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 Sunday, 16 August 2026, the channel again clears most of the afternoon and evening for Midsomer Murders, running four episodes back to back from 2:15pm to 10pm, before Vera’s The Sea Glass takes the 10pm hour and Wycliffe closes out the night at 11:50pm.

ITV3 Schedule: Sunday 16 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Sunday 16 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. Inspector Morse’s Masonic Mysteries opens the day just after midnight, Morse himself arrested on suspicion of murder while a loyal Lewis starts to wonder if the boss really has done it this time. A short Unwind with ITV wellbeing slot at 2:15am and three and a half hours of teleshopping carry the schedule through to 6am.

George and Mildred gets the morning going at 6am, the Ropers weighing up a move to a smarter part of town with Mildred keen to impress and George happy where he is. A Touch of Frost follows at 6:35am, a body pulled from Denton Canal leading Jack into a tangle of blackmail, jealousy and a missing dance partner, then Doc Martin at 8:50am finds the GP barred from practising ahead of a disciplinary hearing while his patients keep turning up regardless. Three Agatha Christie’s Poirot cases fill the rest of the morning: the two-part Peril at End House from 9:50am, a Cornish-resort heiress with more enemies than she admits to, and The ABC Murders from midday, Poirot working through an alphabet of English towns to catch a killer. The schedule clears at 2:15pm 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, Sunday 16 August 2026.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 6:05pm

Barnaby and Jones open the evening with The Sicilian Defence (series 15, episode 5). A year-old attack that left Harriet Farmer for dead gets a second look once a chess club and her vanished boyfriend Finn enter the picture.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 8pm

The double bill continues at 8pm with Schooled in Murder (series 15, episode 6). A giant wheel of cheese from the village’s prize-winning dairy is the unlikely murder weapon, and Barnaby has a farm full of suspects to work through before closing time.

Vera — ITV3, 10pm

Brenda Blethyn’s Vera takes the 10pm hour with The Sea Glass (series 6, episode 4). A trawlerman’s body comes up in the nets off the Northumberland coast, and the case pulls Vera into the resentments simmering inside his fishing-village family.

Wycliffe — ITV3, 11:50pm

The night’s run of detectives ends with Wycliffe’s Time Out (series 5, episode 2), a case that opens with a tip from a woman on the street about a client’s confession and turns on whether Kersey can trust a word of it.

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 2:15pm, then Vera’s The Sea Glass at 10pm and Wycliffe’s Time Out at 11:50pm. 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: a single Touch of Frost case, three Poirot outings and a Doc Martin surgery through the morning, then the whole afternoon and evening handed over to a four-episode Midsomer Murders run before Vera and Wycliffe close 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