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. Saturday hands the evening over to three westerns back to back, each one broken by a short Entertainment News on 5 update, before a fifth-season X-Files rerun closes things out just before midnight.

5Action Schedule: Saturday 15 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Action schedule for Saturday 15 August 2026, on Freeview 33.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Action today

The overnight schedule opens with World’s Deadliest Weather: Caught on Camera at 12am (series 6, episode 5), revisiting Hurricane Otis tearing into Acapulco alongside flooding that swamped whole communities back in the UK. Outback Truckers follows at 1am (series 3, episode 7): a mission for Jared and Johnny stalls completely, Roscoe has a rough time of it on a well-known rally, and Turbo gets pulled over by police. Two Trucking Heavy episodes fill 2am and 2:55am (series 3, episode 20 and series 4, episode 1): a convoy racing to unload a cargo ship at Glasson Docks before the tide turns, then separate jobs shifting an oversized security hut and lifting a 63-tonne rig. Entertainment News on 5 closes the block at 3:50am, and teleshopping fills the gap through to 7am.

Cruise TV with LoveitBookit takes both 7am and 8am, the second showing flagged as a new episode. Entertainment News on 5 has a second slot at 9am ahead of a run of five Police Interceptors episodes stretching from 9:15am to 1:15pm: a driver caught more than three times the legal limit, a chase involving a rammed Vauxhall Meriva, a police dog called in on a gang accused of stealing designer jackets, an alleged gun threat against a shopkeeper, and a stop on cloned plates that turns out to be a runaway’s 15th birthday. Three episodes of Highway Thru Hell close out the afternoon from 2:20pm to 4:20pm: a blizzard shutting down British Columbia’s Coquihalla Highway, a lumber spill and a trip to Tennessee for a replacement Rotator truck, and a strained moment between Jamie and his son over how the teenager spends his wages.

5Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

It’s a western night on 5Action for Saturday 15 August 2026: three films back to back, each one paused for a short Entertainment News on 5 update, then a classic X-Files rerun to finish.

Lust for Gold — 5Action, 5:20pm & 6:25pm

The run opens with 1949’s Lust for Gold, Glenn Ford and Ida Lupino leading a search for an Arizona gold seam that a grasping relative found decades earlier and never revealed the location of before he died. Entertainment News on 5 breaks in at 6:20pm for five minutes before the film picks back up.

The Big Gundown — 5Action, 7:10pm & 8:15pm

Lee Van Cleef stars in this Sergio Sollima spaghetti western as a bounty hunter with an eye on political office, sent after a Mexican peasant accused of a young girl’s murder on evidence that unravels the further he chases the man toward the border. Sources differ on the exact release year, with the Italian production dated to 1966 and some English-language listings placing it in 1967. Entertainment News on 5 splits the film again at 8:10pm.

The Outlaw Josey Wales — 5Action, 9pm & 10:10pm

Tonight’s main event is Clint Eastwood’s 1976 western, in which he directs himself as a Missouri farmer who turns outlaw after Union raiders burn his home and kill his family. The film settles into something quieter than a standard revenge story once Josey starts picking up a ragged group of fellow outcasts along the way, and it’s regularly named among the strongest westerns of its decade. A ten-minute Entertainment News on 5 bulletin at 10:05pm is the only break.

The X-Files — 5Action, 11:50pm

The night closes with a rerun from the show’s fifth season (series 5, episode 15), Mulder pulling at a thread connecting his own father to a Cold War-era programme with a body count. A late slot for a show that finished its original run more than two decades ago, and one 5Action still leans on to close out the evening.

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?

A western night. Lust for Gold (1949) opens the run at 5:20pm, The Big Gundown follows at 7:10pm, and Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) takes the 9pm slot, each film split by a short Entertainment News on 5 bulletin. The X-Files closes the night at 11:50pm. 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

Saturday’s pick is Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales at 9pm, the strongest of the night’s three westerns by some distance and the one film here that regularly turns up on best-of lists rather than just filling a Saturday schedule.

Lust for Gold and The Big Gundown carry the earlier evening, each broken by a short Entertainment News on 5 update, and The X-Files sends everyone to bed with a late rerun from its fifth season.

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