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

Published: 3 September 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, Friday 4 September 2026, is the fourth evening running that GREAT! Action’s whole primetime repeats its own afternoon: The Unit at 6pm and both hours of Burn Notice at 7pm and 8pm are the same episodes shown at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm today. The one fresh booking is Snatch (2000), Guy Ritchie’s diamond-heist comedy starring Jason Statham as a boxing promoter and Brad Pitt as a bare-knuckle fighter, running unbroken from 9pm to 11:15pm, followed by an episode of the 1960s ITC spy series The Avengers — Steed and Tara King rather than anything Marvel-related — at 11:15pm.

GREAT! Action Schedule: Friday 4 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Action schedule for Friday 4 September 2026, on Freeview 42.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! Action today

Vintage series fill the overnight hours rather than film. The ITC caper series The Baron opens the day at 12:30am (series 1, episode 7), followed by The Persuaders! at 1:30am (series 1, episode 10). Coast Guard Alaska runs from 2:30am, opening with a stray series-one episode before jumping straight into series 4, episode 3 at 3:15am. Air Rescue does the same thing from 4:10am: a lone series-one instalment ahead of three series-4 episodes, with a short Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin either side. Teleshopping fills 6am to 9am.

Railway Murders opens proper daytime programming at 9am (series 1, episode 5), and Murder Maps follows at 10am (series 5, episode 8). The western Wrangler (1989, Jeff Fahey) then holds 11am to 1pm, split by a five-minute This Week Back Then at 11:56am — the same film also plays overnight on GREAT! Movies at 4:27am. The Unit airs again at 1pm (series 2, episode 22) and both hours of Burn Notice follow from 2pm (series 5, episodes 6 and 7) — the same three episodes return unbroken in primetime, see below. The thriller The Coldest Game (2019, Bill Pullman) then holds the afternoon from 4pm to 6pm, broken by a five-minute This Week Back Then at 4:56pm.

GREAT! Action tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Action primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 4 September 2026.

The Unit — GREAT! Action, 6pm

The Unit (series 2, episode 22) opens primetime at 6pm — the same episode that aired on the channel at 1pm this afternoon, the first leg of a three-hour block that repeats itself before the evening’s one new booking.

Burn Notice — GREAT! Action, 7pm

At 7pm, Burn Notice (series 5, episode 6) repeats its own 2pm showing.

Burn Notice — GREAT! Action, 8pm

The 8pm hour is series 5, episode 7 of Burn Notice, again a straight repeat of the 3pm broadcast.

Snatch — GREAT! Action, 9pm

Snatch runs unbroken from 9pm to 11:15pm. Guy Ritchie’s 2000 heist comedy stars Jason Statham as a boxing promoter pulled into a diamond theft, with Brad Pitt as an unintelligible bare-knuckle fighter along for the ride — the one fresh booking in an otherwise recycled evening.

The Avengers — GREAT! Action, 11:15pm

At 11:15pm it’s an episode of the 1960s ITC spy series The Avengers (series 6, episode 4), with Steed and Tara King at a nursing academy — nothing to do with the Marvel team of the same name, and no film to be confused with either.

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?

Friday’s primetime is mostly a repeat of the afternoon, for the fourth evening running: The Unit at 6pm and both hours of Burn Notice at 7pm and 8pm are the same episodes that aired on the channel at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm today. The one new booking is the 9pm film, Snatch (2000), with Jason Statham and Brad Pitt, running unbroken to 11:15pm. The night closes at 11:15pm with an episode of the 1960s ITC spy series The Avengers — not the Marvel team. 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 Friday is another thin night for it — the fourth evening running that its whole primetime repeats its own afternoon. Daytime carries the channel’s usual mix of vintage adventure series and two split films: Wrangler (1989, Jeff Fahey) from 11am to 1pm and The Coldest Game (2019, Bill Pullman) from 4pm to 6pm, each broken by a five-minute This Week Back Then.

Primetime doesn’t add much on top: The Unit and two hours of Burn Notice at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm are straight repeats of that same afternoon’s schedule. The only fresh booking is Snatch at 9pm, Guy Ritchie’s 2000 comedy in which Jason Statham’s boxing promoter and Brad Pitt’s fighter chase down a stolen diamond, running unbroken to 11:15pm, and the night closes with a single episode of the 1960s spy series The Avengers — not the Marvel team. 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