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

Published: 30 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, Monday 31 August 2026, the channel turns to the archive for three war and action pictures rather than its usual run of contemporary thrillers. The First of the Few opens at 7:03pm, Leslie Howard directing himself as Spitfire designer R.J. Mitchell alongside David Niven. Triple Cross takes the 9:17pm slot, Christopher Plummer as the real-life wartime double agent Eddie Chapman. Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman then close the night in the medieval action film Last Knights from 11:31pm.

GREAT! Movies Schedule: Monday 31 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! Movies schedule for Monday 31 August 2026, on Freeview 62.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! Movies today

The overnight run opens with Mercenary for Justice at 12:13am, followed by The Trust at 1:50am and the John Wayne western Angel and the Badman at 3:28am. The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James, a western built around the outlaw brothers’ final years, closes the small hours from 5:19am.

Air Rescue then takes over breakfast and the morning, eight editions back to back from 7:08am to 10:10am, following the crews of an Australian helicopter rescue service from one call-out to the next. The Exception, a Second World War drama, follows at 10:10am, and Big Lift takes the late-morning slot at 11:51am.

The afternoon and early evening run on war films: Farewell to Arms at 2:03pm, Gung Ho at 3:39pm, then Hell in Normandy from 5:16pm carries the schedule up to the evening’s line-up. See tonight’s primetime below.

GREAT! Movies tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! Movies primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 31 August 2026: three war and action films rather than the usual run of contemporary thrillers.

The First of the Few — GREAT! Movies, 7:03pm

Leslie Howard both directed and stars as R.J. Mitchell, the aeronautical engineer whose obsession with speed and streamlining led to the Supermarine Spitfire. David Niven plays Geoffrey Crisp, a fictional test pilot built around several real ones, who narrates Mitchell’s path from early racing seaplanes to the fighter that would matter so much a few years later. Made in 1942 while the Battle of Britain was still recent memory, it was shot in part with the RAF’s cooperation, and it’s a film as much about the culture that produced the Spitfire as about the aircraft itself.

Triple Cross — GREAT! Movies, 9:17pm

Christopher Plummer plays Eddie Chapman, a real prewar British criminal who talked his way into working for German intelligence and then fed everything he learned back to London. Terence Young directs the 1967 film, which leans into Chapman’s charm and unreliability rather than treating him as a straightforward hero; Romy Schneider co-stars. It’s based on Chapman’s own published account of his war, which historians have since had to pick apart from the embellishment.

Last Knights — GREAT! Movies, 11:31pm

Clive Owen plays Raiden, commander of the personal guard to a nobleman played by Morgan Freeman, in a 2015 film that borrows its shape from stories of loyal retainers avenging a wronged lord — a setting invented rather than tied to any real medieval kingdom. Once the nobleman is executed on a corrupt official’s orders, Raiden’s men are scattered and disgraced, and the film builds toward their attempt to settle the score. Kazuaki Kiriya directs.

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?

Hell in Normandy runs the early evening from 5:16pm, ahead of three films from 7:03pm. The First of the Few, with Leslie Howard and David Niven, opens; Christopher Plummer’s Triple Cross follows at 9:17pm; Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman’s Last Knights closes the night at 11:31pm.

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 leans older and grander than the channel’s usual contemporary-thriller diet — Leslie Howard’s Spitfire drama, Christopher Plummer’s double-agent picture and a Clive Owen action film carrying the evening from 7pm through to gone 1am. Anyone wanting the channel’s more typical fare will have a longer wait than usual.

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