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

Published: 6 September 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.

Monday 7 September 2026 has no sport in the schedule at all, a sharp contrast to the weekend’s British Open snooker final. It’s back to the channel’s bread and butter: Nick Knowles on the railways at 6pm, then three hours of road-and-emergency factual carrying primetime through to 10pm. Full times are in the table below.

Channel 5 Schedule: Monday 7 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Channel 5 schedule for Monday 7 September 2026, on Freeview 5.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Channel 5 today — the daytime schedule

Monday’s overnight hours run the usual factual repeats — GPs: Behind Closed Doors, The Highland Vet and two episodes of The Wonderful World of Chocolate — before Milkshake! takes over from 5:15am with Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, PAW Patrol and Peppa Pig.

Jeremy Vine holds the mid-morning slot from 9:15am, as it has done since inheriting it from The Wright Stuff, followed by the drama Storm & Alexis at 11:30am. Matt Allwright and My Two Husbands take the early afternoon, then Castle and a short Love Nature slot lead into the evening bulletin at 5pm.

Unlike the weekend, there’s no gap for sport today — the schedule runs straight through into Amazing Railway Adventures with Nick Knowles at 6pm.

Channel 5 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

No sport tonight, so it’s a straight run of the channel’s core factual output from 6pm to close.

Amazing Railway Adventures with Nick Knowles — Channel 5, 6pm

Knowles opens the evening tracing a stretch of British rail heritage, the format he’s carried across several Channel 5 series now — part travelogue, part engineering history.

Traffic Cops — Channel 5, 7pm

Dash-cam and body-worn footage from a UK force, series 14 by now. The format hasn’t changed in years because it doesn’t need to.

Police Interceptors — Channel 5, 8pm

A new outing for the channel’s longest-serving road-policing strand, running since 2008. Series 25, so this is closer to institution than programme at this point.

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

New episode. Ticket inspectors and transport police chase down commuters who think they can dodge the fare, filmed with the same fly-on-the-wall access as the rest of the 9pm hour on this channel.

Police: Suspect No.1 — Channel 5, 10pm

Case files built around a single named suspect rather than a general ride-along, series 4.

Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders — Channel 5, 11:05pm

Closes the night on the motorway network rather than the town centre. Same genre, different tarmac.

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 7 September 2026 has no sport in the schedule. Amazing Railway Adventures with Nick Knowles opens at 6pm, Traffic Cops follows at 7pm, then new episodes of Police Interceptors and Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law run at 8pm and 9pm. Police: Suspect No.1 and Motorway Cops: Catching Britain’s Speeders close the night. 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 Channel 5 goes back to type after a weekend given over to snooker. Six factual titles run wall to wall from 6pm, split fairly evenly between roads, rail and the emergency services, and nothing here is trying to be an event. Police Interceptors at series 25 is the closest thing to a flagship, and it does the job it’s always done. Fine background viewing, nothing you’d rearrange an evening around.

Watch

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