Full GREAT! Romance listings for Tuesday 27 October 2026, with times in London local time.

Christmas arrives on 27 October

See also: What's on tonight across all channels | Wednesday's TV guide

GREAT! Romance has given up on autumn. Tonight is nothing but Christmas films from the early hours to the last slot, and the shape is unusual: each one is listed as two 55-minute halves, one straight after the other, so a film is a two-hour commitment and the schedule is really eight films wearing a lot of rows.

The evening opens with A Merry Christmas Match at 7.05pm, a 2019 television film directed by Jake Helgren, with Ashley Newbrough, Kyle Dean Massey and Stepfanie Kramer. It runs against The One Show on BBC One and NCIS on 5USA. That is soft opposition, which suits a film that asks for nothing.

The better slot belongs to Welcome to Christmas, from 8pm, with Eric Mabius and Jennifer Finnigan. It is a 2018 title and it is on again on 1 and 2 November, so nobody needs to rearrange a night for it. It faces The Great British Bake Off on 4seven and DIY SOS on BBC One, which is a real fight for a lighter-minded audience. That is my pick, narrowly, for the slot rather than any evidence about the film itself.

A Christmas Truce, a 2015 film, takes the late run from 9.55pm. Between the three, it is the one to leave if the evening has already run long.


Also on TV tonight at 9pm

  • BBC One: Blue Lights
  • BBC Two: Surgeons: At the Edge of Life
  • ITV1: New: Unbelievable Moments:…
  • Channel 4: The Great British Bake Off (from 8pm)
  • Channel 5: Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild
  • BBC Four: The Normans
  • ITV2: Big Brother
  • ITV3: Vera (from 8pm)
  • ITV4: Junk and Disorderly
  • E4: Gogglebox

Every channel tonight, side by side · Films on TV tonight · Tomorrow’s TV


Frequently asked questions

What’s on GREAT! Romance tonight?

On Tuesday 27 October 2026, GREAT! Romance shows Good News from GREAT! at 7pm, A Merry Christmas Match at 7.05pm, Welcome to Christmas at 8pm, Good News from GREAT! at 8.55pm, Welcome to Christmas at 9pm and A Christmas Truce at 9.55pm. That is 6 of 8 programmes in primetime; the full schedule is on this page.

Is there a film on GREAT! Romance tonight?

Yes: A Merry Christmas Match (2019) at 6.05pm, A Merry Christmas Match (2019) at 7.05pm, Welcome to Christmas (2018) at 8pm and Welcome to Christmas (2018) at 9pm.

What time does GREAT! Romance’s evening start?

The evening schedule starts with A Merry Christmas Match at 6.05pm.

Christmas films, all day, all season

GREAT! Romance shows romantic TV films, and for a long stretch of the year it shows only Christmas ones. Through the late autumn and winter it turns into its Christmas version, Great! Christmas, and the whole of the five weeks we tracked fell inside that season. Of the 167 different films it showed in those 34 days, 158 had Christmas, the holidays or snow in the title, and most of the rest were seasonal too: Mingle All the Way, Twinkle All the Way, Two Turtle Doves.

So everything below describes the Christmas channel, because that is what we measured. Outside the season it goes back to being GREAT! Romance, and we make no claims here about how that schedule looks.

What a Great! Christmas day looks like

The day is almost entirely films, about ten of them, with two interruptions that never go away.

The first is teleshopping, from 5am to 8am on all 34 days. The second is Good News from GREAT!, a bulletin of a few minutes that drops into the middle of nearly every film. It aired 349 times in the window, about ten times a day. Most films start, stop for it after roughly 55 minutes, then pick up again five minutes later.

From 8am a new film starts roughly every two hours until midnight, then two or three more run through the small hours. There is no daily series and no fixed title: the only programmes that appeared on most days were the bulletin and the shopping.

The 6pm to 10.30pm evening works the same way. A film usually starts around 6pm, another at 8pm, and a third at 10pm, each broken once by the bulletin. The 8pm film changes most nights: The Holiday Proposal Plan, Snowed in for Christmas, Welcome to Christmas, Cross Country Christmas and The Holiday Exchange each took it on a couple of evenings, and none held it for longer.

Weekdays and weekends look the same: no genre shifts by more than a few points at the weekend, which is rare.

Popular films on GREAT! Romance

No single film dominates. The most-shown titles, among them Write Before Christmas, Hope at Christmas, Hearts of Christmas and Christmas Joy, aired eight times each, spread over five days. With 167 titles in rotation, the average film aired about twice in five weeks, and the same title rarely fills the same slot twice.

Write Before Christmas is a 2019 romance directed by Pat Williams, with Chad Michael Murray, Natalie Kuckenburg and Lolita Davidovich. It aired eight times.

Maggie’s Christmas Miracle is a 2017 Christmas film directed by Michael Robison, starring Jill Wagner and Luke Macfarlane, often in the early evening.

Christmas Joy is a 2018 family romance directed by Monika Mitchell, with Danielle Panabaker and Matt Long.

The Holiday Exchange is the newest film in heavy rotation, a 2024 romance directed by Jake Helgren, with Taylor Frey, Rick Cosnett and Kyle Richards. Helgren directed three of the films we logged, more than anyone else.

The faces recur more than the films do. Teryl Rothery, Ashley Williams, Holly Robinson Peete and Barbara Niven each appeared in three of the films we logged, and Candace Cameron Bure, Luke Macfarlane, Autumn Reeser, Jill Wagner and Cheryl Ladd in two each. Most of the films were made after 2015.

How to watch GREAT! Romance

GREAT! Romance is on Freeview channel 52, Sky 322 (319 on Sky Glass) and Virgin Media 424. On Freely it is channel 47, which needs an aerial. It is not on Freesat. During the Christmas season it appears on every platform as Great! Christmas, in the same place. It also streams free on Great! Player, which is Freeview channel 63 on connected TVs. Watching any channel live needs a TV Licence.

GREAT! Romance and its sister channels

The closest sibling is GREAT! Movies, which uses the same made-for-TV film format for cosy mysteries instead of romance, and shares some of the same directors, Michael Robison among them. GREAT! TV runs classic family drama by day and MAS*H by night. GREAT! Action runs Burn Notice and an action film at 9pm. GREAT! Mystery, which we do not cover separately, completes the family.

No other channel we follow comes close to this volume of Christmas films. For festive films on the bigger channels, our guide to films on TV collects them across every channel.

Who it’s for

Great! Christmas is for someone who wants a Christmas film on from breakfast to bedtime, and who likes the familiar shape of the made-for-TV romance more than any particular title. It works best as background: you can drop in at any hour and be watching one within the hour. It is no use to anyone after a cinema release, a series or a schedule they can plan around, and the bulletin breaking up every film will test the patience of anyone who wants to watch one straight through.

What channel is GREAT! Romance on Freeview?

GREAT! Romance is on Freeview channel 52. In the late autumn and winter it appears there as Great! Christmas.

Why is GREAT! Romance showing Christmas films?

Because it turns into its Christmas version, Great! Christmas, through the late autumn and winter, and shows almost nothing but Christmas TV films for the whole season.

How often does GREAT! Romance repeat its films?

Not often. We counted 167 different films in 34 days: the average film aired about twice, and none aired on more than five days.

Can I watch GREAT! Romance online?

Yes, free on Great! Player.