GREAT! TV TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On GREAT! TV Tonight

Published: 27 August 2026

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 28 August 2026, GREAT! TV runs a single film in primetime rather than the usual all-sitcom strip. The Irish R.M. opens the evening at 6pm, a repeat of this morning’s outing rather than anything new, before four episodes of MAS*H run in series order from 7pm to 9pm. Rob Roy (1995), with Liam Neeson, John Hurt and Brian Cox, then takes over for the rest of the night, breaking for a five-minute Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:45pm before resuming at 9:50pm and running through to the close of the schedule at midnight.

GREAT! TV Schedule: Friday 28 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! TV schedule for Friday 28 August 2026, on Freeview 34.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

What’s on GREAT! TV today

Friday opens overnight with three MAS*H episodes from 12:25am, still in series three, then two episodes of Air Rescue and two of Highway To Heaven, each break marked by a short Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin. TJC’s teleshopping takes the schedule from 5am to 8am.

The Waltons opens the daytime proper at 8am, and Bramwell follows at 9am. The Irish R.M. airs a new series three episode, The Friend of Her Youth, at 10am, before Little House On The Prairie takes the late morning with two episodes back to back. Three more episodes of The Waltons run from 1pm to 4pm, and both of those late-morning Little House episodes repeat later on, at 4pm and 5pm, before the Irish R.M. itself repeats its 10am episode at 6pm.

GREAT! TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! TV primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 28 August 2026.

The Irish R.M. — GREAT! TV, 6pm

The 6pm slot goes round again on The Irish R.M., repeating the series three episode, The Friend of Her Youth, that had its new outing on the channel this morning at 10am.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 7pm–9pm

Four MAS*H episodes fill the hour and a half before the film, working through series three in order: Alcoholics Unanimous at 7pm, There Is Nothing Like a Nurse at 7:30pm, Adam’s Rib at 8pm and A Full Rich Day at 8:30pm. It’s the channel’s usual strip, just running a touch longer than most nights.

Rob Roy — GREAT! TV, 9pm

Michael Caton-Jones’s 1995 telling of the Rob Roy MacGregor story takes over at 9pm, with Liam Neeson in the title role opposite John Hurt’s Marquess of Montrose and Brian Cox as the scheming factor Killearn. The film breaks for a five-minute Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:45pm, then resumes at 9:50pm and runs through to close the schedule at midnight.

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 28 August 2026, GREAT! TV runs a single film in primetime. The Irish R.M. opens at 6pm with a repeat of this morning’s new episode, then four episodes of MAS*H run in series order from 7pm to 9pm. Rob Roy (1995), starring Liam Neeson, John Hurt and Brian Cox, takes over at 9pm, breaking for a five-minute Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:45pm before resuming at 9:50pm and running through to close the schedule at midnight.

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 splits the evening cleanly in two: four MAS*H episodes run in series order from 7pm to 9pm, then Rob Roy, Michael Caton-Jones’s 1995 historical drama with Liam Neeson, John Hurt and Brian Cox, takes over for the rest of the night, pausing only for a five-minute Good News on GREAT! bulletin at 9:45pm before resuming at 9:50pm through to close of play at midnight. It won’t suit anyone wanting a run of different sitcoms across the evening, but the pairing of a familiar sitcom block with a proper film gives the night more shape than most on this channel.

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