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

GREAT! Movies is a free-to-air film channel, though a fair bit harder to stumble across since a 2025 reshuffle of the Freeview line-up (more on that below). Tonight, Wednesday 19 August 2026, the evening opens with Out of Control at 6pm, a 2009 thriller with Laura Vandervoort as a young forensic officer secretly investigating a case that ties back to her own police department. Dispatch takes the 7:34pm slot, with Fiona Gubelmann as a 911 call handler whose misjudged prank call sets her on a guilt-driven hunt for a killer, before Beyond The Law brings Steven Seagal in at 9:04pm as the mob boss standing in the way of a father out to avenge his murdered son. Jack Hunter And The Lost Treasure Of Ugarit closes the night at 10:33pm, an archaeological adventure with Ivan Sergei chasing an ancient hoard through a web of rival treasure hunters.

GREAT! Movies Schedule: Wednesday 19 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Movies schedule for Wednesday 19 August 2026, on Freeview 62.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! Movies today

The overnight hours belong to Steven Seagal and an old-school actioner. Mercenary for Justice opens at 12:30am, a 2006 picture with Seagal as a hired gun tasked with springing a drug lord’s son from a maximum-security prison. Contract to Kill follows at 2:12am, a CIA agent working to stop Islamist militants and a Mexican cartel combining forces to move weapons of mass destruction across the US border.

Two vintage westerns take the small hours. Bad Man’s River runs from 3:51am: a comedy western from 1971 pairing Lee Van Cleef and James Mason as rival crooks who join forces, then fall out, over a stolen fortune. Four Fast Guns follows at 5:34am, a 1960 western with James Craig as a reformed gunslinger trying to clean up a town run by a ruthless, disabled saloon owner who thinks himself untouchable.

Air Rescue then holds the whole of breakfast, eight episodes back to back from 6:53am to 10:13am, following the pilots and paramedics of Australia’s Westpac Lifesaver helicopter service as they’re scrambled to a fresh emergency each time. Kentucky Rifle takes over at 10:13am, a 1955 western with Chill Wills, Lance Fuller and Cathy Downs, in which a wagon loaded with guns breaks down in hostile territory. Circle Of Friends follows at 11:41am, a 2006 thriller with Julie Benz as a woman who returns home for a funeral and uncovers a secret that threatens to split her old friendship group apart.

The afternoon runs on Lifetime-style thrillers. A Murderer Upstairs opens it at 1:16pm, a 2017 thriller with Josie Davis trying to protect her stepdaughter after the girl witnesses a murder, only to find the danger may be closer to home. Second Chances takes the 2:49pm slot, a 2010 thriller with Melissa George as a journalist stalked by a figure from her past, years after she unknowingly vouched for a killer. Abducted closes out early evening at 4:25pm, a 2006 drama in which Sarah Wynter plays a prison warden’s wife drawn to a convict she’s convinced was wrongly locked up, only to make an unwelcome discovery about his real motives.

GREAT! Movies tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Movies primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 19 August 2026.

Out of Control — GREAT! Movies, 6pm

Laura Vandervoort opens the evening as a young forensic officer handed a covert assignment: dig into whether a murder case is connected to corruption inside her own police department. It’s a 2009 Canadian production, closer in feel to a procedural than a thriller, but Vandervoort carries it.

Dispatch — GREAT! Movies, 7:34pm

Fiona Gubelmann plays a 911 call handler in this 2016 thriller, also released as 911 Nightmare, who waves off an incoming call as a hoax moments before a teenager turns up dead. Guilt drives her to start investigating the case herself, against the advice of everyone around her.

Beyond The Law — GREAT! Movies, 9:04pm

The night’s biggest name arrives at 9:04pm. Steven Seagal plays a mob boss in this 2019 revenge thriller, facing down Johnny Messner’s former detective, who’s out to settle the score for his estranged son’s murder. It’s notable as one of DMX’s final screen roles before his death in 2021, and reunites him with Seagal after 2001’s Exit Wounds.

Jack Hunter And The Lost Treasure Of Ugarit — GREAT! Movies, 10:33pm

Ivan Sergei closes the night as globetrotting archaeologist Jack Hunter, dragged into a conspiracy after being caught lifting an ancient tablet in his hunt for the treasure of the lost kingdom of Ugarit. Released in 2008, it’s the first of a three-part adventure series and plays like a budget answer to Indiana Jones.

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?

Out of Control at 6pm, a 2009 thriller with Laura Vandervoort as a forensic officer secretly investigating her own department. Dispatch at 7:34pm, Fiona Gubelmann as a guilt-ridden 911 operator turned amateur investigator. Beyond The Law at 9:04pm, a 2019 revenge thriller with Steven Seagal, Johnny Messner and DMX. Jack Hunter And The Lost Treasure Of Ugarit closes the night at 10:33pm, Ivan Sergei’s 2008 archaeological adventure. Seagal is the most recognisable name on tonight’s schedule.

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 no subscription and no sign-in required.

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 runs a pair of Lifetime-style thrillers into Steven Seagal’s Beyond The Law, the clear standout of the four, before Ivan Sergei’s archaeological romp sees the night out just after 10:30pm. A solid rather than essential Wednesday, but a reasonable one to leave on.

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