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

Published: 18 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.

Saturday 19 September 2026 opens primetime with 5 News Weekend at 6:30pm, then a new episode of Titanic’s Tragic Twin: HMS Britannic at 6:35pm, looking at the ship’s wartime role as a floating hospital. Why Ships Sink: The Zeebrugge Disaster of ’87 follows at 7:45pm, a new series of Buckingham Palace: A Year in the Life opens at 9:15pm, and the night winds down with When TV Favourites Go Horribly Wrong from 10:40pm. Full times are in the table below.

Channel 5 Schedule: Saturday 19 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Channel 5 schedule for Saturday 19 September 2026, on Freeview 5.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Channel 5 today — the daytime schedule

Saturday’s overnight run opens with a new I Like a Good Spanking! just after midnight, then Cruise TV with LoveitBookit and an HMP Long Lartin: Evil Behind Bars documentary carry the small hours. A new-series episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild follows from 3:10am, then a Castle repeat and two The Highland Vet editions, the latter both carrying the Visually Signed access service, run through to 5:35am, when Milkshake! takes over.

Breakfast stays with children’s programming throughout — Milo, then a long Milkshake! block featuring Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go!, Fireman Sam and The Adventures of Paddington, running to 8:20am, when a new episode of The Creature Cases takes over, followed by The Smurfs and Spongebob SquarePants.

A royal-themed double bill fills the whole of late morning and lunchtime: two back-to-back editions each of The King’s Guard: Serving the Crown and Inside Windsor Castle: A Royal Residence. A new episode of The Royals Uncensored opens the afternoon at 1pm, before live cricket takes over from 2pm as England play Sri Lanka in a T20 international running right up to the evening news.

Channel 5 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Channel 5 primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 19 September 2026.

5 News Weekend — Channel 5, 6:30pm

A five-minute round-up of the day’s national and international headlines opens the evening, as it does every Saturday and Sunday.

Titanic’s Tragic Twin: HMS Britannic — Channel 5, 6:35pm

A new episode digs into HMS Britannic, the Titanic’s lesser-known sister ship, which never carried a single paying passenger and instead spent the First World War as a hospital vessel before it went down in the Aegean in 1916. Kate Humble and Andy Torbet make the case that its loss deserves as much attention as the more famous sinking four years earlier.

Why Ships Sink: The Zeebrugge Disaster of ’87 — Channel 5, 7:45pm

A second maritime documentary follows straight after, revisiting the capsizing of the Herald of Free Enterprise off Zeebrugge, which killed 193 people within minutes of the ferry leaving harbour with its bow doors still open. The format’s strength has always been walking through exactly where procedure broke down rather than just the tragedy itself.

Buckingham Palace: A Year in the Life — Channel 5, 9:15pm

A new series goes behind the scenes at the palace across twelve months, opening with the summer visitor season and the scale of staff needed to keep the building running while royal duties continue around them. Given the channel’s recent run of royal factual titles, expect this to lean on access rather than revelation.

When TV Favourites Go Horribly Wrong — Channel 5, 10:40pm

The night winds down with a clip show of on-air mishaps and mistakes from familiar programmes, the kind of undemanding blooper compilation Channel 5 reaches for once its factual documentaries have had their turn.

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?

Saturday 19 September 2026 opens primetime with 5 News Weekend at 6:30pm, then a new Titanic’s Tragic Twin: HMS Britannic at 6:35pm. Why Ships Sink: The Zeebrugge Disaster of ’87 follows at 7:45pm, a new Buckingham Palace: A Year in the Life opens at 9:15pm, and When TV Favourites Go Horribly Wrong closes the night from 10:40pm. 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

Saturday leans hard into disaster documentaries and royal access. Two ship-based programmes run back to back from 6:35pm, and while neither reinvents the format, Britannic’s status as the forgotten sibling of a much bigger story gives it more to say than Zeebrugge’s well-trodden ground. Buckingham Palace: A Year in the Life opening its run at 9:15pm is the pick of the night, simply because a twelve-month access deal is a rarer commission than another shipwreck retrospective. When TV Favourites Go Horribly Wrong closing things out from 10:40pm is comfortable rather than essential, exactly the register Channel 5 goes for once the factual staples have had their say.

Watch

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