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: Saturday 15 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete That’s TV schedule for Saturday 15 August 2026, on Freeview 56.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on That’s TV today

Saturday is the marathon day, and That’s TV leans into it: rather than a single episode of each show, whole runs get stacked together. A pair of Nearest and Dearest episodes carries the small hours from 4am, with Eli and Nellie Pledge feuding over the pickle factory before teleshopping takes the channel from 5am through to 8am. Oh, Doctor Beeching! then runs four episodes in a row from 8:15am, Hatley station working through a turkey with its own ideas about Christmas, a new station master settling in, and a confession Ethel gets to hear before anyone else. Steptoe and Son follows with three from 10:45am, opening with the pilot episode and its threat of Harold walking out on the family rag-and-bone business for good.

Rising Damp then takes the whole early afternoon, seven episodes from 12:35pm to 3:40pm, starting with Rigsby’s cantankerous first encounter with Ruth’s friend and running through the wrestler-and-borrowed-suit episode, the prowler who turns out to be no ordinary police inspector, and Rigsby’s doomed attempt at a local election campaign. Once that clears at 4:10pm, the channel moves straight into eight episodes of Birds of a Feather without a break, which carries the schedule to early evening and the newer material that follows.

That’s TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the That’s TV primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 15 August 2026.

Birds of a Feather — That’s TV, 4:10pm–7:25pm

Eight editions of ITV’s revival run without a break, taking the channel from mid-afternoon into the evening proper. Sharon and Tracey are back in the old family orbit with Dorien still stirring things from the sidelines, Charlie Quirke plays Tracey’s grown-up son Travis, and the guest list across the eight episodes stretches to Matt Willis, Amy Childs, Clive Mantle and Jamie Foreman. Money trouble, a lost inheritance and a wedding that isn’t quite what it seems carry the block through to 7:25pm.

Minder — That’s TV, 7:55pm

Terry gets talked into helping a friend evict some unwanted tenants and starts to wonder what she’s really after, while Arthur quietly tries to sell Terry’s own flat out from under him to fund a property deal. Toyah Willcox and Simon Cadell join George Cole and Dennis Waterman for the hour.

Benidorm — That’s TV, 9pm

A misunderstanding over Liam sends the family into a panic that he’s fallen in with a self-help group, and Rob’s exam results have him rethinking what he does next. Malcolm’s identity is still in question, Kenneth is determined to get to the bottom of it, and Eddie’s news from home barely registers with anyone else at the Solana.

Shameless — That’s TV, 9:55pm

A visit from social services throws the Gallagher household into crisis, and Debbie takes it out on Frank, who retreats to the bottle rather than deal with it. Chesney, elsewhere, falls for a married woman before working out that her interest in him isn’t as simple as it looked.

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

A shortage of flats forces an uneasy compromise between Robin, Chrissy and Jo and their disapproving landlord upstairs, in the sitcom that made stars of Richard O’Sullivan, Paula Wilcox and Sally Thomsett.

Mind Your Language — That’s TV, 11:30pm

Mr Brown’s evening class for foreign learners ends up on the wrong side of the law this time, with Barry Evans still trying to keep order at the front of the room.

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?

Eight episodes of Birds of a Feather run back to back from 4:10pm to 7:25pm, then Minder takes the 7:55pm slot. Benidorm follows at 9pm, Shameless at 9:55pm, and the night closes with Man About the House at 10:55pm and Mind Your Language at 11:30pm. 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. Saturday’s daytime is where the channel shows its hand: rather than spreading one episode of each sitcom through the day, it stacks whole runs together, four Oh, Doctor Beeching!, three Steptoe and Son, seven Rising Damp and then eight straight editions of Birds of a Feather, all shows British viewers have already seen several times over.

The evening holds up better than the daytime marathon might suggest. Benidorm and Shameless are the strongest hour of the night, the point where the channel’s older material gives way to something with a bit more edge, bookended by Minder beforehand and two more sitcoms after.

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