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, Thursday 20 August 2026, the evening opens with Time Of Death at 5:56pm, a 2013 thriller with Kathleen Robertson as an FBI agent racing to stop a killer who strikes at exactly the same minute each time. Living With The Enemy follows at 7:36pm, a 2005 thriller with Sarah Lancaster as a bride whose dream home turns sour once her tech-billionaire husband’s past starts catching up with him, before Bunraku brings Josh Hartnett and Woody Harrelson together at 9:10pm in a stylised martial arts revenge story. Jack Hunter and the Quest for Akhenaten’s Tomb closes the night at 11:21pm, a different archaeological adventure with Ivan Sergei from the one GREAT! Movies showed last night, this time hunting an ancient weapon before it falls into the wrong hands.

GREAT! Movies Schedule: Thursday 20 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Movies schedule for Thursday 20 August 2026, on Freeview 62.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! Movies today

The overnight hours run on crime and action. Son Of A Gun opens at 12:16am, a 2014 heist thriller with Ewan McGregor as one of Australia’s most notorious criminals and Alicia Vikander among the cast, drawing a young inmate into a high-stakes gold robbery. The Commando follows at 2:11am, a 2022 actioner with Michael Jai White as a DEA agent forced to protect his family after a violent gang invades his home.

Two vintage westerns take the small hours. Death Rides a Horse runs from 3:50am, a 1967 revenge western with Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law, in which a boy whose family was massacred by bandits grows into a gunslinger bent on payback. The Proud Rebel follows at 5:52am, a 1958 western with Alan Ladd as a Civil War veteran searching for a cure for his mute son, and for the men who wronged them.

Air Rescue then holds breakfast, five episodes back to back from 7:42am to 9:54am, following the pilots and paramedics of Australia’s Westpac Lifesaver helicopter service as they’re scrambled to a fresh emergency each time. The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James takes over at 9:54am, a 1986 western with Kris Kristofferson as Jesse James and Johnny Cash as his brother Frank, following the outlaw pair through their closing chapter. Final Verdict follows at 11:43am, a 2009 thriller with Erica Durance as a prosecutor whose old murder case starts claiming lives after the original conviction is overturned.

The afternoon runs on Lifetime-style thrillers. Abducted opens it at 1:18pm, a 2006 drama with Sarah Wynter as a prison warden’s wife who helps an inmate escape, believing him innocent, then discovers his real motives. Out of Control takes the 2:53pm slot, a 2009 thriller with Laura Vandervoort as a young forensic scientist secretly investigating a case tied to her own department. Dispatch closes out the early evening run at 4:27pm, a 2016 thriller with Fiona Gubelmann as a 911 operator hunting for the truth after dismissing a genuine emergency call as a prank.

GREAT! Movies tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Movies primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 20 August 2026: four films back to back from early evening through to gone midnight.

Time Of Death — GREAT! Movies, 5:56pm

Kathleen Robertson leads this 2013 thriller as an FBI agent assigned to a case with a grim signature: executives murdered at exactly the same minute each night. It opens the evening before the schedule proper gets going, and sets the tone for a run of made-for-TV thrillers rather than anything with a cinema pedigree.

Living With The Enemy — GREAT! Movies, 7:36pm

Sarah Lancaster stars in this 2005 thriller as a newlywed whose dream home unravels once her tech-billionaire husband’s buried past starts resurfacing. It’s a domestic-menace plot rather than an action one, closer to the channel’s daytime staples than its evening norm.

Bunraku — GREAT! Movies, 9:10pm

The night’s biggest name-check goes to Bunraku, a 2010 stylised action picture pairing Josh Hartnett and Woody Harrelson. Three strangers with their own scores to settle end up on the same side against a crime lord and his private army of killers, all shot with the exaggerated, theatrical staging that gives the film its title. At just over two hours it’s the longest film of the night by some margin.

Jack Hunter and the Quest for Akhenaten’s Tomb — GREAT! Movies, 11:21pm

Ivan Sergei returns as archaeologist Jack Hunter to close out the schedule, this time racing to stop an ancient weapon falling into the wrong hands. It’s a different entry in the same 2008 franchise from the one GREAT! Movies aired at the same slot last night, so don’t mistake the two for a repeat.

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?

Time Of Death at 5:56pm, Kathleen Robertson as an FBI agent tracking a killer with a fixed method. Living With The Enemy at 7:36pm, Sarah Lancaster as a bride whose marriage turns out to hide a dangerous secret. Bunraku at 9:10pm, the stylised action picture with Josh Hartnett and Woody Harrelson. Jack Hunter and the Quest for Akhenaten’s Tomb closes the night at 11:21pm, Ivan Sergei’s 2008 archaeological adventure. Hartnett and Harrelson are the most recognisable names 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 Bunraku, the clear standout of the four with Josh Hartnett and Woody Harrelson on the bill, before Ivan Sergei’s archaeological adventure sees the night out just after 11pm. A solid rather than essential Thursday, but a reasonable one to leave on.

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