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, Wednesday 5 August 2026, GREAT! TV runs four MASH episodes back to back from 7pm, then hands 9pm to A Caribbean Mystery, the 1983 Agatha Christie film with Helen Hayes as Miss Marple. The film pauses for a short news break at 9:52pm and picks up again at 9:57pm. Two more MASH episodes close the night from 11pm. Channel numbers for every platform are further down the page.

GREAT! TV Schedule: Wednesday 5 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! TV schedule for Wednesday 5 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 two standalone episodes, The Gift and His Father’s Son, then The Waltons runs three straight episodes from 1pm covering the two-part The Grandchild and The First Casualty. The schedule then loops back on itself: the same Little House pair 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. Four MAS*H episodes, two Air Rescue instalments and two Highway to Heaven episodes fill the overnight run, 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, Wednesday 5 August 2026.

Hamish Macbeth — GREAT! TV, 6pm

Lochdubh gears up for its annual shinty match against Dunbracken (series 3, episode 6), and Hamish has a feeling the visitors won’t play entirely straight.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 7pm

Promotion Commotion (series 10, episode 18) hands Hawkeye, BJ and Charles the job of deciding which enlisted men get promoted, and they quickly regret it once the bribes and threats start rolling in.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 7:30pm

Heroes (series 10, episode 19) turns the camp into a media circus when boxing champion Gentleman Joe collapses with a stroke during a publicity visit, hitting Father Mulcahy hard since the boxer was his childhood hero.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 8pm

Sons and Bowlers (series 10, episode 20) sets Potter’s bowling match against a neighbouring Marine unit alongside news that Hawkeye’s father needs surgery back home.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 8:30pm

Picture This (series 10, episode 21) follows Potter’s attempt to get the whole unit together for a group photograph, undone by a running feud between bunkmates Hawkeye, BJ and Charles.

A Caribbean Mystery — GREAT! TV, 9pm

Miss Marple swaps St Mary Mead for the Caribbean in this 1983 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel, with Helen Hayes taking the role of the detective. Sent away on doctor’s orders for a rest, she can’t leave alone a guest’s death that everyone else is happy to call natural causes. GREAT! TV breaks for its regular bulletin at 9:52pm and returns to the film at 9:57pm to finish the story.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 11pm

Promotion Commotion (series 10, episode 18) repeats from earlier in the evening.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 11:30pm

Heroes (series 10, episode 19) closes out the night for a second time.

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, Wednesday 5 August 2026, GREAT! TV runs four MASH episodes from 7pm to 8:30pm, then A Caribbean Mystery, the 1983 Agatha Christie film starring Helen Hayes as Miss Marple, takes over at 9pm. The film breaks for the news at 9:52pm and resumes at 9:57pm, before two more MASH episodes 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.

Hamish Macbeth has the 6pm slot, then four MASH episodes run from 7pm to 8:30pm before A Caribbean Mystery takes 9pm, breaking briefly for the news at 9:52pm and returning at 9:57pm to see Miss Marple’s Caribbean case through to the end. Two of the evening’s MASH episodes repeat from 11pm to close the night, 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