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

Published: 27 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, Poirot: if it involves a body in a village and a detective who doesn’t much like being interrupted, it has probably run here. Today, Friday 28 August 2026, nine programme titles cover the day’s 22 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 Doc Martin takes the 8pm hour with a two-episode run of its own, Lewis follows at 10pm and Poirot 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: Friday 28 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Friday 28 August 2026, on Freeview 10.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV3 today

Friday’s daytime line-up leans heavily on doubled-up archive strands. Overnight has a single George and Mildred repeat at 2am (series 3, episode 4), 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 at 8:40am, 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 1:35pm. The afternoon has a single Midsomer Murders case from 1:35pm, then repeats the same Classic Emmerdale and Classic Coronation Street pairing from 3:35pm — this time episodes 31 and 32, continuing on from the morning’s instalment rather than repeating it — 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, Friday 28 August 2026.

Heartbeat double — ITV3, 5:50pm

Two episodes of Heartbeat run back to back and effectively own the whole 6pm hour before primetime proper even starts. A Family Affair (series 13, episode 5) at 5:50pm sends Aidensfield’s police after a bogus water board official targeting elderly residents, alongside a suspicious death of their own to look into. It runs straight into The Holiday’s Over (series 13, episode 6) at 6:55pm, in which a honeymoon is cut short and the local force comes back to a run of burglaries.

Doc Martin double — ITV3, 8pm

Doc Martin takes the whole 8pm hour with two episodes back to back. Paint It Black (series 9, episode 4) at 8pm puts Martin through a second GMC assessment, with the usual Portwenn undercurrent of local friction running alongside it. Wild West Country (series 9, episode 5) follows at 9pm, built around a shooting on a local farm that draws Martin and the village’s police in.

Lewis — ITV3, 10pm

Lewis takes the 10pm slot with a feature-length case, Beyond Good and Evil: a 13-year-old murder conviction comes under fresh scrutiny when the forensic evidence is challenged, just as a new killing echoes the original crime.

Agatha Christie’s Poirot — ITV3, 11:50pm

Closing out the night is a feature-length Poirot, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (series 4, episode 3). Poirot’s own dentist is shot dead within minutes of the detective leaving his surgery, and the case turns into a murder inquiry rather than the routine trip to the chair it should have been.

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 Doc Martin runs two episodes across the 8pm hour, Lewis follows at 10pm and Poirot 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 nine titles across 22 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 Vera and Wycliffe both absent altogether. The evening still runs six slots from 5:50pm through to around 2am — Heartbeat twice, Doc Martin twice, then Lewis and Poirot 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