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

Published: 29 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, Sunday 30 August 2026, three films share the evening rather than the usual one. Force 10 From Navarone, the 1978 wartime adventure with Robert Shaw and Harrison Ford, starts at 4pm and runs clean through the 6pm hour to 6:30pm, when Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules takes over. Liam Neeson’s The Ice Road follows at 8:30pm, and two vintage ITC series from the 1960s, The Avengers and The Baron, close out the schedule from 10:45pm. Each film breaks briefly for a five-minute This Week Back Then bulletin partway through.

GREAT! Action Schedule: Sunday 30 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Action schedule for Sunday 30 August 2026, on Freeview 42.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! Action today

The overnight hours belong to vintage series rather than film. A short Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin opens the day at 1am, then the ITC caper series The Persuaders! at 1:10am (series 1, episode 5) with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. The TV movie Meteor Storm runs from 2:10am, pausing for This Week Back Then at 3:02am before picking up again five minutes later, and the real-life rescue strand Coast Guard Alaska follows at 3:50am (series 3, episode 10). Three episodes of Air Rescue carry the channel to 5:50am, a second Good News on GREAT! Extra closes out the night, and Teleshopping fills 6am to 9am.

Murder Maps opens proper daytime programming at 9am with a fifth-series case file, and the 1971 Spaghetti Western Bad Man’s River, with Lee Van Cleef and Gina Lollobrigida, holds the schedule from 10am to midday. The 1943 submarine drama We Dive at Dawn runs from noon, then the 1956 war film Between Heaven and Hell takes the 2pm slot, breaking for This Week Back Then at 2:56pm and resuming five minutes later. Force 10 From Navarone then arrives at 4pm and effectively owns the rest of the afternoon: bar its own five-minute bulletin break at 4:56pm, the 1978 war adventure runs straight through the 6pm hour to 6:30pm, which is when Hercules actually takes over — not at the top of the evening.

GREAT! Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Action primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 30 August 2026. It’s an unusually busy evening for the channel: three films rather than the usual one, and a pair of vintage series to close.

Force 10 From Navarone — GREAT! Action, 4pm (holds the 6pm hour)

Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford and Edward Fox lead this 1978 Second World War adventure, a follow-up to The Guns of Navarone that sends a demolition team behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia. It starts well before primetime but is worth flagging here because it owns the entire 6pm hour: bar a five-minute This Week Back Then break at 4:56pm, it runs unbroken until 6:30pm.

Hercules — GREAT! Action, 6:30pm

Dwayne Johnson headlines the 2014 sword-and-sandals actioner as the legendary strongman, now a mercenary captain hired to whip a king’s army into shape. A This Week Back Then bulletin splits the film at 7:26pm; it picks back up five minutes later and runs to 8:30pm.

The Ice Road — GREAT! Action, 8:30pm

Liam Neeson’s 2021 disaster thriller puts an ice-road trucker behind the wheel of a rig racing across a collapsing frozen lake to reach miners trapped underground. Another short bulletin break falls at 9:26pm, with the film resuming at 9:31pm and running to 10:45pm.

The Avengers — GREAT! Action, 10:45pm

Steed and company take over for a run of the 1960s ITC spy series (series 6, episode 32) — this is the sharp-suited espionage show, nothing to do with the Marvel team of the same name, and it doesn’t get a release year because it isn’t a film. Tonight’s case has three escaped foreign agents on the loose armed with a bottle of vodka that makes them invisible, which is about as far from a superhero plot as television gets.

The Baron — GREAT! Action, 11:45pm

John Mannering, the reformed jewel thief turned antiques dealer at the centre of this 1960s ITC series (series 1, episode 3), teams up with a dodgy insurance broker while chasing down a priceless Aztec mask. Like The Avengers before it, this is vintage television rather than a film, and it closes out GREAT! Action’s night.

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?

Three films tonight, each broken by a short This Week Back Then bulletin. Force 10 From Navarone runs from 4pm and effectively covers the whole 6pm hour on its own before Hercules takes over at 6:30pm. The Ice Road follows at 8:30pm, and two vintage ITC series, The Avengers and The Baron, close the schedule from 10:45pm. 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. Sunday’s daytime leans on vintage series and older films: The Persuaders! and a run of Air Rescue documentaries overnight, then a stretch of black-and-white and Cold-War-era pictures through the afternoon, before Force 10 From Navarone arrives at 4pm and quietly takes over the 6pm hour on its own.

Primetime carries three films rather than the usual one. Force 10 From Navarone hands over to Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules at 6:30pm, and Liam Neeson’s The Ice Road sees out the film side of the evening from 8:30pm. Two 1960s ITC series, The Avengers and The Baron, close the night from 10:45pm. Each film pauses briefly for a five-minute bulletin, which is the small trade-off for a free, ad-funded schedule this heavy on films.

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