ITV3 TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On ITV3 Tonight

ITV3 is ITV’s drama channel, launched on 1 November 2004 as a home for the broadcaster’s back catalogue of detective series, period drama and classic sitcoms. Midsomer Murders, Vera, Wycliffe, Poirot: if it involves a body in a village and a detective who doesn’t much like being interrupted, it has probably run here. Today, Saturday 29 August 2026, the day runs to just six programme titles across twelve slots, and from 6am onward it’s effectively one continuous run: three A Touch of Frost films, two episodes of The Darling Buds of May, four Midsomer Murders cases and a closing Vera, back to back with no gaps until midnight. Primetime is a Midsomer Murders double at 6:10pm and 8:10pm, both feature-length, with Vera taking the 10:10pm hour. There’s no film, no Heartbeat and no archive soap strand on ITV3 today — the whole evening is Midsomer and Vera.

ITV3 Schedule: Saturday 29 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Saturday 29 August 2026, on Freeview 10.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV3 today

Saturday’s daytime looks nothing like a weekday on ITV3. There’s no Classic Emmerdale and no Classic Coronation Street today — Saturday is the one day those archive strands take off — and the whole schedule is built from just six programmes. Overnight, a single George and Mildred repeat airs at 2am (series 3, episode 5), before three and a half hours of teleshopping carries the channel through to 6am.

A Touch of Frost then takes over the entire morning: three films back to back at 6am, 8:05am and 10:10am, running through to 12:10pm. The Darling Buds of May follows with two episodes at 12:10pm and 1:15pm, and from 2:20pm it’s Midsomer Murders for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening — two series 18 cases first (Saints and Sinners at 2:20pm, Harvest of Souls at 4:15pm), then two from series 19 carry primetime (The Village That Rose from the Dead at 6:10pm, Crime and Punishment at 8:10pm). Vera closes the night at 10:10pm with Broken Promise. It’s one of the simplest days ITV3 runs all year: four strands, no repeats within a strand, and nothing but detective and country drama from six in the morning to midnight.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV3 primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 4:15pm

The second afternoon case, Harvest of Souls (series 18, episode 6), runs from 4:15pm to 6:10pm and holds the whole 6pm hour before the evening’s first Midsomer begins. A prize-winning horse kills its owner at a country fair in Whitcombe Mallet, and Barnaby is left with a field full of suspects.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 6:10pm

The Village That Rose from the Dead (series 19, episode 1) opens the evening proper at 6:10pm. A body turns up as a long-abandoned village prepares to reopen, and Neil Dudgeon’s Barnaby and Nick Hendrix’s Winter have two hours to work out who wanted it to stay buried.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 8:10pm

Crime and Punishment (series 19, episode 2) follows straight after at 8:10pm. The local Neighbourhood Watch loses one of its own inside a freezer at the community hall, and Barnaby’s inquiry turns up more resentment among the volunteers than anyone expected.

Vera — ITV3, 10:10pm

Brenda Blethyn’s Vera Stanhope closes the night at 10:10pm with Broken Promise (series 7, episode 3). A journalism student falls to his death, and Vera has to work through old grudges and an online feud before deciding whether it was really an accident.

What kind of shows are on ITV3

Detective drama and cosy crime

The backbone. Midsomer Murders, Vera, Inspector Morse, Endeavour and Wycliffe cover roughly four decades of British detective television between them, and ITV3 works through them in long runs rather than one-off repeats. You can usually pick a series up mid-week and stay with it.

Period and literary adaptation

The Darling Buds of May, and Agatha Christie’s Poirot when it comes round. David Suchet played the part across thirteen series for ITV between 1989 and 2013. These tend to be scheduled in full-series blocks.

Classic sitcom

George and Mildred and its ITV contemporaries fill the overnight and early-morning slots. Nobody’s setting an alarm for these; they’re on while the day gets going.

How to watch ITV3

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find ITV3 across the main UK television platforms:

Free on all of them, no subscription. Numbers shift regionally, so check your on-screen guide if one doesn’t match.

Streaming online

ITV3 streams live and free through ITVX, at itv.com/watch and via the ITVX app on smart TVs, mobiles, tablets and most games consoles. A free account is all that’s needed, no payment details. The ITVX library also carries individual episodes and full boxsets from the channel, Vera and Poirot included, if you’d rather not wait for a repeat to come round.

ITV3 +1 and sister channels

The +1 channel is less useful than it used to be. Since November 2023 it has broadcast only a reduced overnight window rather than a full hour-behind simulcast, so if you’ve missed the start of something, ITVX catch-up is the better bet.

ITV3 sits alongside ITV1, home to Coronation Street, Emmerdale and the network’s biggest primetime shows, and ITV4, which handles sport, action films and older action series.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is ITV3 on Freeview?

Channel 10, free to air.

What’s on ITV3 tonight?

A Midsomer Murders double opens primetime at 6:10pm and 8:10pm, both feature-length cases continuing a run that started earlier in the afternoon. Vera closes the night at 10:10pm. There’s no Heartbeat, Doc Martin or Poirot on the schedule today. Times are in the rundown above.

Can I watch ITV3 online for free?

Yes, live through ITVX on the website, the app, and most smart TVs and consoles.

Is ITV3 free to watch?

Yes, and it has been since 2004. There’s advertising, but no subscription fee on any platform.

Verdict

ITV3 has never pretended to be about new television, and today’s line-up is about as simple as the channel gets: just six programme titles across twelve slots, four of them run back to back from 6am without a gap until midnight. A Touch of Frost holds the morning, The Darling Buds of May bridges into early afternoon, and then it’s four hours of Midsomer Murders followed by Vera to close. There’s no film today and no archive soap strand either — Saturday is the one day of the week when Classic Emmerdale and Classic Coronation Street are both off. Primetime is a genuine double bill, The Village That Rose from the Dead at 6:10pm and Crime and Punishment at 8:10pm, both feature-length, before Vera’s Broken Promise takes the 10:10pm hour. It’s a schedule built for one kind of viewer rather than several, and if cosy detective drama is what you’re after, today delivers more of it in one sitting than most channels manage in a week.

Related: ITV1 TV Guide | ITV4 TV Guide | What’s On TV Tonight | Films on TV This Week