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

Published: 24 August 2026

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 25 August 2026, the evening opens with a rerun of the afternoon’s The Unit and Burn Notice double before the night’s one film: Redemption Day, the 2021 hostage thriller starring Gary Dourdan, Serinda Swan and Andy Garcia, plays straight through from 9pm to 11:10pm with no ad-break split. What follows it is the real hook: a 1968 episode of The Avengers marking Tara King’s debut and Emma Peel’s farewell.

GREAT! Action Schedule: Tuesday 25 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Action schedule for Tuesday 25 August 2026, on Freeview 42.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! Action today

Overnight is vintage series and reality strands rather than film: The New Avengers at midnight (series 2, episode 12) and The Persuaders! at 1am (series 1, episode 24) lead into the submarine thriller Collision Course at 2am, which breaks for a five-minute This Week Back Then at 2:52am and resumes straight after. Coast Guard Alaska follows at 3:40am (series 3, episode 5), then a run of three Air Rescue episodes carries the channel to 5:50am either side of two short Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletins, before three hours of Teleshopping close out the small hours.

The morning is documentary territory: Raiders Of The Lost Art at 9am (series 2, episode 4) and Murder Maps at 10am (series 4, episode 4), then two hours of the submarine drama Run Silent, Run Deep from 11am. The Unit returns at 1pm (series 2, episode 13) and Burn Notice follows with a double bill at 2pm and 3pm (series 4, episodes 8 and 9) — the same two episodes the channel repeats again this evening, see below. The Forger takes the 4pm slot, broken by This Week Back Then at 4:56pm and picking up again at 5:01pm, and a final Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin at 5:50pm closes out the daytime schedule before primetime begins.

GREAT! Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Action primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 25 August 2026.

The Unit — GREAT! Action, 6pm

The 6pm hour is a straight rerun of today’s own 1pm episode (series 2, episode 13), rather than anything new. It sets up an evening where the channel effectively repeats its own afternoon before the film starts.

Burn Notice — GREAT! Action, 7pm

Burn Notice moves into primetime at 7pm with series 4, episode 8 — the identical instalment the channel showed at 2pm this afternoon.

Burn Notice — GREAT! Action, 8pm

The second half of that pair, episode 9, follows at 8pm. Like the hour before it, it’s the 3pm afternoon showing repeated rather than a new episode, so anyone who watched earlier in the day has already seen both halves of tonight’s 7pm-8pm run.

Redemption Day — GREAT! Action, 9pm

Tonight’s only film runs from 9pm to 11:10pm with no ad-break split. Gary Dourdan plays a decorated US Marine whose wife, played by Serinda Swan, is taken hostage while working in Morocco; Andy Garcia plays the US ambassador dragged into the fallout, more interested at first in protecting his own position than in the rescue. It’s a 2021 release, and after a run of films this week that have been chopped in half around an interstitial, this one plays straight through.

The Avengers — GREAT! Action, 11:10pm

The late slot is the night’s real find. This is series 6, episode 1 — “The Forget-Me-Knot” — the episode written to close out Diana Rigg’s run as Emma Peel while handing the show over to Linda Thorson’s Tara King. Patrick Macnee’s Steed spends most of it chasing an amnesiac agent and a suspected mole inside the department, Mrs Peel gets one last case before an abrupt reunion with her husband writes her out, and Tara King gets her first outing in the role she’d hold for the rest of the series. It’s a far bigger moment in the show’s history than an 11:10pm slot suggests.

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 has just one film. Redemption Day, the 2021 hostage thriller with Gary Dourdan, Serinda Swan and Andy Garcia, runs straight through from 9pm to 11:10pm with no split. Before that, the 6pm, 7pm and 8pm slots repeat The Unit and Burn Notice episodes already shown earlier in the afternoon, and the night closes with a genuinely significant piece of Avengers history at 11:10pm: the 1968 episode in which Tara King takes over from Emma Peel. 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 again leans on documentary strands rather than the channel’s usual westerns: Raiders Of The Lost Art and Murder Maps open the morning, then two hours of the submarine drama Run Silent, Run Deep hold the late morning. The Unit and a Burn Notice double then air twice each, once in the early afternoon and again in the early evening.

Primetime is light on film again, with just one title carrying the night. Redemption Day gives Gary Dourdan, Serinda Swan and Andy Garcia the leads in a 2021 hostage thriller, and it holds the evening’s biggest slot from 9pm to 11:10pm as one unbroken film rather than being split by an interstitial. What follows is the more interesting story: the 1968 Avengers episode that hands the show from Diana Rigg’s Emma Peel to Linda Thorson’s Tara King, closing out the schedule at 11:10pm.

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