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

Published: 26 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, Thursday 27 August 2026, ten programme titles cover the day’s 21 scheduled slots, with George and Mildred, Classic Emmerdale, Classic Coronation Street, Poirot and Heartbeat each airing in pairs through the morning and afternoon. Primetime opens early with a Heartbeat double from 5:50pm that runs almost to 8pm, before Vera takes the two-hour 8pm slot, Lewis follows at 10pm and Inspector Morse closes out at 11:50pm. There’s no film on ITV3 tonight, and Midsomer Murders is confined to an afternoon case rather than an evening return.

ITV3 Schedule: Thursday 27 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Thursday 27 August 2026, on Freeview 10.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV3 today

Thursday’s daytime line-up leans heavily on doubled-up archive strands. Overnight has a single George and Mildred repeat at 2am (series 3, episode 3), before three and a half hours of teleshopping carries the channel 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 and a deliberate throwback next to the current Emmerdale and Coronation Street, both of which are on ITV1 this evening. Agatha Christie’s Poirot takes the late morning with a double from 9:10am, before a Heartbeat double from 11:30am carries the channel to 1:40pm. The afternoon has a single Midsomer Murders case from 1:40pm, then repeats the same Classic Emmerdale and Classic Coronation Street pairing from 3:40pm before Heartbeat’s evening double opens early at 5:50pm.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV3 primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 27 August 2026.

Heartbeat — ITV3, 5:50pm

Primetime effectively starts early tonight: Heartbeat (series 13, episode 3) takes the 5:50pm slot and runs for over an hour, holding almost the entire 6pm hour before a second episode follows straight after.

Heartbeat — ITV3, 6:55pm

The second half of the double, Heartbeat (series 13, episode 4) picks up at 6:55pm, in order straight after the first.

Vera — ITV3, 8pm

Two hours of Brenda Blethyn in the mac, and the centrepiece of ITV3’s night. A teenager who went missing turns up buried out on the moors, and Vera works backwards through a short life to find who had reason to end it. Series 7’s The Blanket Mire.

Lewis — ITV3, 10pm

A classics scholar is knifed and left in an Oxford canal, which hands Lewis, Hathaway and Maddox a case that keeps folding back on itself. The Lions of Nemea, series 8, running to 11:50pm.

Inspector Morse — ITV3, 11:50pm

The night ends where ITV3 usually ends it, with Morse. A violent prisoner goes on the run and the trail leads into a circle of occultists — The Day of the Devil, from series 7, with Keith Allen guesting.

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 takes the full two-hour 8pm slot, Lewis follows at 10pm and Inspector Morse closes the night at 11:50pm. Midsomer Murders is on earlier in the afternoon rather than tonight. 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 21 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 is confined to a single afternoon case rather than an evening return, with Wycliffe absent altogether. The evening still runs five slots from 5:50pm through to around 2am — Heartbeat twice, then Vera, Lewis and Inspector Morse 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