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

Published: 24 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, Tuesday 25 August 2026, eleven programme titles cover the day’s 23 scheduled slots, with George and Mildred, Classic Emmerdale, Classic Coronation Street, Poirot and Heartbeat each repeated once through the morning and afternoon. Primetime starts early: a Heartbeat double from 5:50pm, then Vera at 8pm, Lewis at 10pm and Trial and Retribution closing the night at 11:50pm. There’s no film on ITV3 tonight, and Midsomer Murders’ only outing today is a single afternoon case rather than an evening return; Wycliffe isn’t on the schedule at all.

ITV3 Schedule: Tuesday 25 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Tuesday 25 August 2026, on Freeview 10.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV3 today

Tuesday’s daytime line-up leans heavily on doubled-up archive strands. Overnight opens with a George and Mildred repeat, Opportunity Knocks, at 1:45am, then a short Unwind with ITV segment at 2:15am, before four hours of teleshopping through to 6am.

Breakfast runs a George and Mildred double from 6am, then two archive strands back to back: Classic Emmerdale from 7:05am and Classic Coronation Street from 8:05am, both 2009 vintage episodes rather than tonight’s real soaps, which are off air entirely tonight because of live football on ITV1. Agatha Christie’s Poirot takes the late morning with a double from 9:10am — The Yellow Iris, then The Case of the Missing Will — before a Heartbeat double from 11:30am carries the channel to 1:35pm. The afternoon has a single Midsomer Murders case, Blood Will Out, at 1:35pm, then repeats the same Classic Emmerdale and Classic Coronation Street pairing from 3:35pm before Heartbeat’s evening double opens at 5:50pm.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV3 primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 25 August 2026.

Heartbeat — ITV3, 5:50pm

The evening effectively starts here rather than at 6pm. In Mackerel Sky, a former convict with an old grudge against Sergeant Merton comes back to the village and uses Jenny to get at him, while Vernon busies himself organising a charity auction. It runs until 6:55pm, when a second episode follows straight on.

Heartbeat — ITV3, 6:55pm

Absent Friends closes out the double: a farming couple go missing on the moors, leaving Jenny and Liz in charge of their children while the search for the parents gets under way.

Vera — ITV3, 8pm

The night’s strongest hour, and a change from last night, when Midsomer Murders held this slot. Brenda Blethyn’s DCI Vera Stanhope investigates after a university student falls to his death from a building in suspicious circumstances; Broken Promise, the third case of series seven, takes the full two hours to work outward from his friends and family to whoever wanted him gone.

Lewis — ITV3, 10pm

Fearful Symmetry sends Lewis and Hathaway well outside Oxford’s usual colleges. A babysitter’s murder leads them through squats, a swingers’ scene and a fetish photography studio — an unusually wide cross-section of the city for this show.

Trial and Retribution — ITV3, 11:50pm

Shooter — Part One opens a two-parter: DS Satchell witnesses a gang killing after a jewellery raid, and his own family becomes a target for revenge as a result. Lynda La Plante’s series has always been as interested in what the job costs its detectives as in who did it, and this case puts that directly to the test.

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 opens the evening at 5:50pm and 6:55pm, then Vera at 8pm, Lewis at 10pm and Trial and Retribution at 11:50pm. Five programmes fill the whole primetime run, with Midsomer Murders confined to a single afternoon case today rather than an evening slot. 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 eleven titles across 23 slots is a fairly typical spread for the channel, with a run of doubled-up archive strands carrying the morning and afternoon before Heartbeat opens the evening more than two hours early. There’s no film on the schedule today, and Midsomer Murders gets a single afternoon outing rather than an evening return, with Vera taking the primetime slot it left behind and Wycliffe absent altogether. The evening still runs five programmes from 5:50pm to well past midnight — Heartbeat twice, then Vera, Lewis and Trial and Retribution in succession — 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