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, Inspector Morse: if it involves a body in a village and a detective who doesn’t much like being interrupted, it has probably run here. Tonight, Wednesday 5 August 2026, Midsomer Murders takes the 8pm slot before Grantchester runs two episodes back to back at 10pm and 11pm, and Trial and Retribution closes the schedule at 11:50pm. ITV3 is on Freeview channel 10 and streams free on ITVX.

ITV3 Schedule: Wednesday 5 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Wednesday 5 August 2026, on Freeview 10.

What’s on ITV3 today

Daytime on ITV3 keeps to its usual detective and soap-repeat rota, and today is a good example. Wycliffe closes out the small hours at 1:25am, teleshopping fills the gap from 2:30am, and George and Mildred opens the proper morning with two episodes from 6am. A double bill of Classic Emmerdale runs from 7:05am, then a single Classic Coronation Street at 8:40am leads into two early Suchet cases from Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Heartbeat holds the late morning with a pair of episodes from 11:30am, Midsomer Murders takes its only afternoon outing at 1:35pm with The Witches of Angel’s Rise, and the schedule then repeats the pattern in reverse: Classic Emmerdale twice from 3:35pm, Classic Coronation Street twice from 4:40pm, and Heartbeat twice more ahead of the evening.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV3 primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 5 August 2026.

Heartbeat — ITV3, 6:55pm

The second of tonight’s two Heartbeat repeats, Windows of Opportunity (series 11, episode 20), closes out the run before the evening proper starts. Mike is after a link between a string of unrelated burglaries after Tricia becomes the latest target.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 8pm

Tonight’s main event is an older case from the John Nettles years: Blood on the Saddle (series 13, episode 3), first broadcast in 2010. Ford Florey’s annual Wild West fair turns sour when a dispute over a patch of wasteland spills into something worse, and Barnaby has to work out who in the village actually wanted the land badly enough to kill for it. It’s a repeat, but it’s also the kind of episode that shows why Midsomer Murders keeps finding new viewers on ITV3 long after it first aired.

Grantchester — ITV3, 10pm

Grantchester opens its fifth series (episode 1) with the death of a student at one of Cambridge’s all-female colleges. Will and Geordie end up picking through campus politics and college societies to work out who wanted her dead, a change of scenery from the vicarage and pub that anchor most episodes.

Grantchester — ITV3, 11pm

Straight into episode 2, where Will and Leonard witness a hit-and-run that’s clearly no accident. Geordie traces the car back to two brothers whose relationship is as much a tangle as the crime itself.

Trial and Retribution — ITV3, 11:50pm

Trial and Retribution closes the night with Paradise Lost – Part One (series 10, episode 5), the start of a three-part case. A schoolteacher is found dead and her boyfriend is arrested, but he says he can’t remember what happened.

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?

Midsomer Murders at 8pm, then two episodes of Grantchester at 10pm and 11pm, and Trial and Retribution from 11:50pm. Full 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 is a good illustration: an early-afternoon Midsomer Murders case from the Nettles era, an 8pm repeat of an older Midsomer Murders story, then Grantchester running twice and Trial and Retribution carrying the channel past midnight. Depth is the whole proposition. If you already know the channel, you know exactly what a Wednesday like this looks like. If you don’t, it remains one of the easiest ways into British detective drama on Freeview, largely because you can drop in on almost any afternoon or evening and find something halfway through a run.

Related: ITV1 TV Guide | ITV4 TV Guide | What’s On TV Tonight