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

Channel 5 is the UK’s third commercial terrestrial broadcaster, free to air and funded by advertising, and it streams live and on demand through My5. Below: tonight’s full schedule, the shows the channel is built on, its channel numbers on every platform, and how to watch online.

Monday’s primetime has no drama in it at all. Five patrol-car and enforcement shows run back to back once the evening gets going, with only the Sardinia travelogue breaking things up beforehand. Full times are in the table below.

Channel 5 Schedule: Monday 10 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Channel 5 schedule for Monday 10 August 2026, on Freeview 5.

What’s on Channel 5 today — the daytime schedule

Milkshake! runs through the morning on its usual pre-school rotation of Paddington, Peppa Pig and PAW Patrol, before Jeremy Vine takes the mid-morning slot at 9:15am. Storm & Alexis follows at 11:30am, and Matt Allwright picks up from the lunchtime news bulletin.

The afternoon is a single film-length slot rather than a run of series. My Fatal Memory (2022) follows a woman who loses her memory after an accident, only for a stranger to enter her life with a version of events she has no way to check. Castle and Love Nature fill the run-in to the early evening news, and Sardinia: Jewel of the Med closes out the daytime schedule before primetime begins.

Channel 5 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Channel 5 primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 10 August 2026.

Sardinia: Jewel of the Med — Channel 5, 6pm

Sardinia: Jewel of the Med (series 1, episode 7) is the odd one out tonight, a travel documentary rather than a crime show. It covers the island’s older sites and deer population, and spends time with people still making pasta and jewellery by hand.

Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders — Channel 5, 7pm

Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders (series 8, episode 8): PC Joe Gorman tries to head off a suspected drink-driver before it ends in a collision, and a driver clocked at almost 100mph is put through a roadside drugs test.

Street Cops: Catching the Yobs — Channel 5, 8pm

A new Street Cops: Catching the Yobs (series 2, episode 3): PC Josh goes after an e-biker who ditches something suspicious mid-chase, and a cannabis-farm raid turns into a foot pursuit.

Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law — Channel 5, 9pm

A new Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law (series 3, episode 2) follows TfL investigators chasing a fare evader who owes close to £4,000, alongside a plain-clothes ticket sting in Nottingham.

Police Interceptors: Taking Down the Shoplifting Gangs — Channel 5, 10pm

If you only watch one of tonight’s six, make it this. At 10pm, Police Interceptors: Taking Down the Shoplifting Gangs (series 1, episode 2) is Channel 5’s longest-running factual format, on air since 2008, and this episode leans into the retail side of the job rather than the usual motorway chases. A Cheshire team builds a case against a crew working Asda stores for high-value stock, run alongside Preston’s Operation Vulture, which goes after some of the area’s more persistent shop thieves. The format hasn’t changed much in seventeen years. It doesn’t really need to.

Traffic Cops — Channel 5, 11:05pm

Traffic Cops (series 12, episode 7) closes the night near York, where a teenager who has taken his grandfather’s car ends up hospitalised after a pursuit.

Popular shows on Channel 5

Drama

The Fortune is the channel’s newest drama, a four-part psychological thriller with Eleanor Tomlinson. The Madame Blanc Mysteries is the long-runner to track if cosy crime is more your thing: Sally Lindsay plays an antiques dealer turned amateur sleuth, with the whole thing set in the south of France.

Factual and documentary

The Yorkshire Vet has run for well over fifteen series since 2015. It follows the team at Skeldale Veterinary Centre in Thirsk, and Peter Wright has been the anchor throughout, though by now the supporting cast of vets is familiar enough that it watches more like an ensemble drama than a documentary.

Police Interceptors has aired without a break since 2008, riding along with specialist road traffic units, cameras in the cars and helicopters overhead. Motorway Cops and the other road-policing titles follow the same format.

The countryside strand is the channel’s calling card. Reuben Owen: Life in the Dales and A Yorkshire Farm rotate through the schedule across the year rather than every night, so which one is on depends on the week. Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly with Graeme Hall rounds out the animal side.

