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

Published: 15 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.

Wednesday 16 September 2026 runs a factual-heavy evening: Amazing Railway Journeys with Nick Knowles opens at 6pm, then a consumer documentary on heat pumps takes 7pm ahead of three new episodes back to back — Call the Bailiffs: Time to Pay Up! at 8pm, Forever Home at 9pm and A&E: Crash Scene Emergency at 10pm. Ambulance: Code Red closes the night from 11:05pm. Full times are in the table below.

Channel 5 Schedule: Wednesday 16 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Channel 5 schedule for Wednesday 16 September 2026, on Freeview 5.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Channel 5 today — the daytime schedule

Wednesday’s overnight run opens with a new Motorway: Hell on the Highway just after midnight, then Cruise TV with LoveitBookit, an episode of Amazing Railway Adventures with Nick Knowles and a Castle repeat carry the small hours. A Cruising with Susan Calman edition, carrying the Visually Signed access service, follows at 3:55am, and a Wonderful World of Chocolate double bill from 4:45am leads into a fresh Entertainment News on 5 bulletin before Milkshake! takes over from 5:50am with Mixmups, Peppa Pig, Tweedy & Fluff and Odo among its line-up.

Breakfast stays with children’s programming — Milo, then a second Milkshake! block featuring Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, running through to 9:15am.

Jeremy Vine takes the late-morning slot, and Storm & Alexis fills the run-up to lunchtime. 5 News at Lunchtime opens the afternoon, followed by Matt Allwright and the true-crime film Murder for Mortgage: Secrets on Maple Street. A repeat of Castle and a short Love Nature segment close out the afternoon ahead of the 5pm news and tonight’s line-up.

Channel 5 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Channel 5 primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 16 September 2026.

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

Nick Knowles crosses from Naples to Sicily this episode, taking in Pompeii before a rougher finish near Etna (series 2, episode 2).

Heat Pumps: Should You Get One for Winter? — Channel 5, 7pm

Alexis Conran sets out the costs and the payback time on heat pumps for anyone weighing one up before winter. A straight consumer film, not a launch.

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

New episode, series 4, episode 4. Agents chase a paving firm over an unpaid £3,000 bill and a far larger case that’s tangled up in bankruptcy proceedings.

Forever Home — Channel 5, 9pm

New episode, series 1, episode 3, and a genuinely different one from Tuesday’s — Sally’s secret relationship with Patrick edges nearer being found out, Kaden is trying to get his finances in order before the baby arrives, and Carol keeps turning up answers about her own family she didn’t ask for. Three threads running at once rather than one, and none of them resolved by the end of the hour.

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

New episode, series 1, episode 8. A MotoGP rider comes off in a four-bike pile-up and arrives with a fractured foot; the department also works through a run of rib injuries from a separate incident.

Ambulance: Code Red — Channel 5, 11:05pm

Paramedics work a broken leg at a Royal Mail depot, a child mid-seizure and a teenager who’s fallen ten feet (series 4, episode 1).

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 16 September 2026 opens with Amazing Railway Journeys with Nick Knowles at 6pm, followed by a Heat Pumps consumer documentary at 7pm. New episodes of Call the Bailiffs: Time to Pay Up!, Forever Home and A&E: Crash Scene Emergency run from 8pm, and Ambulance: Code Red 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

Wednesday’s line-up is Channel 5 doing what it does best: three factual/drama hours back to back with a genuine standout among them. Forever Home at 9pm is the pick, three storylines building at once rather than the usual single-thread soap pacing, and episode three earns that a little more than the launch did. Call the Bailiffs ahead of it ticks along on the format’s usual mix of small and eye-watering debts. A&E: Crash Scene Emergency at 10pm leans on a genuinely dramatic MotoGP crash rather than routine trauma cases, which lifts it above most nights in the strand. Ambulance: Code Red closes things out competently, nothing more.

Watch

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