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

Published: 25 August 2026

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.

Tonight, Wednesday 26 August, 5 News with Dan Walker hands over to Motorhoming with Merton & Webster at 6pm, then stage five of the Vuelta a España condensed into an hour of highlights at 7pm. Call the Bailiffs: Time to Pay Up! opens what looks like a new series at 8pm, before the evening’s biggest item: Dan Snow’s 90-minute Great Wall of China documentary at 9pm. A&E: Crash Scene Emergency and Ambulance: Code Red close out the night from 10:30pm. Full times are in the table below.

Channel 5 Schedule: Wednesday 26 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Channel 5 schedule for Wednesday 26 August 2026, on Freeview 5.

Overnight

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Channel 5 today — the daytime schedule

Milkshake! opens Wednesday’s schedule at 5:25am and runs through breakfast, cycling through PAW Patrol (an episode called Hum-stronaut airs around 8:15am), The Adventures of Paddington, Peppa Pig, Tweedy & Fluff and the rest of the strand, closing out with a first outing for The Real Pup Squad at 9:05am.

Jeremy Vine takes over at 9:15am for two and a quarter hours, the channel’s longest-running weekday strand, before Storm & Alexis picks up the mid-morning slot at 11:30am. 5 News at Lunchtime breaks in at 12:45pm ahead of Matt Allwright, who spends ninety minutes from 12:50pm on consumer complaints and money-saving advice.

The afternoon turns to crime drama: Murder for Mortgage: Secrets on Maple Street fills 2:20pm and Castle repeats at 4pm, before the short strand Love Nature closes out the schedule at 4:55pm, ahead of 5 News with Dan Walker at 5pm.

Channel 5 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Channel 5 primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 26 August 2026.

Motorhoming with Merton & Webster — Channel 5, 6pm

Paul Merton and Suki Webster continue their tour in a camper van (series 2, episode 3), opening the evening in the channel’s usual gentle, low-stakes travelogue mode.

Cycling: Vuelta a Espana 2026 — Channel 5, 7pm

An hour of highlights, not live coverage, from stage five of the Vuelta a España: a 173.4km run from Falset to Roquetes that should come down to a bunch sprint once the race crosses back into Spain proper. Rebecca Charlton presents.

Call the Bailiffs: Time to Pay Up! — Channel 5, 8pm

The feed numbers this series 4, episode 1, which would make it a new run rather than a returning one — worth checking on the day. An estate agent disputes a £6,000 debt, and in Sussex a High Court enforcement agent goes after money owed by a closed ice-cream shop.

The Great Wall of China with Dan Snow — Channel 5, 9pm

The night’s biggest item. Dan Snow travels the full length of the Great Wall for this 90-minute one-off, from where it meets the sea in the east to the Gobi Desert in the west, testing the popular myths (it is not, contrary to legend, visible from space) against what its scale and construction actually tell us.

A&E: Crash Scene Emergency — Channel 5, 10:30pm

A second episode of the road-accident strand, following emergency crews responding to a serious collision.

Ambulance: Code Red — Channel 5, 11:30pm

The paramedic strand closes the night with series 3, episode 10.

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?

Wednesday 26 August 2026 opens primetime at 6pm with Motorhoming with Merton & Webster, followed by Vuelta a España stage five highlights at 7pm. Call the Bailiffs: Time to Pay Up! takes the 8pm slot, and Dan Snow’s 90-minute Great Wall of China documentary follows at 9pm. A&E: Crash Scene Emergency and Ambulance: Code Red close out the night from 10:30pm. 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

The night belongs to Dan Snow at 9pm. Ninety minutes is a serious commitment for a single-subject documentary, and giving the Great Wall that much room is a clear signal Channel 5 expects it to be the one people remember from tonight’s schedule. Motorhoming with Merton & Webster is the softer, easier watch to open with, and the Vuelta highlights at 7pm do their job in under an hour without demanding anyone had followed the stage live. Call the Bailiffs at 8pm is Channel 5’s factual-crime-adjacent formula running as expected, whether or not tonight turns out to be a genuine series opener. A&E: Crash Scene Emergency and Ambulance: Code Red close the night in familiar territory for anyone still watching past 10:30. Worth building the evening around the 9pm slot rather than watching start to finish.

Watch

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