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

GREAT! TV is a free-to-air channel that lives on vintage British and American drama and sitcoms, and it sits at Freeview 34 with three sister channels for company. It has been through four names and one full closure since Sony launched it in 2011; Narrative Entertainment has run it since 2021.

Tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026, the evening runs on drama rather than the usual sitcom strip. Little House On The Prairie carries the schedule to 7pm, closing out series three and opening series four along the way, before The Waltons takes the 7pm and 8pm hours with two episodes back to back. The Horse Whisperer (1998), starring Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas and Sam Neill, then runs from 9pm to 12:30am, breaking for a five-minute Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:52pm before picking back up at 9:57pm.

GREAT! TV Schedule: Saturday 29 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! TV schedule for Saturday 29 August 2026, on Freeview 34.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

What’s on GREAT! TV today

Saturday opens with four episodes of MAS*H from midnight, still in series three, followed by two episodes of Air Rescue and two of Highway To Heaven, each break marked by a short Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin. TJC’s teleshopping fills the schedule from 5am to 8am, before Highway To Heaven returns at 8am with a series two episode.

Little House On The Prairie then takes over for most of the day, running ten episodes back to back from 9am to 6pm. The run closes out series three by mid-afternoon and carries on into the start of series four for the last three hours, ending with 6pm’s My Ellen, in which the Ingalls girls’ friend Ellen Taylor drowns while out swimming.

GREAT! TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! TV primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026.

Little House On The Prairie — GREAT! TV, 3pm–7pm

Four episodes of Little House On The Prairie run back to back through the afternoon, closing out series three by mid-afternoon and moving into the first three episodes of series four for the run to 7pm. Only the last of the four, at 6pm, sits inside primetime: My Ellen, in which the Ingalls girls’ friend Ellen Taylor drowns while out swimming.

The Waltons — GREAT! TV, 7pm–9pm

Two episodes of The Waltons follow at 7pm and 8pm, continuing the family’s wartime storyline as news from the front reaches Walton’s Mountain.

The Horse Whisperer — GREAT! TV, 9pm

Robert Redford directs and stars in The Horse Whisperer (1998), alongside Kristin Scott Thomas and Sam Neill, as a horse trainer brought in to help a traumatised teenager and her injured horse recover after an accident. The film runs from 9pm to 12:30am, broken by a five-minute Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:52pm before picking back up at 9:57pm.

What kind of shows are on GREAT! TV

American family drama and rural nostalgia

Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons and Highway to Heaven carry the daytime hours, and two of the three are largely Michael Landon’s doing. He starred in and directed much of Little House, and created Highway to Heaven outright. The register barely shifts between them: slow, sincere, usually ending on a lesson learned.

British classic drama and sitcom

The British side is thinner but sharper. Ballykissangel and Doctor Finlay handle the gentle end. Rising Damp handles the other, with Leonard Rossiter’s Rigsby prowling a shabby Yorkshire bedsit house being appalling about more or less everything.

Stripped US sitcoms and evening films

M*A*S*H is the one the channel leans on hardest, sometimes ten episodes deep in a single night. Films turn up most evenings (disaster pictures, old British comedies) and the seams get filled with Air Rescue and the short Good News on GREAT! bulletins.

How to watch GREAT! TV

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find GREAT! TV across the main UK television platforms:

All four are free, with no subscription of any kind. Freesat is the exception: GREAT! TV was pulled from it on 7 February 2024 along with eight other Narrative Entertainment channels, and it has not come back since.

Streaming online

GREAT! TV streams free through Great! Player at great-player.com, no account or sign-in needed. The app is also available on Freeview Play, YouView, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung and LG smart TVs, plus dedicated apps on the App Store and Google Play. It carries content from GREAT! TV alongside GREAT! Movies and GREAT! Action, so you can browse the whole network from one place.

GREAT! sister channels

Four channels carry the GREAT! banner, all run by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited, and the split between them is straightforward enough.

A seasonal fifth, GREAT! Movies Christmas, runs festive films from September to December, and GREAT! Real joined the line-up in 2024 with unscripted programming. The year-round channels all share the free Great! Player service.

Frequently Asked Questions

What channel is GREAT! TV on Freeview?

GREAT! TV is on channel 34 on Freeview, free and with no subscription. It moved onto the COM6 multiplex in June 2023, which took its coverage to nearly every Freeview household.

What channel is GREAT! TV on Sky, Virgin Media and Freely?

GREAT! TV is on Sky channel 157, Virgin Media channel 170 and Freely channel 32, all free to watch. It has not returned to Freesat since being dropped in February 2024.

What’s on GREAT! TV tonight?

Tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026, Little House On The Prairie runs through to 7pm, closing out series three and opening series four along the way. The Waltons takes the 7pm and 8pm slots with two episodes back to back, then The Horse Whisperer (1998), starring Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas and Sam Neill, runs from 9pm to 12:30am, breaking for a five-minute Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:52pm before resuming at 9:57pm.

Why does GREAT! TV show so much M*A*S*H?

Because 251 episodes across eleven seasons is enough to strip nightly for years without a viewer noticing the loop. The channel applies the same maths to Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons and Highway to Heaven during the day.

Is GREAT! TV free to watch, and does it carry adverts?

Yes, entirely free on Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Freely, with no subscription. It is funded by advertising, which is also why the short Good News on GREAT! bulletins turn up between programmes.

Who owns GREAT! TV?

Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. It launched as Sony Entertainment Television in 2011, became Sony Channel in 2016, shut down in 2018, came back in 2019, and took the GREAT! TV name in May 2021 after Narrative Capital bought Sony’s UK free-to-air channels.

What are the GREAT! sister channels?

GREAT! TV sits alongside GREAT! Movies, GREAT! Action and GREAT! Romance, plus the seasonal GREAT! Movies Christmas and the unscripted GREAT! Real, which joined in 2024. All are owned by Narrative Entertainment and stream through the same free Great! Player app.

Can I watch GREAT! TV online for free?

Yes, through Great! Player at great-player.com, with apps on Freeview Play, YouView, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung and LG smart TVs. No account is needed.

Verdict

GREAT! TV knows precisely who is watching and rarely deviates from what keeps them there.

Saturday runs on drama rather than sitcoms: Little House On The Prairie carries the schedule to 7pm, then two episodes of The Waltons hold 7pm to 9pm, before The Horse Whisperer, Robert Redford’s 1998 drama with Kristin Scott Thomas and Sam Neill, takes over for the rest of the night, pausing only for a five-minute Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:52pm before resuming at 9:57pm through to 12:30am. It won’t suit anyone wanting a run of sitcoms across the evening, but the pairing of family drama with a proper film gives the night more shape than most on this channel.

Related: Freeview Channel Guide | Talking Pictures TV Guide | Films on TV This Week