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.

ITV3 Schedule: Thursday 13 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Thursday 13 August 2026, on Freeview 10.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV3 today

Daytime on ITV3 keeps to its usual detective and soap-repeat rota, and today is a good example. Agatha Christie’s Poirot’s The King of Clubs opens the day at 1:25am, a case built around deception at a film studio where the question isn’t who died, but whether a murder happened at all. A short Unwind with ITV wellbeing filler follows at 2:20am, and teleshopping fills the gap from 2:30am until George and Mildred returns at 6am with two episodes back to back: George’s small endowment causing him grief in one, then Mildred’s sister Ethel arriving to stay just as George trades the car in for a broken-down caravan in the next. A single episode of Classic Emmerdale airs at 7:05am, then two episodes of Classic Coronation Street from 8:10am lead into a further pair of Suchet-era Poirot cases, Double Sin and The Adventure of the Cheap Flat, from 9:10am. Heartbeat holds the late morning with two episodes from 11:30am, one bringing a songwriter to Aidensfield in search of somewhere quiet to work, the other putting Gina in the middle of a row between a farmer and the ramblers crossing his land. Midsomer Murders makes its only appearance of the day at 1:35pm with Book of the Dead, in which the death of an author whose book sparked a nationwide treasure hunt leaves Barnaby working through a group of dedicated seekers for a motive. The schedule then repeats the pattern in reverse: two more episodes of Classic Emmerdale from 3:35pm, Classic Coronation Street twice more from 4:40pm, and Heartbeat twice further ahead of the evening.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV3 primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 13 August 2026.

Heartbeat — ITV3, 5:50pm & 6:55pm

Two editions of the Yorkshire police drama fill the run-up to primetime (series 12, episodes 7 and 8). In the first, livestock are dying across the district and a farm worker turns up dead, leaving Mike to work out whether the two are connected; Alfred, meanwhile, abandons David in Whitby. In the second, Tricia gets drawn into a domestic dispute and Vernon pushes his horticultural ambitions further than the village is ready for.

Vera — ITV3, 8pm

Vera takes the anchor 8pm slot tonight with The Sea Glass (series 6, episode 4). A trawlerman reported missing turns up dead in the water, and Brenda Blethyn’s detective works her way into the close-knit fishing family he left behind, the kind of small, guarded community where everyone has a version of events and none of them quite match. It’s the sort of case Vera does best: less about the chase than about sitting with people until they say something they didn’t mean to.

Grantchester — ITV3, 10pm & 11pm

Back-to-back cases for Alphy and Geordie tonight (series 9, episodes 7 and 8). The first follows the disappearance of a young woman that turns out to be tangled up with a journalist’s murder, while Leonard grows uneasy about how much sway Sam has over Daniel. The second sends Geordie and Larry after the truth behind a reclusive man’s death on the streets of Cambridge, and what they find isn’t what they expected.

Trial and Retribution — ITV3, 11:50pm

Mirror Image concludes at 11:50pm (series 10, episode 11). The Delany twins’ alibi still looks solid on paper, but Walker and Connor aren’t convinced, certain something in the case has been passed over.

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 Heartbeat double, Vera, two episodes of Grantchester and the concluding part of a Trial and Retribution case. Times are in the primetime 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 fair illustration of what that means in practice: archive soaps through the afternoon, two Poirot cases, a single Midsomer Murders outing, and an evening built around Vera before a run of primetime repeats carries the channel past midnight. Depth is the whole proposition. If you already know the channel, a Thursday like this needs no explanation. If you don’t, it’s still one of the easier ways into British detective drama on Freeview, since you can drop into almost any afternoon or evening and land halfway through something worth finishing.

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