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

Published: 16 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. Tonight, Thursday 17 September 2026, is a normal weeknight with no live sport. Police Interceptors opens primetime with episodes at 6pm and 7pm, and Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders takes the 8pm slot before Major Crimes Unit airs at 9pm. A new episode of Timber Titans follows at 10:35pm, and an X-Files rerun closes the night at 11:35pm.

5Action Schedule: Thursday 17 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete 5Action schedule for Thursday 17 September 2026, on Freeview 33.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on 5Action today

Thursday’s overnight hours open with a single episode of Rescue 999: Seconds to Save a Life at midnight, then Outback Truckers at 1am and a pair of Trucking Hell episodes carry the schedule to 4am and three hours of Teleshopping. Cruise TV with LoveitBookit fills both breakfast slots, 7am and 8am, the second one a new episode.

Trucking Hell has a single slot at 9am, then Police Interceptors airs at 10am and Gunsmoke follows at 11am. The Tin Star carries the late morning into early afternoon, split by a brief Entertainment News on 5 update just after 1pm and resuming five minutes later, and Dallas takes over from 2pm, again broken by a short news bulletin at 3pm, before Traffic Cops picks up at 4pm and Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders hands over to this evening’s schedule at 5pm.

5Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the 5Action primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 17 September 2026.

Police Interceptors — 5Action, 6pm

Firearms officers face a fast-moving armed incident in tonight’s opening case, the first of the channel’s nightly two-episode run of the series (series 18, episode 14).

Police Interceptors — 5Action, 7pm

A second episode follows straight after, with the force’s Tactical Support Group leading an early-morning raid on a target address (series 18, episode 15).

Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders — 5Action, 8pm

Officers pursue a driver heading the wrong way along the A1, one of several high-speed incidents caught on camera in this episode (series 6, episode 8).

Major Crimes Unit — 5Action, 9pm

Detectives investigate a shooting at a home in Dudley in this instalment of the true-crime strand (series 1, episode 2).

Timber Titans — 5Action, 10:35pm

A new episode follows the Peters Contract Logging crew racing to finish a job that has already overrun (series 2, episode 2).

The X-Files — 5Action, 11:35pm

The night closes with a rerun from the show’s sixth season, in which Mulder and Scully investigate a pair of skeletons found at a site with a history of UFO sightings. Listings sources disagree on the exact episode number, so it’s given here by content rather than a number that might be wrong.

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?

No live sport tonight. Police Interceptors opens at 6pm and 7pm, then Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders takes the 8pm slot before Major Crimes Unit airs at 9pm. A new episode of Timber Titans follows at 10:35pm and The X-Files closes the night at 11:35pm. 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

Tonight is the channel running to its normal template rather than handing the evening to live sport. Police Interceptors opens at 6pm and 7pm, Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders takes the 8pm slot, and Major Crimes Unit airs at 9pm.

A new episode of Timber Titans is the change of pace at 10:35pm, trading daytime pursuits for a Canadian logging crew’s own deadline, before an X-Files rerun sees the schedule out at 11:35pm. Daytime runs the usual mix of factual and recovery programming: Rescue 999: Seconds to Save a Life and Trucking Hell overnight, Cruise TV with LoveitBookit through breakfast, then Gunsmoke, The Tin Star and Dallas carrying the late morning into the afternoon.

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