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

Published: 29 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, Sunday 30 August 2026, the day runs to twelve programme titles across fifteen slots, built around one long Midsomer Murders run that starts mid-afternoon and doesn’t let up until Vera and Wycliffe take over at 10pm. Primetime is the back two-thirds of that run, at 6:05pm and 8pm, both feature-length, followed by Vera at 10pm and Wycliffe at 11:50pm. There’s no film in primetime and no archive soap strand on ITV3 today — Classic Emmerdale and Classic Coronation Street are both off.

ITV3 Schedule: Sunday 30 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Sunday 30 August 2026, on Freeview 10.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV3 today

Sunday’s daytime doesn’t look like a weekday on ITV3, and it’s built from far fewer strands than usual. Overnight, Inspector Morse runs at midnight (series 5, episode 2), followed by a quarter-hour of Unwind with ITV at 2:15am and three and a half hours of teleshopping through to 6am.

George and Mildred opens the morning proper at 6am (series 1, episode 1), then a single Touch of Frost film holds the next two hours and a quarter from 6:35am, running straight into Doc Martin at 8:50am (series 9, episode 4). Poirot follows with two cases back to back, at 9:50am and 10:55am (series 5, episodes 3 and 4), and The Darling Buds of May closes the morning at noon (series 2, episode 7).

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang holds three hours of early afternoon from 1:10pm, and from 4:10pm the day belongs to Midsomer Murders: three consecutive series 19 cases, in order, running with no gap until 10pm — Last Man Out at 4:10pm, Red in Tooth and Claw at 6:05pm and Death by Persuasion at 8pm, the last two in primetime. Vera’s The Blanket Mire takes the 10pm hour, and Wycliffe’s Feeding the Rat closes the night at 11:50pm. It’s one of the leaner days ITV3 runs: a handful of strands, and nothing but detective and period drama from six in the morning to midnight.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV3 primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 30 August 2026.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 6:05pm & 8pm

The afternoon’s Midsomer run carries straight into primetime. Last Man Out, the cricket-club case that opened proceedings at 4:10pm, gives way to Red in Tooth and Claw at 6:05pm and Death by Persuasion at 8pm — the second and third of three series 19 cases shown in order, both feature-length. Death by Persuasion turns on a stabbing at a Jane Austen re-enactment, the kind of setting Midsomer has more or less made its own.

Vera — ITV3, 10pm

Vera closes primetime with The Blanket Mire (series 7, episode 4). Brenda Blethyn’s DCI Stanhope is called in after a missing teenager’s body surfaces, unsettling a small rural community that would rather the case stayed closed.

Wycliffe — ITV3, 11:50pm

Wycliffe takes the 11:50pm slot with Feeding the Rat (series 5, episode 4), built around a climber’s death that looks less like an accident the closer it’s examined.

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?

Three Midsomer Murders cases run back to back from 4:10pm, with the 6:05pm and 8pm episodes falling in primetime. Vera takes the 10pm hour and Wycliffe closes the night at 11:50pm. There’s no Heartbeat, Doc Martin or Poirot on the schedule today. 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 line-up is about as simple as the channel gets: twelve programme titles across fifteen slots, with the back half of the day given over almost entirely to one strand. A Touch of Frost and Poirot hold the morning, The Darling Buds of May and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang bridge into early afternoon, and then it’s three Midsomer Murders cases in a row from 4:10pm to 10pm before Vera and Wycliffe close the night. There’s no film in primetime today and no archive soap strand either — Classic Emmerdale and Classic Coronation Street are both off. Primetime is the last two of that Midsomer run, Red in Tooth and Claw at 6:05pm and Death by Persuasion at 8pm, both feature-length, before Vera’s The Blanket Mire takes the 10pm hour and Wycliffe’s Feeding the Rat sees the night out. It’s a schedule built for one kind of viewer rather than several, and if cosy detective drama is what you’re after, today delivers more of it in one sitting than most channels manage in a week.

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