ITV4 TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On ITV4 Tonight

ITV4 launched on 1 November 2005, taking over ITV’s off-peak Freeview slot from the ITV News Channel before absorbing what was left of the old Men and Motors the following spring. Two decades on, it’s ITV plc’s channel for live sport and archive action, running everything from live racing to reruns of classic drama and American sitcoms. There’s no live fixture in Friday 21 August’s schedule, so primetime turns to drama, cycling highlights and a film instead: Sharpe opens the evening at 5:50pm, highlights of Stage Three of the Women’s Tour of Britain take the 8pm slot, RoboCop 3 runs from 9pm, and All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite closes out the night at 11:05pm with its regular weekly edition. By day, classic drama reruns carry the schedule, with a two-episode run of Magnum, P.I. alongside Boon, The Professionals and River Monsters.

ITV4 Schedule: Friday 21 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete ITV4 schedule for Friday 21 August 2026, on Freeview 26.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on ITV4 today

Friday’s overnight hours open with Hell’s Kitchen at 12:05am (series 23, episode 9), before The Professionals takes 1am (series 2, episode 2) and Minder follows at 2am (series 3, episode 2), with teleshopping filling the rest of the small hours from 3am. The Best of the 80s gets the day under way at 6am, River Monsters follows at 6:15am (series 3, episode 4), and Magnum, P.I. runs two episodes back to back from 6:45am (series 7, episodes 10 and 11), before Boon takes 8:55am (series 7, episode 5). The World Series of Darts: Australian Masters, from Wollongong, fills the whole late-morning slot from 10am. River Monsters returns at 2pm (series 2, episode 5), Magnum, P.I. comes back for a single episode at 2:30pm (series 7, episode 12), Boon airs its sixth episode at 3:40pm, and The Professionals closes out the afternoon at 4:45pm (series 2, episode 6), ahead of Sharpe opening the evening at 5:50pm.

ITV4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the ITV4 primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 21 August 2026.

Sharpe — ITV4, 5:50pm

Sharpe opens the evening with “Sharpe’s Revenge”, the first episode of series five. Sean Bean’s Napoleonic rifleman gets a fresh case to work through before the schedule turns to sport at 8pm.

Cycling: Women’s Tour of Britain Highlights — ITV4, 8pm

Stage Three of the Women’s Tour of Britain gets the highlights treatment at 8pm: 104.7km from Mold into North Wales, finishing with a climb to the Great Orme above Llandudno.

RoboCop 3 — ITV4, 9pm

RoboCop 3 (1993) takes the film slot at 9pm, with Robert John Burke stepping into the title role opposite Nancy Allen. The listings split the film either side of a 10pm FYI Daily break, but it plays as one continuous screening through to 11:05pm.

All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite — ITV4, 11:05pm

This week’s edition of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite closes out the night at 11:05pm. It’s a weekly fixture on ITV4, not a series launch, following the wrestling promotion’s regular Friday broadcast in the US.

What kind of shows are on ITV4

Live sport: racing, rugby and darts

ITV4 carries the bulk of ITV’s live sport rights outside of ITV1’s biggest occasions. ITV Racing has been the channel’s anchor since horse racing moved to ITV from Channel 4 in 2017, running near-daily meetings alongside the showpiece Saturdays. The Nations Championship, rugby’s new global competition launched in July 2026, means ITV4 now shows live rugby through the summer months, when British fans wouldn’t normally get much international action on terrestrial TV. The channel has also carried live darts in recent seasons, including instalments of the World Series of Darts.

Motorsport, rally and archive sport

Beyond the live fixtures, ITV4 fills its schedule with motorsport digest shows. World Rally Championship Highlights and Motorsport Mundial both round up international series that rarely get UK coverage elsewhere, and the channel runs nightly highlights through Isle of Man TT race week each spring. Archive strands such as The Big Match Revisited and Goals of the 1990s dig into old football footage.

American reruns, action and wrestling

The rest of the schedule fills out with imported American comedy and reality (Two and a Half Men, American Pickers) and classic British crime drama reruns such as Minder. None of it demands your full attention. All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite airs weekly in the late-night slot, with a repeat the following Saturday.

How to watch ITV4

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find ITV4 across the main UK television platforms:

ITV4 is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. Virgin Media and Freesat’s +1 position can move about more than Freeview and Sky, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if it doesn’t line up exactly.

Streaming online

ITV4 streams live and free through ITVX at itv.com/watch and via the ITVX app on smart TVs, mobiles, tablets and streaming devices including Amazon Fire TV and Roku. You need a free account. Most of the archive and clip-show programming sits in the ITVX library afterwards, though racing and rugby rights usually mean shorter catch-up windows on the live sport.

ITV4 +1 and sister channels

ITV4+1 runs the same schedule an hour behind. The 8pm cycling highlights turn up on the +1 feed at 9pm instead, so anyone who misses the start on ITV4 itself gets a second chance an hour later.

ITV4 sits alongside ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITVBe in ITV plc’s channel family, all streaming through ITVX. ITV1 carries the network’s biggest live sport occasions, ITV3 leans into drama and period pieces, and ITV4 gets the more male-skewing sport and action mix.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is ITV4 on Freeview?

ITV4 is on Freeview channel 26. ITV4+1 is on Freeview channel 59. Both are free with no subscription needed.

What channel is ITV4 on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat?

Channel 120 on Sky, channel 118 on Virgin Media, and channel 117 on Freesat. ITV4+1 is on channel 220 on Sky; check your on-screen guide for the exact +1 position on Virgin Media and Freesat.

What’s on ITV4 tonight?

Friday 21 August 2026: no live sport on ITV4 this evening. Sharpe opens at 5:50pm with “Sharpe’s Revenge”, Stage Three highlights of the Women’s Tour of Britain take the 8pm slot, and RoboCop 3 runs from 9pm to 11:05pm around a short FYI Daily break. All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite closes primetime at 11:05pm with its regular weekly edition, not a series premiere.

What is ITV4+1?

A timeshift channel showing the ITV4 schedule exactly one hour later, on Freeview 59 and Sky 220.

Is ITV4 free to watch, and does it have adverts?

Yes, entirely free to air with no subscription fee on any platform. As a commercial ITV channel it carries advertising breaks, the same as ITV1.

Can I watch ITV4 online for free?

Yes, live and free through ITVX at itv.com/watch and via the ITVX app. A free account is required.

Verdict

ITV4 does one thing very well: live sport, without a subscription in sight, from a broadcaster that’s covered racing, rugby and darts for years. There’s none of that tonight. Friday 21 August falls back on the channel’s steadier furniture instead — an hour of Sharpe, cycling highlights and a film, rather than a fixture worth clearing your evening for.

Sharpe opens proceedings at 5:50pm with a fresh series-five case, and Stage Three highlights of the Women’s Tour of Britain take the 8pm slot, condensing the climb to the Great Orme above Llandudno into an hour. RoboCop 3 fills most of what’s left, playing through from 9pm to 11:05pm around a short FYI Daily interruption. All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite closes out the night at 11:05pm; it’s flagged new on the schedule, but it’s simply this week’s edition of a weekly show, not a series launch. Anyone chasing live sport is better off checking tomorrow’s ITV4 listings, or ITV1 for the network’s bigger fixtures.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | ITV1 TV Guide | Film4 TV Guide | Films on TV This Week