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

That’s TV runs almost entirely on British television’s back catalogue: sitcoms from the 1970s and 1980s, a bit of period drama, archive music clips, and a long teleshopping stretch before breakfast. It’s free to air on Freeview, Sky, Freesat and Virgin Media, with no subscription and no app of its own. Tonight’s strongest pairing, Benidorm into Shameless, arrives once the early evening sitcoms have cleared. Full times for every programme are in the table below.

That’s TV Schedule: Thursday 13 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete That’s TV schedule for Thursday 13 August 2026, on Freeview 56.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on That’s TV today

Weekdays on That’s TV drop the weekend’s marathon blocks for a single-episode rhythm, one show roughly every half hour rather than repeats of the same title stacked together. Shop with Shop Unlimited holds the channel until 8am, when Rising Damp takes over at 8:10am: Alan starts seeing a girlfriend from a smarter background and makes the mistake of asking Rigsby how to behave around her. Duty Free at 8:40am has a visiting couple spot David with Linda and casually mention it to his wife Amy, before Never the Twain at 9:10am sends Simon scrambling for a forgotten passport on the way to the airport. On the Buses at 9:45am, Bread at 10:15am, Steptoe and Son at 10:55am (Harold turns up with a cart full of coffins) and Oh, Doctor Beeching! at 11:25am carry the morning through to lunchtime.

Rising Damp Xmas 1975 airs at noon, Rigsby convinced his Christmas present from Philip is exactly the kind of gift he’s been hoping for, only to be let down as usual. Man About the House at 12:30pm has Mr Roper trying to convert the flats into smaller units despite the tenants’ three-year lease, then When the Boat Comes In at 1:35pm turns on Jessie’s suspicion that Tom has broken the picket line. Minder at 2:40pm finds Arthur reduced to minding frocks after a deal in fake designer clothes goes wrong, Just Good Friends at 3:45pm has Vince trying to sell Penny on one last holiday together, and the afternoon closes with a second Man About the House at 4:20pm and Bread again at 4:55pm.

That’s TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the That’s TV primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 13 August 2026.

That’s 60s – Best Music Live! — That’s TV, 6pm

A quarter-hour of archive performance clips opens the evening before the sitcom run gets going.

Rising Damp — That’s TV, 6:15pm

Rigsby spins a story about a ghostly “grey lady” to spook Alan, and ends up unsettled by his own trick.

Steptoe and Son — That’s TV, 6:50pm

Harold brings a French woman back to Oil Drum Lane, and the visit drags an old secret out of Albert about his own romantic past. It’s one of the sharper entries in the run, less broad farce than the pairing that follows it.

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? — That’s TV, 7:20pm

Bob and Terry try to dodge every scrap of news to avoid learning the score of an England match before they can watch the highlights, while Flint, who has money riding on them failing, tails them all evening. A tightly plotted half-hour built entirely on a single joke stretched to its limit.

Minder — That’s TV, 7:55pm

Arthur’s reunion with an old army friend turns into a search party after the pal loses his trousers and his bearings on a heavy night out, leaving Terry to find him before his wife hears about it.

Benidorm — That’s TV, 9pm

Sir Henry is still covering for Joyce as the Solana gears up for a psychic convention, and Psychic Sue starts to smell a rat over Sam’s sideline. Uri Geller talks Billy into a new outlook that drives everyone else round the bend, Joey’s maths skills get roped into a casino trip, and Pauline drops a pregnancy bombshell with the father left unnamed. Easily the busiest plot of the night.

Shameless — That’s TV, 9:55pm

Jamie discovers Joe has been hitting Mandy and puts him in hospital for it, and Mimi offers to take the blame given her son’s record. A rival family circling the Maguires and Paddy’s hidden drug habit only add to the pressure. Considerably darker than anything else in the schedule, which is the point of scheduling it straight after Benidorm.

Man About the House — That’s TV, 10:55pm

Robin’s shot at playing for his college football team is threatened by nothing more dramatic than a bad cold.

Mind Your Language — That’s TV, 11:25pm

Jeremy gets more than he bargained for taking an unwell pupil to hospital.

Benidorm — That’s TV, 11:55pm

A repeat of the 9pm episode for anyone who missed the psychic convention the first time round.

What kind of shows are on That’s TV

Sitcoms from the 1970s and 1980s

This is the bulk of the channel. Rising Damp, Steptoe and Son, Man About the House, Bread, Birds of a Feather, Just Good Friends and Mind Your Language cycle through daytime and early evening on a near-constant loop. There’s no theming to speak of: they’re familiar half-hours filling the space between the shopping strands and whatever the channel has lined up for the evening.

Crime and drama reruns

Minder does most of the heavy lifting, often twice in a day, while When the Boat Comes In supplies the one genuinely serious hour in the daytime. Benidorm and Shameless, both decades younger than the rest of it, hold primetime.

Music and variety nostalgia

That’s 60s – Best Music Live! drops in several times a day as a filler strand of archive performance footage, a leftover from when the group ran full decade-themed music channels. Longer compilations such as Ronnie Barker: The Very Best Of turn up as one-off hours.

Teleshopping

Roughly 5am to 8am, given over to mattresses and garden multitools. A free channel with no subscription income has to fill the small hours with something that pays for itself.

How to watch That’s TV

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find That’s TV across the main UK platforms:

Virgin Media’s number shifts more often than the others, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if it doesn’t match.

Streaming online

There’s no That’s TV app, no catch-up service and no live stream of its own, which puts it a long way behind Channel 4 or ITV. You watch it as it goes out, through a Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media or Freesat box or smart TV. A Freeview Play-enabled television will find and tune the channel for you with no extra setup.

That’s TV regional and sister channels

That’s TV belongs to That’s Media, whose chief executive, Daniel Cass, built the group out of local television licences: around 20 of them, awarded under Ofcom’s Local Digital Television Programme. That’s Manchester, That’s Solent and That’s Glasgow all opt out for local news and community programming for part of the day, then simulcast the national schedule for the rest.

That’s TV 2 works the same archive on a separate schedule. The group also tried standalone channels themed to the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s; several were folded back into the main service or closed outright earlier in 2026, which is why the 60s music show now appears as a filler strand rather than a channel in its own right.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is That’s TV on Freeview?

Channel 56 nationally, or 80 in Greater Manchester. That’s TV 2 is on 65, and the local opt-out versions sit on 7 or 8 depending on where you live.

What’s on That’s TV tonight?

Steptoe and Son opens the evening at 6:50pm, followed by Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? at 7:20pm and Minder at 7:55pm. Benidorm takes the 9pm slot, Shameless follows at 9:55pm, and the night closes with Man About the House at 10:55pm and Mind Your Language at 11:25pm. The table above has the full day.

Is That’s TV free to watch?

Yes, on every platform that carries it. Ad breaks during programmes and teleshopping before breakfast are how it pays for itself.

Verdict

That’s TV is comfort viewing and makes no pretence otherwise. Thursday’s daytime keeps to a single-episode rhythm, one show roughly every half hour instead of the marathon blocks that fill weekends, built almost entirely on sitcoms British viewers have already seen several times, in some cases before they owned a colour set.

Tonight’s evening run is stronger than most. Steptoe and Son straight into Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? is two of the best-written sitcoms in the channel’s library back to back, and the Benidorm and Shameless pairing gives the night a proper spine. Quite why Benidorm turns up again just after midnight is anyone’s guess.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Freeview Channel Guide | Talking Pictures TV Guide | Films on TV This Week