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: Tuesday 18 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete That’s TV schedule for Tuesday 18 August 2026, on Freeview 56.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on That’s TV today

Tuesday follows the shuffle this channel favours over long stacked runs. A Kenny Everett compilation and a couple of Nearest and Dearest episodes see out the small hours before Shop with Shop Unlimited’s teleshopping block takes over from 5am to 8am. After that the schedule turns into single half-hour slots rather than repeats: Rising Damp at 8:10am, Duty Free at 8:40am, Never the Twain at 9:15am, On the Buses at 9:45am, Bread at 10:15am, Steptoe and Son at 10:50am, Oh, Doctor Beeching! at 11:20am and a second helping of Rising Damp at 11:55am, rarely the same title twice in a row.

The afternoon keeps up the same pattern. Man About the House opens it at 12:30pm, Goodnight Sweetheart follows at 1:05pm, and then the one hour of proper drama in the day’s line-up, When the Boat Comes In, a 1970s period serial set around a shipbuilding community in the north-east of England, takes the 1:45pm slot with Jack and Dolly preparing for their wedding. Minder gets a further outing at 2:45pm, then Just Good Friends, another Man About the House and a second Bread carry the schedule into early evening, and Birds of a Feather closes out the run at 5:30pm just before primetime begins.

That’s TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the That’s TV primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 18 August 2026.

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

A quarter-hour of archive chart-show clips opens the evening, the same filler strand that resurfaces at various points across the schedule.

Rising Damp — That’s TV, 6:15pm

Leonard Rossiter’s Rigsby gets an early-evening outing, the second of two Rising Damp slots on the channel today.

Steptoe and Son — That’s TV, 6:50pm

Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett’s rag-and-bone double act follows straight after.

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? — That’s TV, 7:25pm

Terry and Bob close out the sitcom run before the schedule turns to drama at 8pm.

Minder — That’s TV, 8pm

George Cole’s Arthur Daley and Dennis Waterman’s Terry McCann take the hour-long slot ahead of the channel’s two newer imports.

Benidorm — That’s TV, 9pm

Derren Litten’s package-holiday sitcom holds its usual 9pm berth, the point where the night shifts from decades-old comedy to something made this century.

Shameless — That’s TV, 9:55pm

The Gallagher family’s Chatsworth Estate saga follows on, giving the run from 9pm to 11pm the sharpest edge of the day’s schedule.

Man About the House — That’s TV, 11:10pm

Robin, Chrissy and Jo take the 11:10pm slot.

Mind Your Language — That’s TV, 11:35pm

The night closes with Barbara Evans’ language class at 11:35pm.

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?

The evening opens with a run of classic sitcoms: That’s 60s – Best Music Live! at 6pm, Rising Damp at 6:15pm, Steptoe and Son at 6:50pm and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? at 7:25pm. Minder takes the 8pm slot, Benidorm follows at 9pm, Shameless at 9:55pm, Man About the House at 11:10pm, and the night closes with Mind Your Language at 11:35pm. 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. Tuesday’s daytime shows the format working the other way round from its usual habit: instead of stacking one sitcom across several hours, the schedule rotates through Rising Damp, Steptoe and Son, Bread, On the Buses, Man About the House and half a dozen others in single half-hour bursts, all shows most British viewers have already seen several times over.

The evening holds up well regardless. 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 Man About the House after.

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