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

Published: 11 September 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, Saturday 12 September 2026, is a straight action triple bill: Behind Enemy Lines (2001) opens at 6:55pm, Peppermint (2018) takes the 9pm slot, and Legion (2010) closes the night from 11:05pm.

Film4 Schedule: Saturday 12 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Film4 schedule for Saturday 12 September 2026, on Freeview 14.

Overnight

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Film4 today

The overnight run opens with Tyrannosaur at 1am, before a long teleshopping block takes the channel from 2:50am right through to late morning.

Four films then carry the whole daytime: the animated adventure Wonder Park at 11am, the Merchant Ivory period drama A Room with a View from 12:45pm, the romantic comedy Rosaline at 3pm, and Hell and High Water running from 4:50pm into the early evening, ahead of tonight’s line-up from 6:55pm.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Saturday 12 September 2026.

Behind Enemy Lines — Film4, 6:55pm

Behind Enemy Lines opens the evening at 6:55pm, the 2001 thriller in which a downed US Navy navigator, played by Owen Wilson, evades Bosnian forces while Gene Hackman’s admiral fights to authorise a rescue.

Peppermint — Film4, 9pm

Peppermint follows at 9pm. Jennifer Garner plays a mother who goes after the men responsible for killing her family, in a revenge thriller that keeps things simple and violent.

Legion — Film4, 11:05pm

Legion closes the night from 11:05pm, an apocalyptic action-horror in which Paul Bettany’s archangel turns against Heaven to protect an unborn child from a group of possessed humans.

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?

Behind Enemy Lines opens the evening at 6:55pm, Peppermint follows at 9pm, and Legion closes the night from 11:05pm — a straight action triple bill with no factual or documentary content in primetime. Full times for the rest of the day, including Wonder Park at 11am and Hell and High Water in the late afternoon, 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 a proper action run rather than a mixed bag. Behind Enemy Lines at 6:55pm is the pick for anyone after something with more substance, a Bosnian War thriller anchored by Gene Hackman’s admiral fighting his own chain of command as much as the enemy. Peppermint at 9pm is a straightforward revenge picture, Jennifer Garner doing the legwork with commitment even when the script doesn’t ask much of her. Legion closes things out from 11:05pm, an apocalyptic oddity that swings for something stranger than the other two and mostly gets there. None is a Film4 Productions title, and none needs to be to earn its slot. Daytime keeps to the channel’s usual mixed-bag habit: an animated family film, a period drama, a comedy and a thriller, with no single centrepiece.

Watch

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