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

Published: 2 September 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, Lewis, Poirot, Heartbeat: if it involves a village, a body and a detective in no hurry to leave, it has probably run here. Today, Thursday 3 September 2026, the day runs to ten programme titles across twenty-one slots, with Classic Emmerdale getting four outings and Classic Coronation Street three, through the morning and afternoon. Primetime is led by the second of a Heartbeat pair at 6:55pm, then Vera at 8pm, Agatha Christie’s Marple at 10pm and Poirot closing the night at 11:50pm. There’s no film today.

ITV3 Schedule: Thursday 3 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Thursday 3 September 2026, on Freeview 10.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV3 today

Overnight, George and Mildred plays out at 2am (series 1, episode 5), then teleshopping fills the schedule from 2:30am through to 6am.

The classic sitcom returns for two more episodes at 6am and 6:35am, both from series 4, before the day’s first archive soap block: Classic Emmerdale at 7:05am and 7:35am, then Classic Coronation Street at 8:05am and 8:40am, all dating from 2009. Poirot takes the late-morning slot from 9:10am with a feature-length case that sends the detective chasing a killer working alphabetically through English towns, and Heartbeat opens at 11:30am with the first of two consecutive series 13 episodes, the second following at 12:35pm.

A feature-length Midsomer Murders case, drawn from an early series, fills mid-afternoon from 1:35pm. The archive soaps come round again from 3:35pm: two more Classic Emmerdale episodes at 3:35pm and 4:10pm, then a further Classic Coronation Street at 5:15pm. Heartbeat closes out early evening with its second consecutive pair, at 5:50pm and 6:55pm, before Vera takes the 8pm hour, Agatha Christie’s Marple follows at 10pm, and Poirot rounds off the night from 11:50pm. Seven of today’s twenty-one slots belong to the two archive soap strands.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV3 primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 3 September 2026.

Heartbeat — ITV3, 6:55pm

The second half of tonight’s Heartbeat pair rounds off the story that began at 5:50pm, with Aidensfield’s district nurse and constabulary left to deal with the fallout of a confession nobody was expecting.

Vera — ITV3, 8pm

Brenda Blethyn’s rumpled Northumberland detective gets ITV3’s full two-hour treatment tonight, easily the evening’s biggest commitment. A young man’s death, first assumed to be a tragic accident, starts to look far less simple once Vera’s team begin asking questions, and the case unwinds against the bleak coastal backdrop the series has built its reputation on. It’s the kind of slow-burn, character-led mystery that rewards sitting through both hours rather than dipping in.

Agatha Christie’s Marple — ITV3, 10pm

Christie’s amateur sleuth from St Mary Mead is drawn into an inquiry that opens with the murder of a priest and leads her toward a supposed list of the doomed, an occult-tinged case that is a good deal stranger than her usual village puzzles.

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

A run of petty thefts at a London student hostel escalates into murder, giving Poirot one of the more tightly wound cases in the archive to pick apart before the small hours.

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?

Tonight’s primetime opens with the second of two Heartbeat episodes at 6:55pm (the first ran at 5:50pm), then Vera at 8pm, Agatha Christie’s Marple at 10pm and Poirot closing the night at 11:50pm. There’s no film 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 leans hard on the archive: ten programme titles across twenty-one slots, seven of which belong to Classic Emmerdale and Classic Coronation Street. Around them, Poirot and two Heartbeat pairs fill the morning and afternoon, and a feature-length Midsomer Murders case from an early series takes the mid-afternoon slot. Primetime doesn’t add a single new commission, but it keeps its usual shape: the second of the day’s Heartbeat pairs at 6:55pm, Vera at 8pm, Agatha Christie’s Marple at 10pm and Poirot closing the night from 11:50pm through to 2am. There’s no film today. It’s a schedule built for one kind of viewer rather than several, and if cosy detective drama and a double helping of soap nostalgia is what you’re after, today delivers plenty of both.

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