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 around action films 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, Wednesday 12 August 2026, The Unit and two episodes of Burn Notice repeat from 6pm before Mercenary for Justice, Steven Seagal’s 2006 thriller, takes the 9pm slot.

GREAT! Action Schedule: Wednesday 12 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Action schedule for Wednesday 12 August 2026, on Freeview 42.

What’s on GREAT! Action today

Teleshopping fills the channel from 6am until 9am, when the western series Wanted: Dead Or Alive kicks off proper programming. In this episode (series 2, episode 4), the authorities plant Randall inside a federal prison, posing as an escaped convict, hoping he can talk his cellmate into giving up the location of $50,000 in stolen cash.

Murder Maps takes the 9:30am hour, the first half of a two-part episode on serial killer John Christie, who let an innocent man take the blame for his crimes at 10 Rillington Place before continuing to kill from the same address. Bomb at 10:10 then runs from 10:30am to 12:20pm, a 1967 prisoner-of-war film starring George Montgomery as an American pilot who escapes a German camp in the Balkans and sets out to kill the officer running it.

A short Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin follows at 12:20pm, before The Unit repeats at 12:30pm and Burn Notice runs its own back-to-back pair from 1:30pm, the same three episodes due to air again from 6pm tonight. Bunraku, a 2010 martial arts film starring Josh Hartnett and Woody Harrelson, closes out the afternoon from 3:30pm, split around a short This Week Back Then interstitial at 4:26pm and running through to 6pm.

GREAT! Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Action primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 12 August 2026.

The Unit — GREAT! Action, 6pm

The Unit (series 2, episode 5) repeats its lunchtime outing, with the team split over whether to protect a hostile foreign leader or the civilians around him once a hurricane forces them into a hospital together. Back on base, Mack and Tiffy have their own loose end to tie up.

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

Two episodes of Burn Notice run back to back, both repeated from earlier in the day. At 7pm (series 3, episode 6), fellow spy Tom Strickler warns Michael that a Ukrainian operative with a personal grudge is closing in, and a plan to bring in Miami gangster John Beck goes wrong when both men are grabbed. At 8pm (series 3, episode 7), Strickler is still pushing Michael to sign up with him, but a boy caught trying to steal a gun pulls Michael into a family problem instead.

Mercenary for Justice — GREAT! Action, 9pm

Mercenary for Justice (2006) stars Steven Seagal as a hired gun ordered to break a crime boss’s son out of prison after his own friends are taken hostage as leverage. The job gets done; whether it actually buys anyone’s freedom is left less certain.

The Avengers — GREAT! Action, 11:05pm

The Avengers (series 5, episode 12) closes the night with Emma Peel against the clock, trying to stop Steed being shipped off to a remote island where a killer is waiting for him.

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 opens the evening at 6pm, then Burn Notice runs two episodes back to back at 7pm and 8pm, all three repeated from earlier in the afternoon. Mercenary for Justice, Steven Seagal’s 2006 thriller about a mercenary forced to break a crime boss’s son out of prison, takes over at 9pm. The Avengers closes the night at 11:05pm. 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

GREAT! Action costs nothing to watch and needs no sign-up. Wednesday’s daytime schedule runs from a bounty-hunter western through a 1960s prisoner-of-war escape and into Josh Hartnett’s martial arts picture Bunraku by teatime, a decent stretch for genre regulars. The evening belongs to one film.

Mercenary for Justice at 9pm is the reason to tune in tonight. Steven Seagal plays a mercenary forced into freeing a crime boss’s son from custody, a functional B-picture rather than a classic but squarely in line with the channel’s usual evening pick. The Unit and Burn Notice earlier in the evening repeat the same episodes shown that afternoon, so viewers who caught them the first time can go straight to primetime.

Related: Film4 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week