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

Published: 31 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 1 September 2026, primetime doubles back on itself: The Unit and both hours of Burn Notice already aired earlier in the afternoon and come round again at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm, with the Burn Notice pair also crossing a series boundary, the season 4 finale into the season 5 opener. The evening’s genuine new booking is Sniper: Legacy (2014), Tom Berenger and Chad Michael Collins as a father-and-son sniper team, split into two parts either side of a five-minute This Week Back Then at 9:56pm, followed by an episode of the 1960s ITC spy series The Avengers at 11:10pm.

GREAT! Action Schedule: Tuesday 1 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Action schedule for Tuesday 1 September 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. The ITC caper series The Baron opens the day at 12:10am (series 1, episode 4), followed by The Persuaders! at 1:10am (series 1, episode 7). The disaster movie Disaster Zone: Volcano In New York runs from 2:10am, breaking for a five-minute This Week Back Then at 3:06am and resuming at 3:11am, then Coast Guard Alaska takes the 3:40am hour (series 3, episode 13). Three episodes of Air Rescue follow from 4:35am (series 2 episode 8, then series 3 episodes 1 and 2), a short Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin sits either side, and Teleshopping fills the schedule from 6am to 9am.

Railway Murders opens proper daytime programming at 9am, revisiting a 1957 Tube-station case (series 1, episode 6), and Murder Maps follows at 10am with the Herbert Rowse Armstrong poisoning case (series 5, episode 5). The spaghetti western A Reason To Live, A Reason To Die, with James Coburn and Telly Savalas, takes 11am to 1pm, split by another This Week Back Then at 11:56am. The Unit airs at 1pm (series 2, episode 19) and both hours of Burn Notice run back to back from 2pm (series 4 episode 18, then the series 5 opener) — the same three episodes return unbroken in primetime, see below. The Hatton Garden Job, the 2017 heist film, then holds the schedule unbroken from 4pm to 5:50pm.

GREAT! Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Action primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 1 September 2026 — and most of it you’ll have seen already if you had the channel on this afternoon.

The Unit and Burn Notice — GREAT! Action, 6pm–9pm

The opening three hours are a straight rerun. The Unit at 6pm (series 2, episode 19, the black-box recovery in New Guinea) and both hours of Burn Notice at 7pm and 8pm already aired at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm this afternoon. The Burn Notice pair does mark a genuine handover: 7pm closes out season 4 with Vaughn touching down in Miami to confront Michael, and 8pm opens season 5 with Michael finally closing in on the one person left responsible for burning him.

Sniper: Legacy — GREAT! Action, 9pm

The one new booking of the night. Tom Berenger and Chad Michael Collins play a father-and-son sniper team taking on a rogue gunman in this 2014 sequel, shown in two parts either side of a five-minute This Week Back Then at 9:56pm and picking back up at 10:01pm.

The Avengers — GREAT! Action, 11:10pm

Not the Marvel team. This is the 1960s ITC spy series, Patrick Macnee’s John Steed and Linda Thorson’s Tara King, series 6 episode 11, closing out the 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?

Tuesday’s primetime repeats the afternoon almost entirely: The Unit at 6pm and both hours of Burn Notice at 7pm and 8pm are reruns of episodes that already aired on the channel at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm today, and the Burn Notice pair also marks a series handover, the season 4 finale into the season 5 opener. The one new booking is the 9pm film, Sniper: Legacy (2014), Tom Berenger and Chad Michael Collins as a father-and-son sniper team, split into two parts around a five-minute This Week Back Then at 9:56pm. The night closes at 11:10pm with an episode of the 1960s ITC spy series The Avengers. 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, but Tuesday is another thin night for it. Daytime carries the channel’s usual mix of true-crime strands, a spaghetti western split by a filler slot (A Reason To Live, A Reason To Die, 11am to 1pm), and The Hatton Garden Job running unbroken from 4pm.

Primetime doesn’t add much on top: The Unit and two hours of Burn Notice at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm are straight repeats of the same afternoon’s schedule, with the Burn Notice hours also carrying the season 4-to-5 handover. The only fresh booking is Sniper: Legacy at 9pm, Tom Berenger and Chad Michael Collins as father and son snipers, split by a short interstitial and running to 11:10pm, and the night closes with a single episode of the 1960s series The Avengers. Worth switching on for the film; almost everything else tonight has already been shown once today.

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