Channel 4 TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Channel 4 Tonight

Channel 4 is the UK’s publicly owned but ad-funded broadcaster, free to watch and responsible for a fair chunk of the odder British television of the past forty years. You’ll find it at 4 on Freeview, and at 104 on Freeview HD, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat. It streams live and on demand for free at channel4.com and through the Channel 4 app. Channel 4 News runs weeknights at 7pm; Gogglebox is the Friday 9pm fixture.

Saturday 8 August gives Channel 4 over to factual: archaeology and ancient history early on, then two hours on Elvis Presley and Colonel Parker to close.

Channel 4 Schedule: Saturday 8 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Channel 4 schedule for Saturday 8 August 2026, on Freeview 4.

What’s on Channel 4 today — the daytime schedule

Friday’s daytime runs on syndicated comedy: three episodes of The King of Queens from 6:30am, then three of Everybody Loves Raymond from 7:45am, before four back-to-back Frasier episodes carry the morning to 11:10am. Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA takes the mid-morning slot, and Find It, Fix It, Flog It and The Great House Giveaway fill the hours either side of 12:10pm.

Countdown returns at 2:10pm, A Place in the Sun takes 3pm, and Saving Country Houses with… Penelope Keith fills 4pm. Chateau DIY runs to 6pm, ahead of American Pickers and the 7pm news.

Channel 4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Channel 4 primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 8 August 2026.

Sandi Toksvig’s Hidden Wonders — Channel 4, 7pm

The first of four. Sandi Toksvig and Raksha Dave join working digs around Britain, starting in Dorset with the Durotriges, the Iron Age tribe who held the south west before the Romans arrived.

Bettany Hughes’ Lost Worlds: Dawn of Civilisations — Channel 4, 8pm

A new two-parter, opening in ancient Anatolia and working from Ephesus to Istanbul on how art, power and ambition took hold. The feed clips the title after “Lost”.

Dictator: The Hitler Interviews — Channel 4, 9pm

The second of three. People who knew Hitler personally describe how tyranny took root in Germany through the 1930s. The title is truncated in the listings after “Hitler”.

Elvis, the Colonel and the Mob — Channel 4, 10pm and 11:05pm

Both parts, back to back, and the strongest run on the channel tonight. The first covers the 1950s explosion and Colonel Parker’s mob connections, with Las Vegas becoming as much a cage as a stage. The second picks up in the late sixties with Presley stifled by bad films and tied into contracts he could not escape, and the residency that remade the city anyway.

Popular shows on Channel 4

Comedy and entertainment

Gogglebox has been running since 2013, filming regular families and friends reacting to the week’s telly from their own sofas. When something big happens in the culture, their reactions often land harder than any think-piece. It won the BAFTA for Reality and Constructed Factual in 2014 and is still going more than a decade later.

Taskmaster moved to Channel 4 from Dave in 2020 and has run a new series most years since. Greg Davies’s mock authority and Alex Horne’s deadpan make for a double act that never feels forced. Series 21 began in April 2026 with Amy Gledhill, Armando Iannucci, Joanna Page, Joel Dommett and Kumail Nanjiani.

Factual and documentary

24 Hours in A&E films inside a working NHS hospital, originally St George’s in Tooting and later King’s College, with fixed cameras and no presenter. It trusts the patients and staff to carry it, which they do. Dispatches, running since 1987, does the investigative work few other British programmes go near; its 2023 Russell Brand investigation was made jointly with two national newspapers.

Baking, lifestyle and food

The Great British Bake Off can make an entire nation care about proving times and choux pastry. It moved from the BBC to Channel 4 in 2017 and still pulls some of the biggest entertainment audiences of the year each autumn. Bake Off: The Professionals swaps the amateurs for trained pastry chefs, and the sugar-work sculptures they produce are frankly ridiculous. Come Dine With Me just keeps going in the afternoons, held together entirely by Dave Lamb’s narration.

How to watch Channel 4 live and on demand

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find Channel 4 depending on your platform:

All of these are free-to-air, no subscription needed. Channel 4 takes no money from the TV Licence; it runs on advertising and commercial partnerships, which is why you get ad breaks on both the linear channel and the stream.

