BBC Four (BBC 4) TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On BBC Four Tonight

Updated: 14 July 2026

BBC Four is the BBC’s home for arts, culture, history, music and archive documentary, and unlike almost everything else on the electronic programme guide it simply isn’t there during the day. The schedule opens at 7pm every night, signalled by the short “This is BBC Four” ident, and runs through to the small hours before CBeebies takes the channel back at 6am. It’s on Freeview channel 9, there’s no advertising because it’s funded by the licence fee like every BBC channel, and everything it shows also turns up afterwards on BBC iPlayer. Tonight, Tuesday 14 July 2026, the evening is given over to Dame Penelope Keith, who died on 29 June aged 86. Railway and canal documentaries fill the early evening, then from 8pm BBC Four runs a short tribute film, a classic To the Manor Born, an episode of The Good Life and a 1984 televised Hay Fever, three of the roles that defined her career. A two-part documentary on US foreign policy closes out the night from 10:45pm.

BBC Four Schedule: Tuesday 14 July 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete BBC Four schedule for Tuesday 14 July 2026, on Freeview 9.

What’s on BBC Four today

There’s still no daytime line-up to run through here, because BBC Four doesn’t broadcast one. The channel picks up where CBeebies leaves off at 7pm and stays on air into the early hours, so tonight’s listings for Tuesday 14 July 2026 move straight from the “..programmes start at 7.00pm” holding slots into the evening schedule below. Two travel documentaries open the night before 8pm, when the schedule turns into a tribute evening for Dame Penelope Keith that runs through to 10:45pm.

BBC Four Tonight — Primetime and the Evening Schedule

Here’s the BBC Four primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 14 July 2026, an evening BBC Four has given over to Dame Penelope Keith, who died on 29 June aged 86.

This is BBC Four — BBC Four, 6:58pm

The usual two-minute ident bridges the handover from CBeebies before the evening schedule proper begins.

Great British Railway Journeys — BBC Four, 7pm

Michael Portillo continues his Bradshaw’s Guide travels in series 15, episode 4.

Canal Boat Diaries — BBC Four, 7:30pm

Narrowboater Robbie Cumming’s journey across the north of England continues in series 3, episode 3, “Dowley Gap to Ferrybridge”.

Penelope Keith Remembers… To the Manor Born — BBC Four, 8pm

The tribute evening opens with a short film Keith recorded in 2024, looking back on the role that made her a household name and the making of the sitcom that ran from 1979 to 1981.

To the Manor Born — BBC Four, 8:15pm

A repeat of series 1, episode 7, “A Touch of Class”. Richard DeVere agrees to appear in a TV advert for Fontleroy’s Old English Tonic, filmed at the manor with Audrey’s butler and Rolls-Royce roped in for the shoot.

The Good Life — BBC Four, 8:45pm

Series 2, episode 1 of the sitcom that gave Keith her other defining role, snobbish neighbour Margo Leadbetter opposite Tom and Barbara Good’s self-sufficiency experiment.

Hay Fever — BBC Four, 9:15pm

The tribute closes with the BBC’s 1984 television production of Noël Coward’s Hay Fever, with Keith starring alongside Paul Eddington, Patricia Hodge and Joan Sims in Coward’s comedy of a chaotic theatrical family and their bewildered weekend guests.

Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? — BBC Four, 10:45pm

Part one of a repeat documentary examining four decades of US foreign policy interventions, from Iraq to Syria and Bosnia to Kosovo, narrated by Meryl Streep.

Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? — BBC Four, 11:45pm

Part two continues straight after, closing out the tribute night with a change of pace from sitcom to foreign policy.

What kind of shows are on BBC Four

Documentaries, history and the natural history archive

This is the backbone of the schedule. Attenborough series like Life on Earth sit alongside Natural World instalments, science strands and history documentaries covering everything from ancient civilisations to twentieth-century engineering. Very little of it is new. Most has already had at least one outing on BBC One or BBC Two, and BBC Four is where it goes to be shown again rather than left to gather dust.

