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

Published: 30 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. Monday 31 August 2026 is not a typical night here. After the usual cop-show and western daytime, the channel hands its whole primetime over to live sport: three hours of the Snooker British Open, picked up from Channel 5 at 8pm as the first evening session of the tournament’s opening day runs through to 11pm. Police Interceptors and Cops fill the hour beforehand, and The X-Files closes out the night once the table falls quiet.

5Action Schedule: Monday 31 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Action schedule for Monday 31 August 2026, on Freeview 33.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Action today

Monday’s overnight hours run on the usual factual mix: a two-part World’s Deadliest Weather: Caught on Camera at 12:25am and 1:25am, Behind Bars: World’s Toughest Prisons at 2:25am and a short Highway Patrol at 3:30am, before three hours of teleshopping take over from 4am. Cruise TV with LoveitBookit fills both breakfast slots, 7am and 8am, the second one a new episode.

Trucking Hell and Police Interceptors carry the mid-morning, and Gunsmoke takes the 11am slot before the channel switches to westerns for the early afternoon: The Scalphunters from 12:05pm and Robber’s Roost from 2:10pm, each broken by a five-minute Entertainment News on 5 bulletin rather than shown straight through. Highway Thru Hell picks things back up at 4pm, followed by Trucking Hell and Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders, and then Police Interceptors returns at 6:20pm to open the evening proper.

5Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Tonight’s story on 5Action is live sport. Two cop shows open the evening, then the channel clears three hours of primetime for the Snooker British Open before The X-Files takes the graveyard slot.

Police Interceptors — 5Action, 6:20pm

Series 17, episode 4 of the dashcam-and-pursuit staple opens the evening, with a driver’s attempt to get away on foot forming the centrepiece.

Cops — 5Action, 7:15pm

The US strand follows at 7:15pm with series 33, episode 17, built around officers pursuing a stolen vehicle. A five-minute Entertainment News on 5 bulletin at 7:45pm is the last thing before the sport takes over.

Live: Snooker British Open — 5Action, 8pm

This is where the evening actually lives. The British Open is snooker’s first ranking event of the new season, being staged at the Centaur, part of Cheltenham Racecourse, from 31 August to 6 September. Channel 5 opens the coverage with the afternoon session from 12:30pm and carries the start of the first evening session from 6:45pm; 5Action then picks that same session up at 8pm and runs it live through to 11pm, so anyone following the frames across the two channels needs to switch over on the hour.

Day one’s schedule pairs several of the game’s biggest names against qualifiers: Judd Trump against Dylan Emery, John Higgins against Hossein Vafaei, Mark Selby against David Lilley and Neil Robertson against Pang Junxu are among the matches getting under way as the event opens. Katie Shanahan, who has become the regular face of Channel 5’s snooker coverage this year, presents.

The X-Files — 5Action, 11pm

Once the final frame is played, series 6, episode 10 closes the night: Mulder and Scully investigate a man whose photographs appear to show his subjects moments before they die.

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?

Live sport, for once: three hours of the Snooker British Open from 8pm to 11pm, taken over from Channel 5’s coverage at the top of the hour as the tournament’s opening evening session continues. Police Interceptors at 6:20pm and Cops at 7:15pm come first, and The X-Files 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

Monday is a genuine change of pace for 5Action, and a rare one. Instead of the cop-show and recovery-truck rotation that normally fills the evening, the channel clears three hours of primetime for live snooker, picking up the Snooker British Open from Channel 5 at 8pm as the first evening session of the tournament’s opening day plays out at the Centaur in Cheltenham. With Judd Trump, John Higgins, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson all in action as the event gets under way, it is a stronger draw than anything the usual schedule offers.

Police Interceptors and Cops still get their slots beforehand, and The X-Files closes the night once the final frame is played, so the channel’s usual identity is not entirely absent. Anyone after the regular dashcam-and-recovery-truck mix should try again once the snooker moves on — tonight, live sport is the reason to tune in.

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