Channel 4 streaming service

Channel 4 streams live and on demand for free at channel4.com and through the Channel 4 app, which runs on smart TVs, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and most major streaming sticks. You need a free account to watch; registration takes a couple of minutes. Alongside the live feed there’s the full on-demand library, box sets, and some series that never appear on linear TV. Most programmes stay up for at least 30 days after broadcast. The service used to be called All 4 before Channel 4 folded it under its own name in 2023.

The Channel 4 family of channels

Channel 4 runs a group of free-to-air digital channels alongside the main service.

E4 is the entertainment and comedy channel aimed at younger viewers. It’s the linear home of Hollyoaks, which airs weeknights on E4, with the omnibus appearing on Channel 4 overnight on Tuesdays. E4 also carries American imports including The Big Bang Theory and Friends. It’s on Freeview 28, Sky 140 and Virgin Media 144.

More4 is where the factual and lifestyle back catalogue goes to live a second life — property, true crime, acquired documentary series, and a great many daytime repeats. More4 is on Freeview 18, Sky 144 and Virgin Media 148.

Film4 is the free movie channel, and a genuinely good one: mainstream Hollywood in the evenings, world and independent cinema later on, no subscription anywhere in it. Film4 is on Freeview 15, Sky 313 and Virgin Media 428.

4seven replays the past week of Channel 4 and its sister channels at different times of day, for anyone who’d rather not use the app. It’s on Freeview 47 and Sky 149.

Frequently asked questions

What channel number is Channel 4 on Freeview?

Channel 4 is on channel 4 on Freeview. If you have a Freeview HD receiver or a TV with a built-in Freeview HD tuner, Channel 4 HD is on channel 104. Both carry the same programmes.

What channel is Channel 4 on Sky?

Channel 4 is on channel 104 on Sky, which covers Sky Q, Sky Stream and Sky Glass. Channel 4 HD is the default feed at 104.

What channel is Channel 4 on Virgin Media?

Channel 4 is on channel 104 on Virgin Media.

What channel is Channel 4 on Freesat?

Channel 4 is on channel 104 on Freesat. If you’re in Wales you may find S4C at 104 on some tuners; check your regional listing accordingly.

What time is Channel 4 News on?

Channel 4 News is on Monday to Friday at 7pm, running until 7:55pm. It’s produced by ITN and streams free on channel4.com and the Channel 4 app alongside the linear broadcast. Weekend bulletins are shorter and earlier: 6pm on Saturday and Sunday, running around thirty minutes.

What time is Gogglebox on Channel 4?

Gogglebox airs on Fridays at 9pm on Channel 4. Episodes are one hour long and are available on the Channel 4 streaming service shortly after broadcast.

What’s on Channel 4 tonight?

Tonight, Saturday 8 August 2026: Channel 4 News at 6:30pm leads into Sandi Toksvig’s Hidden Wonders at 7pm, then a new Bettany Hughes’ Lost Worlds at 8pm and Dictator: The Hitler Interviews at 9pm, before both parts of Elvis, the Colonel and the Mob run back to back from 10pm.

Can I watch Channel 4 online for free?

Yes. Channel 4 streams live and on demand for free at channel4.com and through the Channel 4 app. A free account is required to watch. The service is available on smart TVs, phones, tablets, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and most streaming sticks. Channel 4 is ad-supported, so adverts are included in the stream.

Does Channel 4 have a streaming service?

Yes. It’s the same free service covered above at channel4.com and via the Channel 4 app, previously known as All 4 before Channel 4 dropped the separate branding in 2023.

Verdict

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown is the one to build the evening around. A new series 30 outing puts Jimmy Carr back behind the desk with Rob Beckett and Katherine Ryan facing off against Jon Richardson and Fatiha El-Ghorri, and the format still gets away with jokes a straight quiz show never could.

Surgery Secrets of the Super Rich at 8pm is a decent watch ahead of it, with three patients spending serious money on non-surgical treatments. Big Fat Quiz: Best Bits and Sarah Millican Home Bird Live carry the night through to midnight, the latter a genuine live stand-up recording rather than a studio panel show.

Watch

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Channel 4 Schedule | BBC One TV Guide