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

Published: 24 August 2026

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. Tuesday 25 August 2026 is a straight run of the channel’s usual material, with no films anywhere in primetime. Police Interceptors holds 6pm, 7pm and 8pm, though the 8pm edition switches to a new series; Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders follows at 9pm, Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law takes 10pm, and an X-Files repeat closes the night at 11pm.

5Action Schedule: Tuesday 25 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Action schedule for Tuesday 25 August 2026, on Freeview 33.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Action today

Tuesday’s overnight hours open with World’s Deadliest Weather: Caught on Camera at midnight, then two episodes of Trucking Hell back to back from 2:05am before three hours of teleshopping close out the night. Cruise TV with LoveitBookit takes both breakfast slots, 7am and 8am, the second one a new episode.

Trucking Hell returns for two more instalments either side of 9am, then Police Interceptors has a daytime outing at 10:15am ahead of Gunsmoke at 11:15am. Run for Cover, a western, opens the afternoon at 12:25pm and returns after a short Entertainment News on 5 bulletin at 1:30pm; Seven Men from Now, a second western, follows the same pattern either side of the 3:15pm news update. Highway Thru Hell has its only outing of the day at 4pm — daytime only, and not part of tonight’s primetime — before Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders opens the evening proper at 5pm.

5Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5Action primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 25 August 2026.

Police Interceptors — 5Action, 6pm to 9pm

Three hours of Police Interceptors open the evening, though it’s not one continuous run. The 6pm and 7pm episodes close out series 16 — a pair of runaway drivers, then a pursuit involving a driver over the limit — before the 8pm edition switches to series 21, a fresh run that the feed hasn’t flagged as new despite the change. Motorway patrol footage bridges the gap either side of it, with Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders also on at 5pm before this block and again straight after it at 9pm.

Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders — 5Action, 9pm

Nicky Campbell narrates as a routine stop turns into something bigger, with officers suspecting the vehicle has ties to organised crime — the second Motorway Cops outing of the evening after the earlier 5pm edition.

Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law — 5Action, 10pm

A fare-dodging suspect has run up a bill north of £5,000 by the time inspectors catch up with them — a reminder that this strand’s numbers tend to be larger than the ticket-inspector stereotype suggests.

The X-Files — 5Action, 11pm

Tonight’s rerun is “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”, the sixth-series episode built almost entirely around Mulder, Scully and a haunted house occupied by a pair of bickering ghosts. It’s a festive episode airing in the middle of an ordinary August night, nothing more unusual than a rerun schedule working through a series in order.

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?

There are no films in primetime tonight. Police Interceptors holds 6pm, 7pm and 8pm, moving from series 16 to series 21 for the final hour, Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders takes 9pm, Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law follows at 10pm, and a classic X-Files episode closes the night at 11pm. 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

Tuesday is 5Action doing what it does most nights: no films, just cop shows and motorway patrols back to back from 5pm. Police Interceptors carries the first three hours of primetime, with a change of series rather than a change of show partway through, before Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders takes its second slot of the evening at 9pm.

Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law at 10pm is the only thing on the schedule that isn’t a road-patrol chase, and it’s a reasonable change of pace once the dashcams have had their say. The X-Files rerun at 11pm — a haunted-house episode built for December, landing in the middle of an August night — closes things out on scripted drama rather than another blue-light pursuit.

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