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.

Thursday settles into the channel’s usual M*A*S*H strip, with a Carry On film taking the 9pm hour.

GREAT! TV Schedule: Thursday 13 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! TV schedule for Thursday 13 August 2026, on Freeview 34.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! TV today

Daytime opens with The Waltons at 8am, Olivia turning to her aunt for help while Jim-Bob weighs up desperate measures over a job (series 6, episode 12). Bramwell follows at 9am: Eleanor is flattered by Dr Samuel Hunter’s attention until his housekeeper’s sudden death drags up buried secrets (series 1, episode 4). The Irish R.M. gets a new outing at 10am, the Major called in to referee two feuding fishing families over a disputed catch, with a claimed assault and an unwelcome marriage offer thrown into the row for good measure (series 1, episode 4). Little House on the Prairie runs two episodes from 11am: a down-on-his-luck conman tries to fleece Walnut Grove’s charitable townsfolk, then Nellie Oleson is badly hurt falling from a horse (series 3, episodes 1 and 2). The Waltons returns at 1pm as Daisy accepts John-Boy’s proposal only for a secret about her to surface (series 6, episode 21), Grandma’s overprotected homecoming follows at 2pm (episode 22), and Jim-Bob falls for a woman torn over training as a nun at 3pm (series 7, episode 2). The same two Little House on the Prairie episodes repeat at 4pm and 5pm, and the 10am Irish R.M. airs again at 6pm right before the evening’s M*A*S*H run begins.

Overnight, two M*A*S*H episodes from the show’s first series open the schedule at midnight and 12:30am: Hot Lips grows jealous over a rival for Hawkeye and Trapper’s attention, then Hawkeye is made chief surgeon to Frank Burns’s fury and Klinger makes his first appearance in a dress. Rising Damp at 1am has Rigsby convinced a scream in the night means a prowler is loose, and Man About The House at 1:30am finds George needled that Chrissy went behind his back over a party. Two editions of the rescue documentary Air Rescue follow from 2am, then Highway to Heaven runs an hour from 3am and again from 4am, each followed by a Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin. 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, Thursday 13 August 2026.

The Irish R.M. — GREAT! TV, 6pm

The Major’s second outing of the day repeats the 10am premiere: two fishing families are at odds over an alleged assault, a proposal and a disputed boat’s share, and it falls to him to sort it out (series 1, episode 4).

M*A*S*H — GREAT! TV, 7pm to 8:30pm

Four M*A*S*H episodes run back to back from 7pm. Hawkeye’s anger at how Sgt Baker has treated a young Korean girl opens the block, then the 4077th get roped into a propaganda film, Hawkeye fakes a breakdown to dodge an endless run of surgery, and a helicopter pilot’s anxiety over his marriage closes it out at 8:30pm (series 1, episodes 5 to 8).

Carry on Regardless — GREAT! TV, 9pm

Sid James runs a temp agency that keeps sending Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims into jobs they’re hopelessly unsuited for in this 1961 entry in the Carry On series. It’s one film shown in two parts, not two separate showings: the Good News on GREAT! bulletin interrupts at 9:52pm, and the comedy resumes at 9:57pm.

Robin’s Nest — GREAT! TV, 10:55pm

Two episodes close out the sitcom hour. First, an old flame’s return has Nicholls weighing up marriage while Robin plans a dinner to help things along; then Robin panics over a forgotten birthday and leaves Albert holding the bistro together (series 3, episodes 7 and 8).

M*A*S*H — GREAT! TV, 11:55pm

The night ends with a repeat of the 7pm episode, Hawkeye still furious at Sgt Baker’s treatment of the young girl he calls his “Moose” (series 1, episode 5).

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, Thursday 13 August 2026, The Irish R.M. repeats at 6pm, then four M*A*S*H episodes run from 7pm to 9pm. Carry on Regardless, the 1961 Carry On comedy, takes the 9pm slot, pausing for the Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:52pm before resuming at 9:57pm, and two episodes of Robin’s Nest lead into a final M*A*S*H repeat at 11:55pm.

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.

The daytime schedule works on its own loop, cycling The Waltons, Bramwell and Little House on the Prairie through the morning and afternoon. The one oddity is the news bulletin dropped into the middle of the Carry On film — a five-minute interruption that tells you exactly how much this channel expects you to be paying attention.

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