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. This Saturday, 15 August 2026, the channel clears most of the afternoon and evening for Midsomer Murders, running four episodes in a row from 2:35pm, before Vera closes the night at 10:15pm with The Moth Catcher.

ITV3 Schedule: Saturday 15 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Saturday 15 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 archive-sitcom rota, and today runs through it in order. The concluding half of a Trial and Retribution case opens proceedings just before 1am, Maryna Petrenko standing trial for an attempted murder and mounting a case strong enough to worry the prosecution. A single episode of George and Mildred at 1:55am has Mildred angling for a move up the social ladder while George is perfectly content where they are, then a short Unwind with ITV wellbeing slot and three and a half hours of teleshopping carry the schedule through to 6am.

From there it’s three episodes of A Touch of Frost across the morning: a missing boy at a football club draws Frost into a child abuse case at 6am, a feature-length inquiry into an attack on a student follows at 8:05am, and a supermarket-chain kidnapping forces Frost into a race against the clock from 10:10am. The Darling Buds of May takes the midday slot with a two-parter, the Larkin twins facing boarding school and Mariette and Charley hunting for extra cash as a wedding looms, before the schedule clears for the Midsomer Murders run that carries ITV3 through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV3 primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 15 August 2026.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, from 2:35pm

Four Midsomer Murders episodes run in sequence today, starting at 2:35pm and not letting up until Vera takes over at 10:15pm. First up, at 2:35pm, a stained-glass window smashed at a priory draws Barnaby and Jones into a closed community that would rather not have them there, and a nun’s death forces the nuns to let them in properly (series 14, episode 7). At 4:30pm, the detectives look into the death of a keen birdwatcher, weighing up whether a rare sighting really was worth killing over (series 14, episode 8). By 6:20pm the setting has shifted to an aristocratic family unsettled by sightings of a headless horseman ahead of a historical re-enactment, each appearance seeming to mark another death (series 15, episode 1). The run closes at 8:20pm with a murdered barrister and a convicted killer who has an alibi that’s a little too neat for Barnaby’s liking (series 15, episode 2).

Vera — ITV3, 10:15pm

Vera’s The Moth Catcher rounds off the night at 10:15pm. Brenda Blethyn’s DCI Stanhope is called to a Northumberland estate after a young housesitter is found dead, and a second body turns up in the garden that nobody in the neighbourhood can put a name to (series 6, episode 3).

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?

Four Midsomer Murders episodes back to back from 2:35pm, then Vera’s The Moth Catcher at 10:15pm. 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: three Touch of Frost cases and a Darling Buds of May double through the morning, then the whole afternoon and evening handed over to a four-episode Midsomer Murders run before Vera closes things out. Depth is the whole proposition. It’s a weekend schedule built for dipping in and out of rather than sitting through start to finish, and one of the easier ways into British detective drama on Freeview, since you can land in almost any afternoon or evening slot and still follow what’s going on.

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