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 20 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete That’s TV schedule for Thursday 20 August 2026, on Freeview 56.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on That’s TV today

Thursday follows the same shuffle this channel favours over long stacked runs. A Kenny Everett compilation sees out the small hours, then two episodes of Nearest and Dearest run back to back from 4am before Shop with Shop Unlimited’s teleshopping strand takes over in two blocks from 5am to 8am. After that the schedule turns into single half-hour slots rather than repeats: That’s 60s – Best Music Live! opens breakfast at 8am, Rising Damp follows at 8:05am, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em at 8:40am, Never the Twain at 9:15am, On the Buses at 9:50am, Bread at 10:20am, Steptoe and Son at 10:55am, Oh, Doctor Beeching! at 11:30am and a second helping of Rising Damp at 12:05pm, rarely the same title twice in a row.

The afternoon keeps up the same pattern. Man About the House opens it at 12:35pm, 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 1:40pm slot as jealousy creeps in over how much time Bella is spending at ailing Mick’s bedside, while Rosie and Tom weigh up 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, Thursday 20 August 2026.

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

A short run of archive 1960s performance clips opens the evening, the same filler strand that crops up several times across the schedule.

Rising Damp — That’s TV, 6:15pm

Leonard Rossiter is landlord Rigsby, watching a new lodger settle in. This outing pairs him with David Swift’s Mr Gray, whose gloom is so thick he barely registers the shabby boarding house around him and keeps musing about “a better place” — enough to worry the household he might mean it literally.

Steptoe and Son — That’s TV, 6:45pm

Harold turns up a piece of rare porcelain and sets about auctioning it off, while Albert ends up trapped outside in the privy. Derek Nimmo makes a guest appearance in the episode. Harry H. Corbett plays Harold, with Wilfrid Brambell as his father Albert.

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

Clement and La Frenais’s sequel to the original sitcom finds Bob turning his nose up at the traditional drunken send-off, much to Terry’s disappointment.

Minder — That’s TV, 7:55pm

George Cole and Dennis Waterman star as two farmers hire Arthur and Terry to move a prize bull, only for the pair to realise partway through that the job is really a theft. Getting the animal back becomes the point of the episode.

Benidorm — That’s TV, 9pm

The strongest hour of the night. Joyce is livid with Monty after his stint as the Solana’s Entertainments Manager ends in chaos, though a run-in with old-school entertainer Sammy Valentino gives him a shot at redemption. Callum sets his sights rather higher than usual, romantically, Eddie gets an eyeful of Cyd through next door’s changing room window, and Jacqueline’s latest scheme for Blow & Go — despite Liam and Kenneth’s scepticism — is doing decent business.

Shameless — That’s TV, 9:55pm

Mimi takes over the arrangements for baby Connor’s christening, first relieving a heartbroken Kelly of her godmother role, which lands Shane with the job of standing up to his own mother on his girlfriend’s behalf. Paddy, shut out of the day’s celebrations, uses the ceremony as his own moment of reckoning in front of a stunned family.

Man About the House — That’s TV, 11pm

Robin’s catering exams don’t go his way, and he starts weighing up a move to Southampton for work.

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

Jeremy takes an education inspector for a new pupil, with the expected results. Barry Evans stars.

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 6:45pm and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? at 7:20pm. Minder takes the 7:55pm slot, Benidorm follows at 9pm, Shameless at 9:55pm, Man About the House at 11pm, and Mind Your Language closes the night 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. Thursday’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 and a Mind Your Language repeat closing things out after.

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