Film4 TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Film4 Tonight
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, Saturday 29 August 2026, Hugh Jackman musical The Greatest Showman takes over from 5:55pm and holds the channel through the 6pm and 7pm hours before Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express starts at 8pm. Nicolas Cage supernatural thriller Ghost Rider closes the night at 10:15pm.
Film4 Schedule: Saturday 29 August 2026 (Full Listings)
Here is the complete Film4 schedule for Saturday 29 August 2026, on Freeview 14.
Overnight
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 12:35am | Peppermint | |
| 2:35am | Teleshopping |
Morning
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 11am | Togo |
Afternoon
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1:15pm | Spies in Disguise | |
| 3:15pm | Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines |
Early evening
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 5:55pm | The Greatest Showman |
Primetime
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 8pm | Murder on the Orient Express |
Late night
| Time | Programme | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 10:15pm | Ghost Rider |
What’s on Film4 today
It’s a light day on Film4, with eight programmes across the full 24 hours once the overnight teleshopping block is counted as one. That block fills the gap from 2:35am through to 11am, following the overnight film Peppermint.
Togo, Disney’s account of the 1925 Nome serum run with Willem Dafoe as musher Leonhard Seppala, opens the daytime films at 11am. Animated spy comedy Spies in Disguise follows at 1:15pm, sending Will Smith’s suave agent and Tom Holland’s gadget-mad sidekick through an accidental pigeon transformation. Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, the 1965 comedy about the early, chaotic days of aviation, arrives at 3:15pm and holds the schedule right up to just before 6pm.
Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule
Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 29 August 2026.
The Greatest Showman — Film4, 5:55pm
The Greatest Showman starts before the primetime window most channels use, and it doesn’t let go until 8pm, so it owns the 6pm and 7pm hours outright. Hugh Jackman plays P.T. Barnum building his circus out of nothing, with Zac Efron and Zendaya’s trapeze romance running alongside. It’s a family-friendly two hours to build the evening around.
Murder on the Orient Express — Film4, 8pm
Kenneth Branagh directs and stars as Hercule Poirot in this 2017 adaptation, working through a stacked cast that includes Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Judi Dench as a snowbound train’s worth of suspects. The moustache gets almost as much screen time as the plot, but the production is handsome and the mystery still lands.
Ghost Rider — Film4, 10:15pm
Nicolas Cage’s stunt rider turns into a flaming-skulled bounty hunter for the devil in this 2007 comic-book adaptation. It’s the least demanding thing on the schedule tonight, and it knows it.
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:
| Platform | Channel |
|---|---|
| Freeview | 14 |
| Sky (Q, Stream, Glass) | 313 |
| Sky HD | 855 |
| Film4 +1 on Freeview | 47 |
| Film4 +1 on Sky | 314 |
| Virgin Media | 428 |
| Freesat | 300 |
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 Greatest Showman (2017), Hugh Jackman’s circus musical, runs from 5:55pm to 8pm, holding both the 6pm and 7pm hours before Murder on the Orient Express (2017) takes over, Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot adaptation with Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer among the suspects. Ghost Rider (2007), starring Nicolas Cage, closes the night at 10:15pm. Full times for the rest of the day, including the afternoon’s Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), 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’s line-up is solid rather than spectacular by Film4’s standards. The Greatest Showman at 5:55pm is the one to build the evening around if you’re watching with family, and it buys two clear hours before things turn. Murder on the Orient Express at 8pm is the best-made thing on the schedule: Branagh’s cast carries it even when the mystery plays second fiddle to the production design. Ghost Rider at 10:15pm is there for anyone still up and after something undemanding to close the night on.
Watch
Related: What’s On TV Tonight | BBC One TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week
