5Action TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On 5Action Tonight

5Action is Channel 5’s cop-show and action channel, and it has had more names than most channels manage in a decade: Spike at launch in 2015, 5Spike from 2017, merged with the UK’s Paramount Network in 2020, and 5Action since January 2022. Monday night sticks to the usual mix of pursuits and vehicle recovery, headlined by a new Highway Thru Hell at 10pm.

5Action Schedule: Monday 10 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Action schedule for Monday 10 August 2026, on Freeview 33.

What’s on 5Action today

Monday’s overnight run belongs to true crime: three episodes of Britain’s Most Dangerous Prisoners profile Mark Hobson, Joanne Dennehy and James “Porky” O’Rourke between 12:45am and 3:40am, followed by a Trucking Hell repeat, before teleshopping takes over from 4am to 7am.

Cruise TV with LoveitBookit fills 7am and 8am, then Trucking Hell returns at 9:15am (series 5, episode 4), clearing a stranded lorry before rush hour and pulling a van out of Loch Eck in Scotland. Police Interceptors follows at 10:15am (series 2, episode 2), the Essex unit chasing down a transit van and rescuing a man from an overturned tractor, and Gunsmoke takes 11:15am, with a drifter trying to settle in Dodge after swapping identities with an unconscious stranger (series 12, episode 26).

Two westerns split by the lunchtime news fill the early afternoon. The Hangman (1959) runs from 12:20pm to 1:25pm and resumes after the bulletin until 2:10pm, US Marshal Bovard arriving in a border town to arrest a fugitive that the whole place seems determined to protect. Copper Canyon (1950), starring Ray Milland and Hedy Lamarr, follows the same pattern from 2:10pm to 4pm, its band of veteran copper miners hiring a sharpshooter to fend off a local gang.

Highway Thru Hell opens the evening run at 4pm (series 1, episode 1), a blizzard shutting down British Columbia’s Coquihalla Highway during a multi-vehicle pile-up, and Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders follows at 5pm (series 3, episode 2), officers turning to facial recognition technology after a driver refuses to give his real name.

5Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5Action primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 10 August 2026.

Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders — 5Action, 5pm & 8pm

Two runs bookend the cop-show block. At 5pm (series 3, episode 2), officers turn to facial recognition technology after a driver refuses to confirm who he is. At 8pm (series 3, episode 7), PC Ian Cosgrove attends a serious crash and breathalyses the driver once it’s clear nobody is badly hurt.

Police Interceptors — 5Action, 6pm, 7pm & 9pm

Three episodes carry the evening. The 6pm hour (series 14, episode 12) sends the unit out in the early hours after a gang caught burgling overnight, and one of them repays the favour by spitting in officer Liam’s face. At 7pm (series 14, episode 13), the chase itself is caught for the first time from inside the suspect’s own dashcam, while Liam and sniffer dog Louis turn up half a million pounds of Class A drugs. The 9pm repeat (series 20, episode 8) pairs a drink-driver caught more than three times the legal limit with a runaway driver who vanishes into a housing estate.

Highway Thru Hell — 5Action, 10pm

A new episode arrives at 10pm (series 3, episode 1), splitting Jamie Davis’s operation in half for the first time this series. Adam leads part of the fleet north to work Alberta’s oil fields, while Jamie is left to keep the Coquihalla Highway running on his own. It’s the biggest test yet of how thin the crew can stretch.

The X-Files — 5Action, 11:05pm

The night closes with a rerun (series 5, episode 15) in which Mulder learns his father was involved in secret Cold War experiments.

What kind of shows are on 5Action

Cop shows and roads policing documentaries

This is the channel, really. Police Interceptors, Traffic Cops and Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders between them account for most of the grid, and they are built to an identical template: dashcam and body-cam footage, a narrator over the top, and the officer explaining afterwards what made them look twice. John Thomson narrates one, Jamie Theakston another, Nicky Campbell the third, and that voice is often the quickest way to work out which show you have actually landed on.

Action films and westerns

Older genre cinema fills the afternoons, mostly westerns. Gunsmoke, The Walking Hills and Horizons West come round often, usually split either side of a news bulletin. A full western occasionally makes it into an evening slot, but not often.

Heavy recovery and trucking documentaries

Highway Thru Hell, Trucking Hell and Outback Truckers cover the same job on three continents: British roadsides, the Australian outback, the Canadian mountain passes. Highway Thru Hell is the best of them and 5Action seems to know it, since it tends to get a decent evening slot rather than being buried overnight.

How to watch 5Action

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find 5Action across the main UK television platforms:

5Action is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. Virgin Media and Freesat numbers can vary slightly by region and box, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t match.

Streaming online

5Action streams live and free through 5, Channel 5’s combined broadcast and streaming platform, at channel5.com and via the 5 app on smart TVs, iOS, Android and Amazon Fire TV. The service was known as My5 until Channel 5 merged its linear channels and catch-up library into the single “5” brand in March 2025. A free account is all you need, and recent episodes of shows like Police Interceptors and Highway Thru Hell are generally available to catch up on afterwards.

5Action sister channels

5Action sits under Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, itself part of Paramount Skydance Corporation, alongside three siblings. 5USA runs American crime dramas and imported US series, so it is far more scripted than anything here. 5Star does reality and true crime, personality-led where 5Action is all dashcam and recovery trucks. Channel 5 is the flagship and takes the group’s biggest dramas, documentaries and 5 News; the other three pick up the specialisms it does not have room for.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is 5Action on?

Freeview 33, Sky 150 (Sky Q) or 165 (Sky Glass and Sky Stream), Virgin Media 150 in HD or 187 in SD, and Freesat 132.

What’s on 5Action tonight?

The channel’s usual cop-show rotation. Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders airs at 5pm and 8pm, Police Interceptors takes 6pm, 7pm and 9pm, a new episode of Highway Thru Hell arrives at 10pm, and The X-Files closes the night at 11:05pm. Full times are in the schedule table above.

Is 5Action free to watch?

Yes, completely free to air with no subscription, though it carries advertising and teleshopping strands throughout the schedule, particularly during the day.

Can I watch 5Action online for free?

Yes. It streams live at channel5.com and through the 5 app, the platform formerly known as My5. A free account is all that’s required.

Verdict

Monday’s pick is the new Highway Thru Hell at 10pm, Jamie Davis’s fleet splitting between Alberta’s oil fields and a solo shift keeping the Coquihalla Highway open through a blizzard.

Three Police Interceptors outings anchor the rest of the evening, two from the current series 14 run and one repeat from series 20, alongside two runs of Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders at 5pm and 8pm. The X-Files closes the schedule at 11:05pm.

Related: Channel 5 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week