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, Friday 21 August 2026, The Irish R.M. repeats at 6pm, the same series two, episode four that had its first UK airing at 10am this morning. Four episodes of M*A*S*H then fill 7pm to 8:30pm (series two, episodes nine to twelve), before the 9pm slot hands over to As Good As It Gets, the 1997 comedy drama that pairs Jack Nicholson’s misanthropic novelist with Helen Hunt’s overworked waitress. A short Good News on GREAT! bulletin breaks in at 9:45pm; the film resumes moments later and runs through to 11:50pm, when a further episode of M*A*S*H closes out the night.

GREAT! TV Schedule: Friday 21 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! TV schedule for Friday 21 August 2026, on Freeview 34.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! TV today

Bramwell opens the working day at 9am with a Victorian hospital-drama episode from series two, followed by a new instalment of The Irish R.M. at 10am — series two, episode four, built around a Christmas Eve carriage mishap and an unlikely casualty called Oweneen the Sprat. From 11am GREAT! TV moves into Little House on the Prairie, then hands the early afternoon to three episodes of The Waltons from 1pm. Both Little House on the Prairie episodes repeat from 4pm, running into early evening, when this morning’s Irish R.M. instalment airs again at 6pm to open primetime.

Earlier, the overnight run opens with four episodes of M*A*S*H stretching either side of midnight, then two editions of the rescue documentary Air Rescue from 2am. Highway to Heaven doubles up from 3am, each of its two episodes followed by a Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin. TJC’s teleshopping then holds the schedule from 5am through to 8am, when The Waltons takes the breakfast slot ahead of Bramwell at 9am.

GREAT! TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! TV primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 21 August 2026.

The Irish R.M. — GREAT! TV, 6pm

The Irish R.M. repeats at 6pm (series 2, episode 4), the same instalment that had its first UK airing this morning. It’s Christmas Eve, and a carriage mishap leaves the Yeates family tending an unlikely casualty — a mountain-dwelling local everyone calls Oweneen the Sprat.

Four episodes of M*A*S*H — GREAT! TV, 7pm–8:30pm

GREAT! TV runs four M*A*S*H episodes back to back tonight, series 2, episodes 9 to 12. Hawkeye writes home about a bigoted patient at 7pm, dodges a sniper’s interruption of a picnic at 7:30pm, holds the camp together through a flu outbreak at 8pm, and chases down a scarce incubator at 8:30pm.

As Good As It Gets — GREAT! TV, 9pm

As Good As It Gets, the 1997 romantic comedy with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, takes the 9pm slot and runs through to 11:50pm, broken only by a short Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:45pm. Nicholson plays a rigidly self-contained novelist whose routines unravel around a waitress raising a sick son and a gay neighbour he can’t quite bring himself to dislike.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 11:50pm

The night closes with a repeat of the 7pm M*A*S*H episode (series 2, episode 9), Hawkeye’s letter home about a patient who insists on blood from a donor of his own race.

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, Friday 21 August 2026, The Irish R.M. repeats at 6pm (series 2, episode 4). Four episodes of M*A*S*H run from 7pm to 8:30pm (series 2, episodes 9 to 12), then the 1997 As Good As It Gets, starring Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, takes the 9pm slot, interrupted by a short Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:45pm before resuming. A further episode of M*A*S*H closes primetime at 11:50pm.

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.

Friday’s daytime rotates The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie around a new episode of The Irish R.M. at 10am. The evening mixes the usual repetition with one genuine change of pace: The Irish R.M. repeats at 6pm, four episodes of M*A*S*H hold primetime through to 8:30pm, then As Good As It Gets takes the 9pm slot, split by a short news bulletin, before a further M*A*S*H episode closes the night at 11:50pm. It is still a schedule built on repetition rather than variety, and it still works for the audience GREAT! TV is chasing.

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