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, Thursday 20 August 2026, The Unit repeats at 6pm ahead of a Burn Notice double bill at 7pm and 8pm, before The Transporter Refueled, Ed Skrein’s 2015 entry in the Transporter franchise, takes the 9pm film slot. The night closes at 11:05pm with an episode of the 1960s Avengers spy series — Steed and Emma Peel probing a corpse whose stomach conceals £50,000 in stolen diamonds — not the 1998 big-screen version with Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman.

GREAT! Action Schedule: Thursday 20 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Action schedule for Thursday 20 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 night back to back: The New Avengers at 12:15am, with Steed and the team drawn into a criminal’s revenge plot, and The Persuaders! at 1:15am, where Brett wakes up newly married to a stranger while a scheme to kidnap a visiting Swedish diplomat unfolds around him. Meteor Storm, a 2010 disaster thriller with Kari Matchett as an astronomer racing to save San Francisco from a rogue celestial event, splits either side of a five-minute This Week Back Then insert at 3:11am. Four episodes of Air Rescue then carry the schedule from 3:45am to 6am, covering a mountain bike crash, a beach resort with three accidents in one day, a shark attack during training and a car crash rescue, before six half-hour Teleshopping blocks fill the schedule through to 9am.

The daytime turns to a bounty hunt, a real-life murder case and an older war drama. Wanted: Dead Or Alive opens proper programming at 9:10am, with Randall hired to bring in a line rider accused of grand theft. Murder Maps follows at 9:50am, tracing Peter Manuel, the Scottish serial killer responsible for at least eight killings in the Glasgow area between 1956 and 1958 before his eventual arrest. Hell River, a 1974 drama with Rod Taylor and Adam West as Yugoslav partisans clashing with the German forces occupying their homeland, runs from 10:50am into the early afternoon. The Unit repeats at 1pm, with Jonas and Molly’s overdue tribute to George Blane’s Silver Star interrupted by news that their own nephew is abusing his wife, and two episodes of Burn Notice follow from 2pm, first Michael pulling newly burned agent Jesse out of a drug trafficker’s crosshairs, then the pair steering the mob off the Port of Miami’s docks. Assault on Station 33, Sean Patrick Flanery’s 2019 hostage thriller set at a veterans’ hospital, splits around a 4:56pm This Week Back Then break and runs to 5:50pm, when a short Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin leads into a repeat of The Unit at 6pm.

GREAT! Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Action primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 20 August 2026.

The Unit — GREAT! Action, 6pm

The Unit opens the evening with a repeat of its 1pm outing (series 2, episode 11): Jonas and Molly’s tribute to George Blane’s Silver Star is overshadowed by the discovery that their own nephew has been abusing his wife.

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

Burn Notice repeats its own afternoon double (series 4, episodes 2 and 3). Michael helps newly burned agent Jesse dodge a vengeful drug trafficker at 7pm, then the pair steer the mob off the Port of Miami’s docks at 8pm.

The Transporter Refueled — GREAT! Action, 9pm

Tonight’s film is The Transporter Refueled, the 2015 instalment with Ed Skrein taking over the wheel from Jason Statham. His freelance driver and his father end up squaring off against a Russian gangster and the femme fatale running his four-woman crew, with plenty of room left for the chases the franchise built its name on.

The Avengers — GREAT! Action, 11:05pm

The night closes with the 1960s spy series, not the 1998 film that borrowed its name. In this outing (series 5, episode 19), Steed and Emma Peel investigate a body discovered with £50,000 in stolen diamonds hidden inside it, working from a scattering of dog hairs to track down the killer.

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?

Thursday evening opens with The Unit at 6pm, repeating its own 1pm airing, then Burn Notice doubles up at 7pm and 8pm with the same two episodes shown earlier in the afternoon. The Transporter Refueled, Ed Skrein’s 2015 action thriller, takes the 9pm film slot. The night closes at 11:05pm with an episode of the 1960s Avengers spy series, Steed and Emma Peel rather than the 1998 film cast, probing a corpse whose stomach conceals £50,000 in stolen diamonds. 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. Thursday’s daytime leans on a real murder case and an older war drama rather than fresh films: Murder Maps digs into Peter Manuel, the Scottish serial killer convicted of at least eight murders around Glasgow in the 1950s, and Hell River, a 1974 drama with Rod Taylor and Adam West, holds down the late morning and into the early afternoon. 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 episodes of Burn Notice replay the exact same episodes the channel showed earlier the same day, so anyone who watched the afternoon gets nothing new before 9pm. The Transporter Refueled changes that: a slick, undemanding 2015 actioner with Ed Skrein filling Jason Statham’s driving seat, and easily the biggest draw on tonight’s schedule. The night then closes with a rerun of the 1960s Avengers spy 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