Film4 TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Film4 Tonight

Published: 24 August 2026

Film4 is the UK’s free-to-air film channel, on Freeview 14. It dropped its subscription fee on 23 July 2006 and has run on advertising ever since. Tonight, Tuesday 25 August 2026, one film effectively owns the whole evening before it: Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines runs from 4:05pm to 6:45pm, when Roland Emmerich’s war drama Midway takes over. Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls follows at 9:30pm, and Hustlers closes the night at 11:15pm.

Film4 Schedule: Tuesday 25 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Film4 schedule for Tuesday 25 August 2026, on Freeview 14.

Overnight

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Film4 today

It’s a thin day on Film4, with only nine entries across the full 24 hours. Teleshopping fills most of the early hours, running from 3:05am and returning at 7am through to 11am.

The day’s three daytime films share a loose theme of ordinary people facing something nobody around them will credit. Togo (2019) opens at 11am, with Willem Dafoe as the real-life musher behind the 1925 serum run across Alaska, led by a sled dog few gave a chance. Sherlock Holmes: Terror by Night follows at 1:15pm, a 1946 outing for Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce built around a diamond stolen in transit on a train. It Came from Outer Space closes the afternoon at 2:30pm, Jack Arnold’s 1953 alien-visitor film with Richard Carlson as the stargazer nobody in town will believe, before Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines takes over at 4:05pm.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 25 August 2026.

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines — Film4, 4:05pm

Ken Annakin’s 1965 comedy sends a comic assortment of early aviators across the Channel in a London-to-Paris air race, with Robert Morley as the newspaper proprietor who put up the prize money and can’t quite believe what he’s unleashed. It starts before teatime but doesn’t finish until 6:45pm, so it holds the whole 6pm hour on its own.

Midway — Film4, 6:45pm

Roland Emmerich usually blows up landmarks; here he’s restrained by an actual battle, and it suits him. His 2019 account of the Pacific turning point leans on the codebreakers and pilots who read Japan’s next move correctly, with Ed Skrein, Luke Evans and Woody Harrelson spread across a large ensemble cast.

Drive-Away Dolls — Film4, 9:30pm

Ethan Coen’s first film without his brother Joel is looser and pulpier than the pair’s joint work, built around a road trip that Margaret Qualley and her travelling companion can’t seem to keep out of trouble. Expect crime-comedy chaos rather than anything sober.

Hustlers — Film4, 11:15pm

Jennifer Lopez runs a crew of strippers who start targeting the Wall Street men responsible for the 2008 crash, with Constance Wu narrating the fallout from the other side of the con. Lorene Scafaria’s 2019 film earned Lopez a Golden Globe nomination, though the Oscar campaign built around her stalled short of a nomination.

What kind of films are on Film4?

Hollywood and recent theatrical releases

A good chunk of the schedule is mainstream Hollywood: films that played UK multiplexes and reached television a couple of years later. The bigger, more recent titles go in the 9pm and 6.30pm slots, where the audience is widest.

British cinema and Film4 Productions

Film4 Productions, the channel’s film-funding arm, has backed British cinema since 1982, originally trading as Channel Four Films. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Trainspotting, This Is England, 12 Years a Slave, Poor Things. Four decades of co-productions, and the reason the channel gets more benefit of the doubt than its commercial rivals.

World cinema, independent and cult film

Film4 shows more subtitled film than any other British free-to-air channel, mostly after 11pm, alongside cult American independents and things that never got a proper UK release. That late shift is the best thing about it.

How to watch Film4

Channel numbers

Where to find Film4 on the main UK platforms:

Film4 is free on all of the above, with no subscription required. Virgin Media and Freesat numbers can vary by box and region, so check your on-screen guide if these don’t match.

Streaming online

Film4 streams live and free at channel4.com/now/f4 and via the Channel 4 app on smart TVs, iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire TV. You’ll need a free Channel 4 account, which takes a couple of minutes to set up. Films that have aired often turn up on demand in the Film4 collection afterwards, but licensing means plenty of them never do, and the ones that make it don’t stay long.

Film4 +1 and catching a film you missed

Film4 +1 runs the same schedule an hour behind, on Freeview 47 and Sky 314. Sit down at 10:15pm with the 9pm premiere already 75 minutes gone and +1 lets you start it near the beginning instead of writing the evening off.

If you miss a film outright and it never appears on demand, wait. Film4 reruns titles fairly regularly, usually in themed seasons or when a director or actor is back in the news, so searching a week or two ahead in your on-screen guide often turns one up.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on Film4 tonight?

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), with Robert Morley, runs from 4:05pm to 6:45pm, when Midway (2019), Roland Emmerich’s Second World War drama with Ed Skrein, Luke Evans and Woody Harrelson, takes over. Drive-Away Dolls (2024), starring Margaret Qualley, holds 9:30pm, and Hustlers (2019), with Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu, follows at 11:15pm. Full times for the rest of the day are in the schedule table above.

What time do films start on Film4?

Typically around 11am, 2pm, 4pm, 6.30pm, 9pm, and 11pm to midnight. Running lengths shift the exact times day to day, so your on-screen guide has the most accurate information.

Is Film4 free to watch?

Yes, and it has been since it left subscription in July 2006. Expect ad breaks during films, but no fee on any platform.

Can I watch Film4 online for free?

Yes, live at channel4.com or through the Channel 4 app, with a free account.

Verdict

I rate Film4, with reservations. The 9pm slot and the run after 11pm are what keep me coming back: recent releases, the odd Productions title, and foreign-language cinema you’d rarely stumble across on any other free channel. Daytime is mostly the same forty-odd Hollywood titles on rotation, and the ad breaks mid-film wear thin some nights.

Tonight is thin even by Film4’s standards, just nine entries across the full day, and two of those are Teleshopping. Hustlers at 11:15pm is the pick if you can stay up for it: sharper and funnier than the tabloid version of its story suggests. Midway at 6:45pm is the easier option for the whole household, a straight-ahead war picture with none of Emmerich’s usual city-flattening excess, and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines earlier in the evening is a gentle, old-fashioned comedy if you’re home before 6pm.

Watch

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