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, Sunday 16 August 2026, six episodes of The Waltons run back to back from 9:10am to 5:10pm, then Carry on Regardless opens the evening either side of the 6:02pm Good News on GREAT! bulletin. Around the World in 80 Days, the 2021 adventure series with David Tennant as Phileas Fogg, takes the 7pm hour, and Road To Perdition, Sam Mendes’s 2002 gangster drama starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, fills the 9pm slot. The night closes with M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, the show’s famous 1983 series finale, from 11:30pm.

GREAT! TV Schedule: Sunday 16 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! TV schedule for Sunday 16 August 2026, on Freeview 34.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! TV today

Highway to Heaven opens the day proper at 8:10am (series 2, episode 6), and from 9:10am GREAT! TV settles into six back-to-back episodes of The Waltons, moving through the back half of series six, that run without a break until 5:10pm. Carry on Regardless then carries the schedule into the evening, split around the 6:02pm Good News on GREAT! bulletin and finishing just before 7pm.

Overnight, two episodes of Robin’s Nest open the graveyard shift from 12:05am, followed by two of Rising Damp and two of the rescue documentary Air Rescue. Highway to Heaven doubles up again from 3am, its two episodes split by a Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin, before TJC’s teleshopping takes over the schedule from 5am through to 8am.

GREAT! TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! TV primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 16 August 2026.

Carry on Regardless — GREAT! TV, 5:10pm

The 1961 Carry On entry sends Sid James’s temp agency out on another day of mismatched postings, split by the 6:02pm Good News on GREAT! bulletin. It’s the broadest comedy of the evening and eases the schedule into the two features that follow.

Around the World in 80 Days — GREAT! TV, 7pm

David Tennant plays Phileas Fogg in this 2021 adaptation of the Jules Verne adventure, held over the 7:52pm Good News on GREAT! break before finishing just before 9pm. It’s the more polished piece of drama in an evening otherwise built around older material.

Road To Perdition — GREAT! TV, 9pm

Sam Mendes’s 2002 gangster picture takes the 9pm slot, again split by a Good News bulletin at 9:52pm. Tom Hanks plays a Depression-era hitman forced to go on the run with his son after they witness Paul Newman’s mob boss order a killing, in a film as admired for Conrad L. Hall’s Oscar-winning photography as for its story.

MAS*H: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen — GREAT! TV, 11:30pm

GREAT! TV closes the night with the M*A*S*H series finale, first broadcast as a two-and-a-half-hour television event in February 1983 to bring the Korean War sitcom to a close after eleven seasons. It drew an audience of more than 105 million Americans and still stands as the most-watched series finale in US television history.

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, Sunday 16 August 2026, Around the World in 80 Days, the 2021 adaptation with David Tennant as Phileas Fogg, takes the 7pm hour, paused for a Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 7:52pm. Road To Perdition, the 2002 gangster drama with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, follows at 9pm, split again by a Good News break at 9:52pm. The night closes with M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, the show’s 1983 series finale, from 11:30pm.

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.

Sunday’s daytime belongs to The Waltons, six episodes running back to back from 9:10am to 5:10pm, before Carry on Regardless eases the schedule into the evening. Around the World in 80 Days takes the 7pm hour and Road To Perdition follows at 9pm, both split by the short Good News on GREAT! bulletins that punctuate the whole day. The night closes with the M*A*S*H series finale, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, from 11:30pm. It is a weekend schedule built around long, familiar runs rather than a nightly rotation of different shows.

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