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, Tuesday 4 August 2026, GREAT! TV runs four MASH episodes back to back from 7pm, switches to a Brush Strokes triple bill at 9pm, then closes the night with two episodes of Robin’s Nest from 11pm. The 7:30pm MASH, series 10 episode 11, is a repeat of the same episode the channel showed at 9:35pm last night. Channel numbers for every platform are further down the page.

GREAT! TV Schedule: Tuesday 4 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! TV schedule for Tuesday 4 August 2026, on Freeview 34.

What’s on GREAT! TV today

Daytime opens with The Waltons at 8am, Doctor Finlay’s Highland surgery drama at 9am and Hamish Macbeth’s West Highland policing at 10am. Little House on the Prairie takes over from 11am with the two-part Remember Me, then The Waltons runs three straight episodes from 1pm. The schedule then loops back on itself: the same two-part Little House story repeats at 4pm and 5pm, and Hamish Macbeth’s 10am episode airs again at 6pm, right before MAS*H takes over for the night.

The small hours are more of a mixed bag. Three MAS*H episodes, Rising Damp and two Air Rescue instalments fill the overnight run alongside a further pair of Highway to Heaven episodes, before TJC takes over the breakfast slot from 5am to 8am, teleshopping that most viewers skip straight past.

GREAT! TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! TV primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 4 August 2026.

Hamish Macbeth — GREAT! TV, 6pm

A fire at the primary school’s temporary classroom leaves Hamish hunting for an arsonist while trying to keep Lochdubh from tearing itself apart over who’s to blame. This is a rerun of the same series 3, episode 5 shown at 10am, put out again as the lead-in to the evening’s MAS*H run.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 7pm

Series 10, episode 14 sends Hawkeye and BJ a soldier who’s gone AWOL after learning his wife was having an affair. It’s one of the quieter, sadder instalments in this run, less concerned with camp comedy than with what desertion actually costs a man.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 7:30pm

Billed again as series 10, episode 11, this is the same episode GREAT! TV showed at 9:35pm last night rather than a fresh instalment. Anyone who caught it then will recognise it inside the first few minutes.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 8pm

Series 10, episode 16 brings back psychiatrist Sydney Freedman after Colonel Potter leaves shrapnel in a patient during surgery and Hawkeye has to go back in to finish the job.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 8:30pm

Episode 17 puts Hawkeye under heavy gunfire at an aid station, close enough to the fighting that he sits down to write his will. It’s a sharper, more serious close to the four-episode run than the earlier instalments.

Brush Strokes — GREAT! TV, 9pm

Series 2, episode 3 has Lionel roping Jacko in for a painting job once Lesley’s moved out, only for the work to drag Jacko into someone else’s family business and a lesson about age gaps in relationships.

Brush Strokes — GREAT! TV, 9:40pm

A run into series 3 by episode 4: Sandra is still holding Jacko at arm’s length, but a mate back from Canada with a new outlook makes married life look a lot more appealing than it did.

Brush Strokes — GREAT! TV, 10:20pm

Episode 5 finds most of Jacko’s mates settling down around him while he still isn’t sold on the idea, until Lionel dangles a management course that might just change his mind.

Robin’s Nest — GREAT! TV, 11pm

Robin is out of action in series 3, episode 1, and Albert won’t lift a finger in the kitchen, leaving the bistro’s future in doubt just as Nicholls decides what it really needs is a cabaret act.

Robin’s Nest — GREAT! TV, 11:30pm

Episode 2 has Nicholls standing as a candidate in the local elections and turning the restaurant into his campaign headquarters, a combination of canvassing and coq au vin that goes about as well as it sounds.

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

MAS*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?

Channel 157 on Sky, channel 170 on Virgin Media, channel 32 on Freely. All free. Not on Freesat since February 2024.

What’s on GREAT! TV tonight?

Tonight, Tuesday 4 August 2026, GREAT! TV runs four MAS*H episodes from 7pm, including a 7:30pm showing of series 10, episode 11 that repeats what aired at 9:35pm last night. A Brush Strokes triple bill takes over at 9pm, then two episodes of Robin’s Nest close the night from 11pm. Exact times are in the schedule table above.

Why does GREAT! TV show so much MAS*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! Movies, GREAT! Action and GREAT! Romance, plus the seasonal GREAT! Movies Christmas and the unscripted GREAT! Real. Same owner, 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 never once tries to surprise them. That is both the criticism and the compliment.

Tonight runs four MAS*H episodes from 7pm, one of them a repeat of last night’s 9:35pm slot rather than a fresh instalment, before Brush Strokes takes three episodes from 9pm and Robin’s Nest closes out the night with two from 11pm. Hamish Macbeth has the 6pm slot before it starts, and the daytime schedule loops through The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie and Doctor Finlay beforehand.

Related: Freeview Channel Guide | Talking Pictures TV Guide