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

Published: 22 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, Sunday 23 August 2026, A Murderer Upstairs opens the evening at 5:52pm, a 2017 thriller starring Josie Davis that takes up most of the hour before the news slot most other channels observe. Final Verdict follows at 7:26pm, a 2009 thriller led by Erica Durance. Escape Plan 3 takes the 9:01pm slot, Sylvester Stallone back in the prison-break franchise for its 2019 instalment, and No Man’s Land closes the night at 10:41pm — a 2020 border thriller with Jake Allyn as a Texas rancher’s son fleeing into Mexico after a fatal collision on the family land, and Andie MacDowell as his mother.

GREAT! Movies Schedule: Sunday 23 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Movies schedule for Sunday 23 August 2026, on Freeview 62.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! Movies today

The overnight hours mix newer action with proper vintage westerns. American Siege opens the night at 12:36am, a 2021 small-town siege thriller with Bruce Willis, followed at 2:12am by the Australian heist thriller Son Of A Gun, with Ewan McGregor drawing a young inmate into training for one last job. Two westerns close out the small hours: Four Fast Guns at 4:06am, a 1959 B-picture, and Death Rides a Horse at 5:25am, Lee Van Cleef’s 1967 spaghetti western.

Air Rescue then holds breakfast and the start of the morning for the best part of two hours from 7:27am, five 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. Angel and the Badman takes over at 9:37am, John Wayne’s 1947 western as a wounded gunslinger nursed back to health by a Quaker family who try to talk him out of his old life. Time Of Death closes the morning at 11:28am, part of the channel’s regular crime-thriller rotation.

The afternoon runs on the same Lifetime-style crime strand the channel leans on most days. Live Once, Die Twice opens it at 1:07pm, a 2006 thriller with Kellie Martin as a widow unpicking her husband’s faked death. Nanny Beware follows at 2:41pm, a 2023 thriller with Lesa Wilson as a nanny growing suspicious that the couple paying her aren’t the boy’s real parents. Circle Of Friends closes the afternoon at 4:18pm — this is Julie Benz’s 2006 thriller, not the 1995 Irish drama that shares the title, and it follows a widow whose scholarship dedication in her late husband’s name reopens a string of murders among her old classmates.

GREAT! Movies tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Movies primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 23 August 2026.

A Murderer Upstairs — GREAT! Movies, 5:52pm

The evening’s run of thrillers gets going before the 6pm hour is even under way. A Murderer Upstairs, a 2017 film starring Josie Davis, takes the 5:52pm slot and runs through to 7:26pm, so it owns most of the early evening on its own.

Final Verdict — GREAT! Movies, 7:26pm

Final Verdict picks up straight after at 7:26pm, a 2009 thriller led by Erica Durance.

Escape Plan 3 — GREAT! Movies, 9:01pm

The night’s most recognisable name arrives at 9:01pm. Sylvester Stallone returns for Escape Plan 3, the 2019 continuation of the franchise that began with Stallone breaking out of a supposedly inescapable prison.

No Man’s Land — GREAT! Movies, 10:41pm

No Man’s Land closes the night at 10:41pm. Jake Allyn plays a Texas rancher’s son who flees across the border into Mexico after a fatal collision with a migrant family on his father’s land, with Andie MacDowell as his mother trying to hold the family together.

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?

A Murderer Upstairs at 5:52pm, Josie Davis’s 2017 thriller, running right through to 7:26pm. Final Verdict follows at 7:26pm, a 2009 thriller with Erica Durance. Escape Plan 3 at 9:01pm brings Sylvester Stallone back for the 2019 sequel to his prison-break franchise. No Man’s Land closes the night at 10:41pm, Jake Allyn and Andie MacDowell in a border thriller set on a Texas ranch. Stallone 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 four thrillers back to back from 5:52pm onwards, building to the one name most viewers will recognise: Sylvester Stallone in Escape Plan 3 at 9pm, followed by Jake Allyn and Andie MacDowell in the border thriller No Man’s Land just after half past ten. A solid rather than essential Sunday, but a reasonable one to leave on.

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