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

Published: 29 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. Sunday 30 August 2026 breaks from the usual pattern: after a morning of factual reruns and a five-episode Gunsmoke run through the afternoon, the whole evening from 3:50pm is given over to film, with two westerns and a Cold War invasion thriller run back to back, each split by a five-minute Entertainment News on 5 bulletin rather than shown straight through. Bite the Bullet opens the run, Mackenna’s Gold takes the 6:25pm slot, Red Dawn holds primetime from 9pm, and the disaster clip show World’s Deadliest Weather: Caught on Camera closes the night at 11:20pm.

5Action Schedule: Sunday 30 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Action schedule for Sunday 30 August 2026, on Freeview 33.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Action today

Sunday’s overnight hours belong to scripted reruns rather than the cop-show mix: three episodes of The X-Files run back to back from 12:40am (series 6, episodes 6 to 8), followed by Trucking Hell at 3:35am, a short Entertainment News on 5 bulletin, and three hours of teleshopping from 4am. Cruise TV with LoveitBookit takes both breakfast slots, 7am and 8am, the second one flagged as a new episode.

Winter Road Rescue and Outback Truckers share the 9am hour, and then Gunsmoke takes over for the rest of the morning and afternoon: five episodes back to back from 10:30am to 3:50pm (series 13, episodes 7 to 11), before the evening’s run of films begins.

5Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5Action primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 30 August 2026.

Bite the Bullet, the 1975 western that pits Gene Hackman and James Coburn against each other in a gruelling cross-desert horse race, has been running since 3:50pm and clears the schedule at 6:25pm, split by a news bulletin at 4:50pm.

Mackenna’s Gold — 5Action, 6:25pm

Gregory Peck plays a reluctant sheriff dragged into a hunt for a legendary canyon of gold in this 1969 western, with Omar Sharif as the outlaw who forces him along and Telly Savalas among the starry supporting cast. A five-minute Entertainment News on 5 bulletin splits the film at 7:25pm before it picks up again at 7:30pm and runs through to 9pm.

Red Dawn — 5Action, 9pm

Patrick Swayze leads a group of small-town teenagers turned guerrilla fighters after a Soviet-led invasion of the United States in this 1984 Cold War thriller, co-starring Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey. Another Entertainment News on 5 break lands at 10pm before the film wraps up at 11:20pm.

World’s Deadliest Weather: Caught on Camera — 5Action, 11:20pm

The night closes with amateur and dashcam footage of storms, floods and other extreme weather, part of the channel’s regular run of clip-based factual shows once the evening’s films are done (series 6, episode 11).

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 evening is unusually film-heavy for this channel: Bite the Bullet from 3:50pm, Mackenna’s Gold from 6:25pm, and Red Dawn from 9pm, each interrupted partway through by a five-minute Entertainment News on 5 bulletin rather than shown straight through. World’s Deadliest Weather: Caught on Camera closes the night at 11:20pm. 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

Sunday is a genuine change of pace for 5Action. Instead of the cop-show and recovery-truck rotation that fills most evenings here, primetime from 3:50pm is given over to film: two westerns and a Cold War invasion thriller, run back to back and each broken up by its own five-minute news bulletin rather than shown in one go. It is not the smoothest way to schedule three films, but Bite the Bullet, Mackenna’s Gold and Red Dawn make for a stronger run than the channel’s usual daytime output.

World’s Deadliest Weather: Caught on Camera closes the night at 11:20pm, a reminder that the channel’s factual leanings are never far away even on a night built almost entirely around cinema. Anyone after the usual dashcam-and-recovery-truck mix should try again tomorrow — tonight is the exception, not the rule.

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