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

Published: 21 August 2026

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, Saturday 22 August 2026, Nanny Beware opens the evening at 5:56pm, a 2023 thriller with Lesa Wilson as a nanny who twigs that the couple paying her aren’t the boy’s real parents at all. Circle Of Friends follows at 7:32pm, a 2006 thriller with Julie Benz returning to her hometown to dedicate a scholarship in her late husband’s name and finding his death tangled up with the murders of several old classmates. Dragon Eyes takes the 9:07pm slot, a 2012 martial arts thriller pairing Cung Le with Jean-Claude Van Damme as a mysterious stranger plays two rival gangs off against each other, and The Ice Road closes the night at 10:44pm — Liam Neeson’s 2021 disaster thriller about a convoy racing heavy trucks across cracking lake ice to reach trapped miners.

GREAT! Movies Schedule: Saturday 22 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Movies schedule for Saturday 22 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 older films rather than the usual contemporary thrillers. The Trust opens the night at 12:30am, followed at 2:08am by Mercenary for Justice, a 2006 action thriller with Steven Seagal and Luke Goss. Two vintage titles take the small hours: Bad Man’s River at 3:50am, a 1971 Spanish-Italian western with Lee Van Cleef, James Mason and Gina Lollobrigida, and War of the Wildcats at 5:33am, a 1943 John Wayne western (also known as In Old Oklahoma) about rival claims on Indian oil land, with Martha Scott and Albert Dekker.

Air Rescue then holds breakfast for the best part of two hours from 7:28am, six back-to-back episodes following the pilots and paramedics of Australia’s Westpac Lifesaver helicopter service as they’re scrambled to a fresh emergency each time. Lone Rider takes over at 10:05am, followed by Out of Control at 11:35am, part of the channel’s regular rotation of contemporary crime thrillers.

The afternoon runs on the same Lifetime-style crime strand the channel leans on most days. Living With The Enemy opens it at 1:09pm, a 2005 thriller with Sarah Lancaster as a woman whose dream marriage turns out to be built on her tech-billionaire husband’s hidden past. Staged Killer follows at 2:44pm, a 2019 thriller with Chrishell Stause as a TV host whose career revival comes at a cost once a former co-host talks his way back into her life. Live Once, Die Twice closes out the afternoon at 4:22pm, a 2006 thriller with Kellie Martin as a widow unpicking her husband’s faked death.

GREAT! Movies tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Movies primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 22 August 2026.

Nanny Beware — GREAT! Movies, 5:56pm

Nanny Beware opens the evening at 5:56pm and runs through to 7:32pm. The 2023 thriller casts Lesa Wilson as a live-in nanny who starts to suspect the little boy in her care isn’t really the son of the couple who hired her.

Circle Of Friends — GREAT! Movies, 7:32pm

Worth being clear about which film this is: the 2006 thriller with Julie Benz, not the better-known 1995 Irish drama that shares its title. Benz plays a widow who goes home to set up a scholarship in her late husband’s memory, and finds a reunion with old friends turning into a hunt for whoever has been killing off her former classmates.

Dragon Eyes — GREAT! Movies, 9:07pm

A 2012 martial arts thriller, pairing Cung Le with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Le plays a drifter who walks into a town carved up by two gangs and quietly sets about turning them on each other, drawing on what Van Damme’s mentor figure taught him.

The Ice Road — GREAT! Movies, 10:44pm

Liam Neeson’s 2021 disaster thriller closes the night. He plays a trucker steering a convoy of rigs over a frozen lake that has already begun to crack, against the clock to reach miners trapped underground after a collapse.

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?

Nanny Beware at 5:56pm, Lesa Wilson as a nanny growing suspicious of the family employing her. Circle Of Friends at 7:32pm, Julie Benz’s 2006 thriller (not the 1995 film of the same name), tying a widow’s grief to a string of murders among her old friends. Dragon Eyes at 9:07pm, Cung Le and Jean-Claude Van Damme in a gang stand-off. The Ice Road closes the night at 10:44pm, Liam Neeson leading a truck convoy over collapsing ice. Neeson 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 opens with Lesa Wilson in Nanny Beware and Julie Benz’s Circle Of Friends, before the evening’s biggest name recognition arrives twice over: Jean-Claude Van Damme alongside Cung Le in Dragon Eyes at 9pm, then Liam Neeson closing out the night in The Ice Road just before 11pm. A solid rather than essential Saturday, but a reasonable one to leave on.

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