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

Published: 26 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, Thursday 27 August 2026, David Lynch’s The Straight Story runs from 4:15pm to 6:30pm, when the space-race drama Hidden Figures takes over. A ten-minute American Gangster Special profile leads into Ridley Scott’s American Gangster at 9:10pm, which runs past midnight.

Film4 Schedule: Thursday 27 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Film4 schedule for Thursday 27 August 2026, on Freeview 14.

Overnight

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

What’s on Film4 today

It’s a thin day on Film4, with just ten entries across the full 24 hours and nine unique titles once the two teleshopping slots are counted as one. Teleshopping fills the small hours from 3:10am through to 11am.

The animated adventure Wonder Park opens the daytime films at 11am, followed by Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs at 12:45pm. At 2:35pm it’s the 1952 Walt Disney adventure The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, with Richard Todd as Robin Hood outwitting the Sheriff of Nottingham in Sherwood Forest, before David Lynch’s The Straight Story takes over at 4:15pm and holds the schedule right through to 6:30pm.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 27 August 2026.

The Straight Story — Film4, 4:15pm

David Lynch’s 1999 drama casts Richard Farnsworth as a stubborn Iowa pensioner who sets out on a ride-on lawnmower to reconcile with his estranged brother, played by Harry Dean Stanton, two states away. It’s the gentlest thing Lynch ever made, and it runs long enough to hold the entire first half of the 6pm hour before Hidden Figures takes over.

Hidden Figures — Film4, 6:30pm

The 2016 biopic follows three Black mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped put American astronauts into orbit, and whose careers ran their course inside the segregated offices of 1960s Virginia. Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe and Taraji P. Henson take the leads.

American Gangster Special — Film4, 9pm

A ten-minute featurette to set up the main event: Ridley Scott, who directed it, and his two leads — Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington — reflect on how the film came together. It runs straight into the feature at 9:10pm.

American Gangster — Film4, 9:10pm

Ridley Scott’s 2007 crime epic sends Denzel Washington’s Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas up against Russell Crowe’s detective, drawn from the real career of Frank Lucas in 1970s New York. It runs well past midnight, closing out Film4’s night at 12:20am.

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?

The Straight Story (1999), David Lynch’s drama with Richard Farnsworth, runs from 4:15pm to 6:30pm, when Hidden Figures (2016) takes over. A ten-minute American Gangster Special holds 9pm, and American Gangster (2007), Ridley Scott’s crime epic with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, follows at 9:10pm and runs through to 12:20am. 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 ten entries across the full day and two of those are teleshopping. American Gangster at 9:10pm is the pick if you’re in for the long haul: Ridley Scott directing Denzel Washington close to his best, in a running time that pushes well past midnight. Hidden Figures at 6:30pm is the easiest option for the whole household, and The Straight Story earlier in the evening is worth the patience if you’re home before 4:15pm — a slow, deliberate David Lynch film that shares almost nothing with the rest of his work.

Watch

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