dedicated EastEnders page for all the latest news, interviews and spoilers. If you’re looking for more to watch check out our TV Guide.