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

Updated: 23 August 2026

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. Today, Sunday 23 August 2026, ten programme titles cover fifteen scheduled slots, and Midsomer Murders alone takes up four of them. Primetime runs four programmes across nearly six hours: two fresh series 18 Midsomer Murders cases at 6:05pm and 8pm, then Vera at 10pm and Wycliffe closing out the night at 11:50pm. There’s no film on ITV3 tonight.

ITV3 Schedule: Sunday 23 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Sunday 23 August 2026, on Freeview 10.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV3 today

Sunday’s daytime line-up is fairly typical for ITV3: ten titles cover the whole fifteen-slot day, and four of the fifteen slots are Midsomer Murders. Overnight opens with a feature-length Inspector Morse case at midnight (series 5, episode 1), then a short Unwind with ITV wellbeing segment at 2:10am, before three and a half hours of teleshopping through to 6am.

Breakfast belongs to a single George and Mildred episode at 6am (series 2, episode 1), followed by one long Touch of Frost case at 6:35am (series 3, episode 1) that runs past nine o’clock to 8:45am. Doc Martin takes the next hour (series 9, episode 2), before three Agatha Christie’s Poirot mysteries run back to back from 9:45am — series 3, episodes 2 and 3, then series 4, episode 2 — carrying the channel through to 2:10pm. Midsomer Murders then takes over for the rest of the day: two series 17 cases at 2:10pm and 4:10pm, running straight into the series 18 pair that opens primetime at 6:05pm, before Vera takes the 10pm slot and Wycliffe closes the night at 11:50pm.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Tonight’s ITV3 primetime, Sunday 23 August 2026, is unusually fresh territory for a channel that lives on repeats: both Midsomer Murders cases are new to the schedule rather than a rerun of last night’s pair, and Vera’s case hasn’t aired on the channel in recent weeks either.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 6:05pm

Series 18 opens the evening with Habeas Corpus (series 18, episode 1), the case that brings new forensic pathologist Kam Karimore into DCI Barnaby and DS Nelson’s orbit when a wealthy landowner turns up very much dead, then just as quickly goes missing again.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 8pm

Straight after at 8pm, The Incident at Cooper Hill (series 18, episode 2) has Barnaby and Nelson digging into decades-old RAF secrets after locals decide a forest ranger’s death has an extraterrestrial explanation.

Vera — ITV3, 10pm

At 10pm, Vera returns with Dark Angel (series 7, episode 2): a man with a history of addiction is pulled dead from the water, and Brenda Blethyn’s DCI Vera Stanhope can only name his killer by going back through a case everyone thought was finished.

Wycliffe — ITV3, 11:50pm

Closing out the night at 11:50pm, Wycliffe investigates Standing Stone (series 5, episode 3), a case that ties a Cornish folk legend to a very present-day story of obsession and betrayal.

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?

Two fresh series 18 Midsomer Murders cases back to back at 6:05pm and 8pm, then Vera at 10pm and Wycliffe closing out at 11:50pm. Four programmes fill the whole primetime run. 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 ten titles across fifteen slots is a fairly typical spread for the channel, with three Agatha Christie’s Poirot mysteries carrying the late morning and Midsomer Murders alone taking four of the day’s slots, from an early-afternoon pair through to the two cases that open primetime. There’s no film on the schedule today. The evening itself runs four programmes across nearly six hours — Midsomer Murders twice, then Vera and Wycliffe back to back — which suits a channel built on depth rather than variety. It’s a schedule for dipping in and out of rather than sitting through start to finish, and one of the easier ways into British detective and country drama on Freeview, since you can land in almost any slot from late morning onwards and still follow what’s going on.

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