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

Published: 2 September 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, Thursday 3 September 2026, The Irish R.M. opens its run at 6pm with “Great Uncle McCarthy”, the first episode of series one. MAS*H then carries straight on from Wednesday’s cast change with the second half of the same opening week: four episodes back to back from 7pm to 9pm — “The Late Cpt Pierce”, “Hey Doc”, “The Bus” and “Dear Mildred”. At 9pm the channel drops the sitcom entirely for Kind Hearts and Coronets, the 1949 Ealing black comedy in which Dennis Price schemes his way through a line of relatives all played by Alec Guinness, split by a five-minute Good News on GREAT! at 9:52pm and running to 11:25pm, when two episodes of Robin’s Nest close the night.

GREAT! TV Schedule: Thursday 3 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete GREAT! TV schedule for Thursday 3 September 2026, on Freeview 34.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on GREAT! TV today

Thursday opens just after midnight with the tail end of Wednesday’s MAS*H block, three more series-four episodes running through to Rising Damp at 1:30am. Two episodes of Air Rescue follow, then two of Highway To Heaven either side of 3am and 4am, each break marked by a short Good News on GREAT! Extra bulletin, before TJC’s teleshopping fills the schedule from 5am to 8am.

The Waltons opens the daytime proper at 8am, and Bramwell takes the 9am slot. Highway To Heaven gets its first outing of the day at 10am, before Little House on the Prairie runs two episodes from 11am. The Waltons returns for three more episodes from 1pm to 3pm, series 8’s nineteenth to twenty-first, then the same two Little House on the Prairie episodes repeat exactly at 4pm and 5pm, and The Irish R.M. opens series one at 6pm with “Great Uncle McCarthy” ahead of the evening’s MAS*H run.

GREAT! TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the GREAT! TV primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 3 September 2026. The Irish R.M. opens series one at 6pm, but the evening really belongs to two things: the back half of MAS*H’s series-four launch week, and a straight switch to a 1949 Ealing comedy at 9pm.

The Irish R.M. — GREAT! TV, 6pm

Peter Bowles plays a British magistrate posted to rural Ireland in the 1890s. Series one opens with “Great Uncle McCarthy”, a story built around a regimental ball rather than any courtroom business.

MAS*H — GREAT! TV, 7pm–8:30pm

Four episodes run straight through, and together they finish the job Wednesday’s opener started. “The Late Cpt Pierce” has the army wrongly listing Hawkeye as dead, “Hey Doc” and “The Bus” keep the unit’s black-market economy and cramped quarters running, and “Dear Mildred” has Potter writing home for an anniversary. It’s the same series-four cast now fully bedded in, past the Trapper/BJ handover — four half-hours, no filler.

Kind Hearts and Coronets — GREAT! TV, 9pm

The sitcom stops for the night here. Kind Hearts and Coronets is the 1949 Ealing black comedy in which Dennis Price’s Louis Mazzini works his way, politely and methodically, through the relatives standing between him and a dukedom — all eight of them played by Alec Guinness. A five-minute Good News on GREAT! bulletin splits the film at 9:52pm; it resumes at 9:57pm and runs to 11:25pm. Nearly eighty years old and still one of the sharpest comedies of manners the channel ever schedules.

Robin’s Nest — GREAT! TV, 11:25pm

Two episodes close the night, “Sorry Partner” then “Albert’s Ball”, well past the point most viewers will still be watching.

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 (war pictures, old British comedies, the odd action thriller) and the seams get filled with 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 3 September 2026, The Irish R.M. opens series one at 6pm with “Great Uncle McCarthy”. MAS*H then plays out the rest of series four’s opening week: four episodes from 7pm to 9pm, “The Late Cpt Pierce”, “Hey Doc”, “The Bus” and “Dear Mildred”. At 9pm the channel switches to Kind Hearts and Coronets, the 1949 Ealing comedy starring Dennis Price and Alec Guinness, split by a five-minute Good News on GREAT! at 9:52pm and running to 11:25pm, when two episodes of Robin’s Nest close the night.

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.

Thursday’s evening is a tidier version of the pattern than usual. The Irish R.M. opens its own run at 6pm, then M*A*S*H finishes what Wednesday started: four episodes carry series four’s opening week to a close, cast now settled after the Trapper/BJ handover. Kind Hearts and Coronets, Ealing’s 1949 black comedy with Dennis Price and Alec Guinness, takes over completely at 9pm, split by a short Good News on GREAT! bulletin, before two episodes of Robin’s Nest close things out. A sitcom run and a genuine classic film, back to back — a better pairing than the channel usually bothers with.

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