GREAT! Action TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On GREAT! Action Tonight

GREAT! Action is a free-to-air film channel on Freeview 42, built almost entirely around gunfights, chases and westerns. It started out as Sony Movies Action on 10 September 2019 and has been renamed twice since, most recently in March 2023. Tonight, Tuesday 4 August 2026, the channel repeats its own daytime run of The Unit and Burn Notice from 6pm before handing primetime to Eye for an Eye at 9pm, the 2019 crime noir with John Travolta and Morgan Freeman. It splits around a short This Week Back Then break and resumes at 10:01pm, with a 1960s Avengers episode, series 5 episode 1, closing the night at 11pm.

GREAT! Action Schedule: Tuesday 4 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Action schedule for Tuesday 4 August 2026, on Freeview 42.

What’s on GREAT! Action today

Teleshopping runs until 9am, when Raiders Of The Lost Art opens the day proper, a documentary strand digging into art-world crimes, this episode built around the Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs the Tsar’s family lost to revolution in 1917. Murder Maps takes the 10am slot, its second episode tracing the Victorian-era Borough Poisoner, George Chapman, one of the most notorious criminals of the Jack the Ripper period.

Tomorrow We Live, a 1943 war film with John Clements about the French Resistance sabotaging a German armaments train near Saint-Nazaire, runs from 11am and splits briefly for This Week Back Then at 11:56am before resuming at 12:01pm and finishing at 12:50pm.

The Unit airs from 12:50pm, series 1 episode 12, and Burn Notice fills the 1:50pm and 2:50pm hours with two consecutive episodes from its second series. The Coldest Game, a 2019 Cold War espionage thriller with Bill Pullman, runs from 3:50pm and breaks again for This Week Back Then at 4:46pm before resuming at 4:51pm through to 6pm, when The Unit and Burn Notice repeat the same three episodes shown earlier in the afternoon ahead of tonight’s film.

GREAT! Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Action primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 4 August 2026.

The Unit — GREAT! Action, 6pm

The Unit repeats series 1, episode 12, the same instalment shown at 12:50pm, with the team called in over a possible nuclear device planted in an Atlanta bank.

Burn Notice — GREAT! Action, 7pm and 8pm

Two more repeats follow: series 2, episode 10 at 7pm has Michael chasing down a scam artist’s stolen savings, and episode 11 at 8pm sends him and Sam after a gangster threatening a football coach’s player. Both aired earlier in the afternoon.

Eye for an Eye — GREAT! Action, 9pm

Eye for an Eye, the 2019 crime noir, takes the 9pm slot. John Travolta plays a hard-drinking private eye pulled into a missing persons case that unravels into a web of corruption, with Morgan Freeman among the cast. The film breaks for the five-minute filler This Week Back Then at 9:56pm and picks back up at 10:01pm, running through to 11pm.

The Avengers — GREAT! Action, 11pm

The Avengers closes the night with series 5, episode 1, the spy duo investigating the British Venusian Society after its amateur astronomers start dying one by one.

What kind of films are on GREAT! Action

Classic westerns and action icons

The channel advertises itself as the home of John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, and for once the marketing is accurate. Westerns from the 1930s to the 1960s take up most of the daylight hours, series as well as films, with Tombstone Territory and The High Chaparral in heavy rotation. After that come the 1980s and ’90s action vehicles, built around a small and very dependable cast list.

Contemporary action and thrillers

Evenings go harder on star names, usually one bigger studio picture with a leaner independent thriller either side of it. Most had a cinema release before they arrived here.

Anime, rescue documentaries and reality strands

Since around August 2024 the overnight hours have gone to things that are not films at all: Dragon Ball Super, and rescue documentaries such as Coast Guard Alaska and Air Rescue. The evening slots have so far been left alone.

How to watch GREAT! Action

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find GREAT! Action across the main UK television platforms:

Freesat viewers lost it in early February 2024, along with eight other Narrative Entertainment channels, and it has not come back.

Streaming online

GREAT! Action streams free through Great! Player at great-player.com, with no account or sign-in. The app is on Freeview Play, YouView, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung and LG smart TVs, plus the App Store and Google Play. GREAT! Movies and GREAT! TV sit in the same app, so the whole network is in one place.

GREAT! sister channels

GREAT! Action is one of four channels run by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited under the GREAT! banner.

A fifth channel, GREAT! Movies Christmas, appears seasonally and runs festive films from September to December.

Frequently Asked Questions

What channel is GREAT! Action on Freeview?

GREAT! Action is on channel 42 on Freeview. It’s not currently on Freesat, having been withdrawn from that platform in early February 2024 along with eight other Narrative Entertainment channels. It remains free on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media.

What channel is GREAT! Action on Sky and Virgin Media?

Channel 323 on Sky, channel 426 on Virgin Media. Both carry the same schedule as Freeview 42 and both are free to watch.

What’s on GREAT! Action tonight?

The Unit and a Burn Notice double bill repeat from 6pm, all three already shown earlier in the afternoon. Eye for an Eye, the 2019 crime noir with John Travolta and Morgan Freeman, takes over at 9pm, splitting for This Week Back Then at 9:56pm and resuming at 10:01pm. The Avengers, series 5 episode 1, closes the night at 11pm. See the schedule table above for the rest of the day.

Is GREAT! Action free to watch, and does it carry adverts?

Yes, entirely free on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media, with no subscription. It carries advertising during films, which is why some titles run in two parts around a short interstitial such as This Week Back Then.

Who owns GREAT! Action?

Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. The channel launched in September 2019 as Sony Movies Action, was rebranded Great! Movies Action in 2021 after Narrative Capital’s acquisition of Sony’s UK channels, and became GREAT! Action in March 2023.

What are the GREAT! sister channels?

GREAT! Movies, GREAT! TV and GREAT! Romance, plus the seasonal GREAT! Movies Christmas. All stream free via Great! Player.

Can I watch GREAT! Action online for free?

Yes, through Great! Player at great-player.com, with apps on Freeview Play, YouView, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung and LG smart TVs. No account is needed.

Verdict

Free war films and westerns, all day, for nothing. No subscription and no login. Tuesday’s daytime run through Raiders Of The Lost Art, Murder Maps and the 1943 wartime picture Tomorrow We Live is a solid stretch for anyone who likes their true crime and combat history mixed in with the fiction.

Eye for an Eye at 9pm is the reason to tune in tonight. Travolta’s world-weary private eye is exactly the kind of studio-era throwback this channel does well, even if the five-minute This Week Back Then break splits it awkwardly in two. The Unit and Burn Notice earlier in the evening are the same episodes shown that afternoon, so anyone who caught them the first time can skip straight to primetime. The Avengers at 11pm is a decent way to close the night for anyone still up.

Related: Film4 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide