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

Published: 7 September 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 8 September 2026 is a routine cop-show evening: three Police Interceptors episodes run back to back from 6pm to 9pm, Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders takes over at 9pm, and Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law and an X-Files rerun close out the night from 10pm.

5Action Schedule: Tuesday 8 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Action schedule for Tuesday 8 September 2026, on Freeview 33.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Action today

Tuesday’s overnight hours run on the usual factual mix: Behind Bars: World’s Toughest Prisons at 12:05am, Outback Truckers at 1:05am, then two Trucking Hell episodes at 2:05am and 3:05am, before three hours of teleshopping from 4am. Cruise TV with LoveitBookit fills both breakfast slots, 7am and 8am.

Winter Road Rescue opens the morning proper at 9am, then Police Interceptors has a mid-morning slot at 9:35am and Gunsmoke settles in at 10:35am. Two westerns follow into the afternoon: Fort Utah from 11:35am and Little Big Man from 1:15pm, each split into two parts by a five-minute Entertainment News on 5 bulletin rather than shown straight through. Highway Thru Hell has a 4pm slot and Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders takes 5pm, running the schedule up to tonight’s primetime.

5Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5Action primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 8 September 2026.

Police Interceptors — 5Action, 6pm

Dashcam and helicopter footage follows officers pursuing suspects across the country’s roads, John Thomson narrating over the chases as he has for most of the show’s run. This is the twelfth episode of series 17, early in a three-hour block that opens tonight’s schedule.

Police Interceptors — 5Action, 7pm

A second episode from the same series follows directly after, continuing the run rather than jumping to a different season. The format doesn’t change hour to hour — different pursuits, same structure — which is either exactly what regular viewers want or the reason some switch over after the first hour.

Police Interceptors — 5Action, 8pm

The evening’s third Police Interceptors episode jumps to series 22 rather than continuing the series 17 pair before it, so despite three back-to-back hours, this isn’t one uninterrupted block from a single season. Worth knowing if you’re trying to follow one particular run rather than just watching cop-show television for three hours straight.

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

Nicky Campbell narrates this motorway-focused counterpart to Police Interceptors, series six opening its run at 9pm tonight. High-speed pursuits and enforcement operations on major roads replace the urban chases of the earlier hours, though the template — dashcam footage, narrator, after-the-fact explanation — is identical.

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

Enforcement officers tackle passengers travelling without a valid ticket on buses and trains, in series two’s fourth episode. It’s a smaller-scale version of the evening’s cop-show formula, swapping motorway pursuits for ticket inspections and the odd stand-off with someone insisting they definitely paid.

The X-Files — 5Action, 11pm

A rerun from the show’s sixth season closes out the night, Mulder and Scully working a case somewhere between the show’s stand-alone stories and its long-running conspiracy arc. It’s the only scripted drama in an evening otherwise built entirely from factual cop-show and enforcement programming.

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?

Police Interceptors opens the evening with three episodes back to back from 6pm to 9pm, then Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders takes over at 9pm. Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law has the 10pm slot 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

Tuesday is a fairly typical night for 5Action. Police Interceptors runs three episodes back to back from 6pm to 9pm, so it’s worth checking the schedule table if you want the exact series and episode rather than assuming it’s one continuous run. Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders takes over at 9pm.

Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law at 10pm keeps the factual run going, and The X-Files rerun gives the night a scripted close at 11pm. Daytime runs the channel’s usual mix of teleshopping, trucking documentaries and a western double bill split by news bulletins, with Highway Thru Hell getting its slot at 4pm this afternoon.

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