Daytime favourites

Milkshake! has held its spot every morning for over twenty years, surviving more than one change of ownership in the process. Jeremy Vine inherited the mid-morning slot from The Wright Stuff and has not let go of it since.

How to watch Channel 5

Channel numbers

My5 — watch online for free

Channel 5 streams live and on demand through My5 at channel5.com and the My5 app, which runs on smart TVs, phones, tablets and the usual streaming boxes. There’s no subscription, though you’ll see adverts. A free account unlocks catch-up, where most shows stay up for 30 days and a few longer as boxsets. My5 also carries the wider Paramount stable, so Comedy Central, MTV, BET and CBS titles sit alongside the Channel 5 stream.

The Channel 5 family of channels

Four sister channels run alongside the main service, all free to air on Freeview and carried on Sky and Virgin:

5Star is the entertainment sibling, heavy on reality and acquired US shows. Freeview 32, Sky 128.

5USA runs American drama, crime and procedurals. Freeview 21, Sky 141.

5Action is the home for films, action drama and motorsport. Freeview 33, Sky 150.

5Select is the odd one out, a grab-bag of factual, documentary and lifestyle that doesn’t fit the main channel’s primetime. Freeview 50, Sky 153.

All four live inside My5 too, so streamers get the whole family in one place.

Frequently asked questions

What channel number is Channel 5 on Freeview?

Channel 5 is on channel 5 on Freeview. If you have a Freeview HD receiver or an HD-capable television with a built-in Freeview HD tuner, Channel 5 HD is on channel 105. Both carry the same national broadcast.

What channel is Channel 5 on Sky?

Channel 5 is on channel 105 on Sky, which applies to Sky Q, Sky Stream and Sky Glass. As of March 2026, the SD version of Channel 5 on satellite has been removed. Channel 105 is the only place to find it on Sky, and it broadcasts in HD.

What channel is Channel 5 on Virgin Media?

Channel 5 is on channel 105 on Virgin Media. It is included as standard on all Virgin TV packages and carries advertising.

What channel is Channel 5 on Freesat?

Channel 5 is on channel 105 on Freesat. The SD version was removed in March 2026, so the channel is HD-only on satellite.

What kind of shows is Channel 5 known for?

Channel 5’s schedule is built on British factual and countryside television: The Yorkshire Vet and its Dales farming series, true-crime documentaries and daytime entertainment such as Jeremy Vine. Alongside that sits a growing slate of original British drama, and every morning opens with children’s programming under the Milkshake! banner.

What’s on Channel 5 tonight?

Monday 10 August 2026 is five patrol-car and enforcement shows back to back, opening with the Sardinia travelogue at 6pm and running through Motorway Cops, Street Cops, Fare Dodgers and Police Interceptors before Traffic Cops closes the night from 11:05pm. Full times are in the schedule table above.

Can I watch Channel 5 online for free?

Yes. Channel 5 streams live and free on My5 at channel5.com and via the My5 app. No subscription is needed, though the service carries advertising. A free account registration is required for catch-up and on-demand content.

Is Channel 5 free?

Yes. Channel 5 is a free-to-air commercial broadcaster. There is no subscription or pay-TV requirement to watch it on Freeview, Freesat, Sky or Virgin Media, and My5 online is also free. The channel is funded by advertising.

Verdict

Monday’s schedule is Channel 5 doing what it does most reliably: crime and roads documentaries back to back from 7pm, broken only by Sardinia beforehand. Motorway Cops and Street Cops share the same patrol-car formula but different beats, one on the motorway network and one in residential streets, and there’s not much to separate them on execution. Fare Dodgers is the outlier: no blue lights, just fare evasion on public transport, and it makes for a lower-stakes hour than what surrounds it. Traffic Cops takes the graveyard slot after Police Interceptors, the pick of the night.

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Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Channel 5 Schedule | My5 Streaming Guide | Films on TV This Week