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, Saturday 8 August 2026, The Coldest Game takes 6:50pm before Anthropoid, the 2016 drama about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, holds the 9pm slot. It splits for a short This Week Back Then break at 9:56pm and resumes at 10:01pm, with a vintage Avengers mystery from series 5 closing out the night at 11:50pm.

GREAT! Action Schedule: Saturday 8 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Action schedule for Saturday 8 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 stories; this episode traces the Nazi plunder of Europe’s great artworks during the war and the Allied effort to track pieces down afterwards. Murder Maps takes the 10am slot, its fourth episode following George Smith, who adopted a string of aliases to marry and murder wives for their money.

The Quick And The Dead, a 1963 war drama with Victor French and Majel Barrett, runs from 11am and follows American soldiers trying to reach safety through enemy-occupied Italy with the help of local partisans. It splits briefly for This Week Back Then at 11:56am before resuming at 12:01pm and finishing at 1pm.

The Unit airs from 1pm, its second series opener sending the team to Pakistan to help an undercover operative foil a terrorist attack, and Burn Notice fills the 2pm and 3pm hours with two consecutive episodes from the same series. The Trust, a 2016 caper with Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood as two less than honest cops chasing down a bail bond worth serious money, runs from 4pm. The Unit and Burn Notice then repeat the same three episodes from 6pm, ahead of tonight’s film.

GREAT! Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Action primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 8 August 2026.

The Coldest Game — GREAT! Action, 6:50pm

A 2019 espionage thriller with Bill Pullman as a troubled American chess champion pulled into a match that is really about nuclear brinkmanship.

Anthropoid — GREAT! Action, 9pm

The best thing on the channel tonight by some distance. Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan as the two Czech soldiers parachuted back into occupied Prague to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich. Based on real events, and it does not soften the ending.

The Avengers — GREAT! Action, 11:30pm

Archive Macnee and Rigg, investigating deaths blamed on a wild animal.

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. Windtalkers, John Woo’s 2002 war film with Nicolas Cage as a Marine ordered to protect a Navajo code talker, takes over at 9pm, splitting for This Week Back Then at 9:56pm and resuming at 10:01pm. A vintage Avengers mystery closes the night at 11:50pm (series 5, episode 6), with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg investigating a string of businessmen found clawed to death. 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. Friday’s daytime run is a solid stretch for anyone who likes their true crime mixed in with old-fashioned combat.

Windtalkers at 9pm is the reason to tune in tonight. Nicolas Cage’s battle-worn Marine ordered to protect a code talker is exactly the kind of studio-backed war thriller this channel doesn’t often get to show, 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, closing the night from 11:50pm, is a decent way to finish for anyone still up.

Related: Film4 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide