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, Tuesday 18 August 2026, The Unit takes the 6pm slot before Burn Notice runs twice from 7pm. The Vault, the 2021 heist thriller with Freddie Highmore and Famke Janssen, opens at 9pm and breaks around a short This Week Back Then interstitial at 9:56pm before resuming at 10:01pm, and the night closes with a rerun of the 1960s Avengers TV series at 11:25pm, not the 1998 film of the same name.

GREAT! Action Schedule: Tuesday 18 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Action schedule for Tuesday 18 August 2026, on Freeview 42.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! Action today

Two vintage spy series open the day back to back: The New Avengers at 12:30am, where a captured old enemy of Steed’s turns into a trap that leaves someone close to the throne at risk, and The Persuaders! at 1:30am, sending Danny and Brett to escort a former gangster out of Italy to testify against a crime syndicate. NYC: Tornado Terror, a 2008 disaster film with Sebastian Spence about a jet-stream vortex tearing tornadoes across Manhattan, follows at 2:30am. Coast Guard Alaska and two episodes of Air Rescue take the channel to 6am, when six half-hour Teleshopping blocks fill the schedule through to 8:30am.

The daytime turns to art theft, a Thames murder inquiry and a wartime rescue mission. Raiders Of The Lost Art opens proper programming at 9am with the repeated theft of Munch’s The Scream, once returned along with a note thanking the gallery for its poor security, then moves at 9:30am to the decades-long ownership fight over Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele, seized by the Nazis during the war. Murder Maps follows at 10am, retracing the manhunt for Alfred Whiteway after the murder of two teenagers by the Thames. Gung Ho, Randolph Scott’s 1943 war drama about a scratch unit of soldiers sent to retake strategic ground, holds the late morning from 11am. The Unit takes 1pm, an episode in which Colonel Ryan is hauled in front of politicians in Washington to answer for himself while Molly sorts out childcare at home, and two episodes of Burn Notice run from 2pm, both repeated later in the evening. Predestination, the 2015 time-travel thriller with Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook, splits across 4pm and 5:01pm around a short This Week Back Then insert, before The Unit returns for a same-day repeat at 6pm.

GREAT! Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Action primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 18 August 2026.

The Unit — GREAT! Action, 6pm

Series 2, episode 9 gets a same-day rerun at 6pm. Colonel Ryan is called to Washington to justify himself to a committee of politicians, while back home Molly leans on Kim to help find a sitter for the kids.

Burn Notice — GREAT! Action, 7pm and 8pm (two episodes)

Burn Notice runs twice from 7pm, repeating the same pair of episodes shown at 2pm and 3pm. The 7pm hour has Michael funding a job at a fashion house while trying to work out what Gilroy is really after, only for the client to turn up dead. At 8pm, Fiona goes undercover for an old friend in a kidnapping ring while Michael keeps working Gilroy’s case and quietly tips off the FBI.

The Vault — GREAT! Action, 9pm

The evening film is The Vault, Jaume Balagueró’s 2021 heist thriller starring Freddie Highmore and Famke Janssen. An engineer is drawn into a crew targeting a vault hidden beneath the Bank of Spain, with the job timed to a World Cup final that has the whole country looking the other way. The feed splits it in two: it opens at 9pm, breaks for the five-minute archive slot This Week Back Then at 9:56pm, and resumes at 10:01pm to run through to 11:25pm. It’s one film shown in two parts, not a double bill.

The Avengers — GREAT! Action, 11:25pm

The night closes with a rerun from the 1960s Avengers spy series (series 5, episode 17), not the 1998 film. Steed and Mrs Peel, played by Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, are stalked by the vengeful kin of an enemy they saw off long ago.

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?

Tuesday evening opens with The Unit at 6pm, repeating its own 1pm airing, then Burn Notice doubles up from 7pm with the same two episodes shown earlier in the afternoon. The Vault, the 2021 heist thriller with Freddie Highmore and Famke Janssen, takes the 9pm slot, breaking for a five-minute This Week Back Then insert at 9:56pm before resuming at 10:01pm. The night closes with a rerun of the 1960s Avengers spy series at 11:25pm, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg rather than the 1998 film cast. 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. Tuesday’s daytime leans on true stories rather than films: Raiders Of The Lost Art digs into the repeated theft of Munch’s The Scream and the decades-long dispute over Klimt’s Portrait of Adele, Murder Maps retraces the hunt for Thames killer Alfred Whiteway, and Gung Ho dramatises a WWII unit fighting to retake occupied ground. None of it is new, but it is well chosen.

The evening is unusually repeat-heavy even by this channel’s standards. The Unit and both halves of Burn Notice all replay episodes the channel already showed earlier the same day, so anyone who watched the afternoon gets little new before 9pm. The Vault changes that: a proper 2021 heist thriller with Freddie Highmore and Famke Janssen, split either side of a short archive insert, and easily the strongest thing on the schedule tonight. The night then closes out with a rerun of the 1960s Avengers TV series, Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg rather than Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, so don’t go in expecting the 1998 film.

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