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 12 August 2026, The Irish R.M. takes the 6pm slot before GREAT! TV settles into its usual MASH strip: four episodes run from 7pm to 9pm. The 9pm film is Agatha Christie’s Sparkling Cyanide, an 80s-set mystery with Anthony Andrews and Deborah Raffin, and two further MASH episodes close the schedule at 11pm and 11:30pm.

GREAT! TV Schedule: Wednesday 12 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! TV schedule for Wednesday 12 August 2026, on Freeview 34.

What’s on GREAT! TV today

Daytime opens with the second half of a Waltons Christmas two-parter at 8am (series 6, episode 11), followed by Bramwell’s Victorian medical drama at 9am (series 1, episode 3). The Irish R.M. gets its new outing at 10am, flagged New in the schedule (series 1, episode 3), before Little House on the Prairie takes over from 11am with two episodes back to back (series 2, episodes 21 and 22). The Waltons returns at 1pm with a family-history episode (series 6, episode 18), then the two-part “The Return” fills 2pm and 3pm (series 6, episode 20). The schedule then loops: the same two Little House on the Prairie episodes repeat at 4pm and 5pm, and the Irish R.M. instalment from 10am airs again at 6pm, right before the evening’s MAS*H run begins.

Three MAS*H episodes from series eleven open the small hours from 12:20am, dealing with a whistleblowing dilemma for Colonel Potter, a wounded soldier’s lesson for Private Kurland, and a time capsule that gets Margaret and Hawkeye reminiscing. Two editions of the rescue documentary Air Rescue follow from 2am (series 4, episodes 1 and 2), then Highway to Heaven runs an hour from 3am and again from 4am (series 3, episodes 21 and 22), with a Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin after each one. TJC fills the breakfast slot from 5am to 8am.

GREAT! TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! TV primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 12 August 2026.

The Irish R.M. — GREAT! TV, 6pm

The Irish R.M. gets a second airing at 6pm, a repeat of the morning’s episode in which Sally’s neighbour Mr Shoot bungles a horse purchase and Flurry starts to resent the attention Shoot pays Sally.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 7pm, 7:30pm, 8pm & 8:30pm

Four episodes from the show’s first season fill the two hours before the film. Hawkeye tries to scrape together tuition money for houseboy Ho-Jon, black-market medical supplies go missing in Seoul, Hot Lips grows possessive over a rival nurse’s attention, and Frank Burns fumes when Hawkeye is made chief surgeon in the episode that introduces Jamie Farr’s Klinger.

Agatha Christie’s Sparkling Cyanide — GREAT! TV, 9pm

The Wednesday film is a 1983 Christie adaptation moved into its own decade, all shoulder pads and cocktail glasses. Anthony Andrews and Deborah Raffin lead a cast gathered for George and Rosemary’s wedding anniversary, a party where one of the toasts turns out to be poisoned.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 11pm & 11:30pm

The same two season-one episodes that opened the 7pm run repeat at 11pm and 11:30pm, a second chance for anyone who caught the film instead.

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?

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, Wednesday 12 August 2026, The Irish R.M. plays at 6pm, then four MASH episodes run from 7pm to 9pm. Agatha Christie’s Sparkling Cyanide, an 80s-set mystery film with Anthony Andrews and Deborah Raffin, takes the 9pm slot, and two more MASH episodes close the night at 11pm and 11:30pm.

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! 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.

The Irish R.M. takes the 6pm slot for the second time that day, a repeat of its own 10am premiere, before four MASH episodes carry the schedule from 7pm to 9pm. Agatha Christie’s Sparkling Cyanide, an 80s-set adaptation with Anthony Andrews and Deborah Raffin, fills the 9pm hour, and two further MASH episodes close out the night at 11pm and 11:30pm. The daytime schedule works on its own loop, cycling The Waltons, Bramwell and Little House on the Prairie through the morning and afternoon before handing over to the evening’s main event.

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