Music archive: Top of the Pops and BBC Four Sessions

Once the evening’s documentaries and drama wrap up on many nights, the schedule turns to music. Vintage Top of the Pops episodes, repeats of The Old Grey Whistle Test and BBC Four Sessions recordings run through the small hours, giving access to performances the BBC doesn’t show anywhere else. It isn’t a nightly fixture, and tonight’s overnight leans on classic sitcom and documentary instead, but when the music strand does run it’s some of the most rewarding archive on the channel.

Classic sitcom repeats

Late evening on BBC Four is often given over to well-loved BBC sitcoms, though tonight’s evening belongs to music and documentary. Keeping Up Appearances, One Foot in the Grave and others from the same era turn up in steady rotation on other nights, none of it exclusive to the channel, but you’ll find them scheduled together here more often than on BBC One or BBC Two.

How to watch BBC Four

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find BBC Four across the main UK television platforms:

BBC Four is free to watch on all of the above, though you’ll need a valid UK TV licence to watch it live, the same as any other BBC channel. Virgin Media and Freesat numbers can shift slightly by region, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t quite match.

Streaming online

BBC Four streams live and free through BBC iPlayer, on smart TVs, phones, tablets, games consoles and via a browser at bbc.co.uk/iplayer. You’ll need a free BBC account to sign in, and a valid UK TV licence to watch live television or most on-demand programmes. Once you’re in, BBC Four sits alongside the other BBC channels under the “Channels” tab, with its archive series and collections browsable separately.

BBC Four and BBC iPlayer

BBC iPlayer carries BBC Four’s live broadcast in full, so anything shown between 7pm and the small hours can be watched exactly as it airs, or caught up on shortly afterwards. Just as usefully, iPlayer also holds a deep archive of past BBC Four series that goes well beyond what fits into a single evening’s schedule, from full Attenborough box sets to older documentary strands that no longer get a regular repeat slot.

The two channels’ histories are tangled up with each other. BBC Three shut down as a broadcast channel in 2016 and spent six years online-only before returning to linear TV in February 2022, a return that reshuffled channel numbers on some platforms, Virgin Media among them, where BBC Three and BBC Four now sit at 107 and 108. Around the same period, BBC Four itself pulled back from commissioning much new original programming, leaning far more heavily on repeats and archive material than it did a decade ago. What hasn’t changed is that BBC Four still broadcasts live every evening, and iPlayer is where you’ll find everything it’s ever shown if you miss the schedule on the night.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does BBC Four have adverts?

No. It’s funded by the licence fee, so there are no ad breaks anywhere in the schedule.

Is BBC Four free to watch?

There’s no separate subscription for BBC Four itself, but you do need a TV licence to watch it live, or to watch most of it back on iPlayer, the same as any other BBC channel.

What is the relationship between BBC Four and BBC Three?

More shared history than shared schedule; see the section above for the detail on how the two channels’ numbers and fortunes have crossed over since 2022.

What’s on BBC Four tonight?

Tonight, Tuesday 14 July 2026, BBC Four marks the death of Dame Penelope Keith with a tribute evening from 8pm: a short reflective film, a classic To the Manor Born, The Good Life, and the 1984 televised Hay Fever in which she starred. Great British Railway Journeys and Canal Boat Diaries open the evening beforehand, and the two-part documentary Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? closes out the night from 10:45pm.

Verdict

BBC Four is one of the better-value channels on British free television, as long as you know what you’re going there for. You won’t find anything new. What you will find is a decent chunk of the best things the BBC has ever made, given a proper repeat run instead of being quietly filed away. The channel is also, as tonight shows, where the BBC turns when it wants to mark a loss properly, pulling together a career rather than a single episode.

Tuesday 14 July 2026 belongs entirely to Dame Penelope Keith. BBC Four opens the tribute at 8pm with a short film she recorded in 2024 looking back at To the Manor Born, then runs the sitcom’s advert-storyline episode at 8:15pm and an early episode of The Good Life at 8:45pm, pairing off her two best-known roles. The 1984 televised Hay Fever at 9:15pm is the real find here, a rarer piece of archive with Paul Eddington, Patricia Hodge and Joan Sims alongside her. Railway and canal documentaries fill the hour beforehand, and a two-part US foreign policy documentary closes the night from 10:45pm, but the tribute block is what to plan your evening around.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | BBC One TV Guide | BBC iPlayer Guide