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

Published: 28 August 2026

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 29 August keeps Channel 4’s evening short and film-heavy. Grand Designs runs from 5:30pm into a half-hour Channel 4 News at 6:30pm, then Sandi Toksvig’s Hidden Wonders takes the 7pm hour before Black Panther opens two back-to-back films from 8pm. Terminator: Dark Fate follows at 10:45pm and carries the schedule past midnight. There’s no game show, talent show or Channel 4 sitcom strand in evidence tonight — just a documentary and two films around the news.

Channel 4 Schedule: Saturday 29 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Channel 4 schedule for Saturday 29 August 2026, on Freeview 4.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Channel 4 today: the daytime schedule

Saturday daytime on Channel 4 looks nothing like the weekday run — there’s no Countdown and no A Place in the Sun, both of which are weekday fixtures only. The overnight hours are given over to 127 Hours at 12:10am and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA at 1:45am, then five Four in a Bed repeats carry the schedule through to 4:50am, when Find It, Fix It, Flog It takes the last overnight slot. Kirstie and Phil’s Love It or List It: Brilliant Builds, visiting a Wolverhampton project, opens the run into breakfast at 5:05am.

Breakfast is the American sitcom archive: four episodes of Cheers from 6am, then three of Everybody Loves Raymond from 7:45am. Superhero Tri 2026 takes a mid-morning slot at 9:10am, followed by three episodes of Frasier from 9:55am and two of The Simpsons from 11:25am. The early afternoon runs three more Simpsons episodes into 1:20pm, then a second five-episode block of Four in a Bed carries through to 4:25pm. George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces closes the afternoon at 4:25pm, and Grand Designs opens the run into the evening at 5:30pm.

Channel 4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

It’s a short evening on Channel 4 tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026 — one documentary and two films, with a half-hour news bulletin in between. Grand Designs runs from 5:30pm to 6:30pm, revisiting a couple’s cross-shaped “Viking Hall” self-build in the Surrey Hills (series 27, episode 4); the same episode turns up again later tonight on sister channel 4seven. Channel 4 News then takes its Saturday half-hour at 6:30pm, shorter than the weekday broadcast.

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

Sandi Toksvig heads to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for this episode, joined by Raksha to explore the Roman fort at Magna and picture what life was like for the soldiers stationed there. It’s a gentler, more personal kind of history programme than the wall usually gets — less about the archaeology and more about imagining the people who lived and worked on it.

Black Panther — Channel 4, 8pm

Ryan Coogler’s 2018 Marvel film gets a two-and-three-quarter-hour slot from 8pm, with Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa returning home to Wakanda to take the throne and defend it from a rival claimant. It remains one of the more distinctive entries in the Marvel run, with a visual identity and a villain that both stand apart from the usual formula.

Terminator: Dark Fate — Channel 4, 10:45pm

Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger reprise Sarah Connor and the T-800 for this 2019 sequel, which quietly drops the events of the three films in between and picks up the story decades after the original two. It’s a late finish — the film runs past 1am — but it gives the two original leads more to do than most of the series’ other sequels managed.

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 Monday to Wednesday at 7pm 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: 6:30pm on Saturday and Sunday, running around half an hour.

What time is Gogglebox on Channel 4?

Gogglebox’s home slot is Fridays at 9pm on Channel 4, with episodes available on the Channel 4 streaming service shortly after broadcast. The Celebrity Gogglebox spin-off turns up in other slots through the week, including some Monday nights, with a different line-up of famous faces reacting to the same shows.

What’s on Channel 4 tonight?

Tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026, Grand Designs runs from 5:30pm ahead of a half-hour Channel 4 News at 6:30pm. Sandi Toksvig’s Hidden Wonders visits Hadrian’s Wall at 7pm, then Black Panther opens the evening’s two films from 8pm, followed by Terminator: Dark Fate at 10:45pm. It’s a quiet night on Channel 4 by its own standards: one documentary and two films around the news, nothing else.

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

Tonight is a thin one for Channel 4, and there’s no point pretending otherwise. Grand Designs and a half-hour news bulletin lead into a single hour-long documentary at 7pm, and then the channel hands the rest of the night to two films back to back: Black Panther from 8pm and Terminator: Dark Fate from 10:45pm, running past 1am. There’s no game show, no format launch and no sitcom strand tonight — just a quiet documentary hour sandwiched between the news and a long run of films.

Anyone after Channel 4’s usual Saturday range of quizzes and property shows will find them earlier in the day rather than in the evening slate.

Watch

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Channel 4 Schedule | BBC One TV Guide | Films on TV This Week