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

GREAT! Movies is a free-to-air film channel, and a fair bit harder to stumble across than it used to be after a 2025 reshuffle of the Freeview line-up (more on that below). Tonight, Wednesday 5 August 2026, the channel runs three thrillers back to back: Summer House at 7:28pm, Chief of Station at 9:01pm, and Sniper Elite closing out the night at 10:38pm.

GREAT! Movies Schedule: Wednesday 5 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Movies schedule for Wednesday 5 August 2026, on Freeview 62.

What’s on GREAT! Movies today

The small hours open with two contemporary thrillers before the westerns take over. Predestination airs at 12:37am, a 2015 sci-fi thriller with Ethan Hawke as a time-travelling agent sent to stop a criminal who always seems to be a step ahead. Blowback follows at 2:18am, Randy Couture as a thief left for dead by his own crew who sets out to settle the score with all of them.

Two older westerns fill the pre-dawn slot. Death Rides a Horse (1967) at 3:59am has Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law as a lawman and a young gunslinger both hunting the same gang, fifteen years after the killings that set the revenge in motion. Hellgate (1952) at 6:01am stars Sterling Hayden as a rancher wrongly locked up in a desert prison where a plague outbreak threatens everyone inside.

Air Rescue then fills the whole morning, six instalments back to back from 7:34am to just before 10am, following the pilots and paramedics of an Australian helicopter rescue service on a different call-out each time.

The Proud Rebel, Alan Ladd’s 1958 western about a father searching for a cure for his mute son, takes the 9:46am slot. From there the schedule settles into its usual run of Lifetime-style thrillers: Staged Killer at 11:36am, Chrishell Stause as a TV host whose life unravels when a former co-host returns; Dead Lines at 1:14pm, an eco-fashion designer trying to clear her name after an employee’s death; Dispatch at 2:48pm, a 911 operator who dismissed a child’s call as a prank; Out of Control at 4:17pm, a forensic scientist secretly investigating a murder; and Amber Alert at 5:51pm, a detective negotiating after a bus full of schoolchildren is hijacked. That run carries the day through to the evening handover at 7:28pm.

GREAT! Movies tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Movies primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 5 August 2026.

Summer House — GREAT! Movies, 7:28pm

Summer House opens the evening at 7:28pm. This 2008 mystery-thriller stars Lindsay Price as a woman who inherits a family property along with a curse that has followed it for centuries, and finds the strange occurrences around the house escalating fast.

Chief of Station — GREAT! Movies, 9:01pm

Chief of Station takes the 9:01pm slot, a 2024 spy thriller with Aaron Eckhart as a former CIA European station chief. His wife’s death forces him to reopen old cases, and the secrets he uncovers turn out to be closer to home than he expected.

Sniper Elite — GREAT! Movies, 10:38pm

Sniper Elite closes the night at 10:38pm. Kevin Sorbo leads a squad of soldiers up against an extraterrestrial force in this 2014 action thriller, the most straightforwardly pulpy of tonight’s three films.

What kind of films are on GREAT! Movies

Classic Hollywood and westerns

The overnight schedule is where the channel’s deepest library lives: 1950s and ’60s Hollywood, John Wayne westerns through to Alan Ladd dramas, accumulated over more than a decade of broadcasting. It’s also the only stretch of the day where the films are genuinely old rather than just cheap, and if you set a recorder for anything here, set it for the small hours.

Lifetime-style crime and thriller movies

Daytime belongs to the made-for-TV thriller that Lifetime and its American equivalents turn out at pace. Missing persons, family secrets, one twist, done inside 90 minutes. Quality swings about a good deal from title to title, and none of it is trying to be more than something to have on.

Contemporary action and thriller premieres

Evenings bring newer titles, generally from the last five to twenty years, mostly domestic-menace thrillers with the occasional proper action picture and a recognisable lead.

How to watch GREAT! Movies

Channel numbers

GREAT! Movies isn’t where it used to be. Here’s where to actually find it now:

Until 4 September 2025 this was an ordinary aerial-only channel on Freeview 50 and Sky 321. GREAT! Mystery has those slots now. Nothing about it costs money, but the broadband requirement is the bit that catches people out, particularly anyone still using an older box.

Streaming online

GREAT! Movies streams free through Great! Player at great-player.com, no account required, with apps for Amazon Fire TV, YouView, and Samsung and LG smart TVs, plus the App Store and Google Play. Alongside the live stream there’s a library of past films, which is how you pick something up after it has aired.

GREAT! sister channels

GREAT! Movies is one of five channels Narrative Entertainment UK Limited runs under the GREAT! banner, all of them part of Sony’s UK line-up before the 2021 sale and rebrand.

All five sit in the same Great! Player app, which is how you reach GREAT! Movies on the platforms that no longer list it.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is GREAT! Movies on Freeview?

Channel 62, a connected Freeview Play slot since 4 September 2025, so it needs broadband as well as an aerial. Older Freeview boxes and standalone recorders without internet access can’t tune in. Freely carries it on 57.

Is GREAT! Movies still on Sky and Virgin Media?

Not under this name. Its old Sky slots (321, HD 318, +1 322) and Virgin Media slot were permanently rebranded to GREAT! Mystery in the same swap. Great! Player is the way to watch it if your TV isn’t set up for Freeview Play or Freely.

What’s on GREAT! Movies tonight?

Summer House at 7:28pm, Chief of Station at 9:01pm and Sniper Elite at 10:38pm. Chief of Station, with Aaron Eckhart as a former CIA station chief drawn back into old secrets, is the pick of the three.

Is GREAT! Movies free to watch, and does it carry adverts?

Free on all three: Freeview Play, Freely and Great! Player. There are ad breaks during films, as on any commercially funded channel, but nothing to subscribe to and nothing to sign in to.

Who owns GREAT! Movies?

Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. It launched on Sky in May 2012 as Sony Movie Channel, reached Freeview in January 2017, became Sony Movies in 2019, and took the GREAT! Movies name in May 2021 after Narrative Capital bought Sony’s UK free-to-air channels.

What are the GREAT! sister channels?

GREAT! Action (Freeview 42), GREAT! TV (Freeview 34), GREAT! Romance (Freeview 52) and GREAT! Mystery (Freeview 50), which took over GREAT! Movies’ old, more prominent Freeview slot. All stream free via Great! Player.

Can I watch GREAT! Movies online for free, and is there catch-up?

Yes. Great! Player at great-player.com, plus apps on Freeview Play, Freely, YouView, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung and LG smart TVs. No account needed, and the film library works as catch-up.

Verdict

The programming hasn’t got worse. The finding of it has. A channel that used to be a couple of button presses away now wants a broadband connection, a Freeview Play box or the Great! Player app, and some willingness to go looking, which is a genuine cost for something whose whole appeal was being there when you flicked past it.

Whether the effort is worth it depends on the night. Tonight the middle slot, Chief of Station, carries the strongest name on the schedule in Aaron Eckhart, with Summer House opening and Sniper Elite closing, solid enough genre thrillers but not reason enough on their own to go hunting for a Freeview Play signal.

Related: Film4 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide