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

Updated: 20 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. Sunday 20 September 2026 leans straight into that reputation: two A Taste for Murder episodes open primetime from 6pm, two Midsomer Murders episodes follow from 8:05pm, and Wycliffe closes the night from 11:50pm.

ITV3 Schedule: Sunday 20 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV3 schedule for Sunday 20 September 2026, on Freeview 10.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV3 today

Overnight, Unwind with ITV leads into Teleshopping from 2:30am.

Inspector Morse holds the breakfast slot for over two hours from 6am, followed by Agatha Christie’s Poirot at 8:10am. Two Darling Buds of May episodes carry the mid-morning, then five Downton Abbey episodes run from 11:35am through to early evening, taking the schedule right up to tonight’s A Taste for Murder double bill.

ITV3 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV3 primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 20 September 2026.

A Taste for Murder — ITV3, 6pm–8pm

Two episodes of the cookery-competition-turned-murder-mystery format open primetime back to back, series one’s third and fourth instalments, before the channel moves on to its bigger-name detective drama.

Midsomer Murders — ITV3, 8:05pm–10pm

A double bill follows, pairing a series 24 case with one from right back at the start of the show’s run in series one. It’s the kind of jump between eras that only works because Causton’s body count has been running long enough to have several distinct periods to draw from.

Wycliffe — ITV3, 11:50pm

The Cornish detective drama closes the night, an early series-three case from the show’s original 1990s run.

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.

That long-run scheduling shows up starkly in the data. Across 48 days we logged 933 ITV3 slots drawn from just 26 different programmes, with Heartbeat alone accounting for 138 of them — the most concentrated schedule on Freeview. For a nostalgia channel that is arguably the product working as intended; the full figures are in our study of repeats on UK television.

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?

Two A Taste for Murder episodes open primetime from 6pm, then two Midsomer Murders episodes run from 8:05pm. Wycliffe closes the night from 11:50pm. 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

The channel has never pretended to be about new television, and tonight plays fully into its cosy-crime reputation. Inspector Morse holds the breakfast slot, and five Downton Abbey episodes fill much of the day.

The evening opens with an A Taste for Murder double bill from 6pm, then hands over to a proper Midsomer Murders run: two episodes back to back from 8:05pm, spanning the show’s early and more recent years, before Wycliffe closes the night from 11:50pm. It’s a schedule built for detective-drama regulars happy to settle in for the long haul.

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