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

Published: 12 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, Sunday 13 September 2026, is a lower-key trio rather than a blockbuster night: Mrs Doubtfire (1993) opens at 6:35pm, Escape from Pretoria (2020) takes the 9pm slot, and Vesper (2022) closes the night from 11:10pm.

Film4 Schedule: Sunday 13 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Film4 schedule for Sunday 13 September 2026, on Freeview 14.

Overnight

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Film4 today

The overnight run opens with the western thriller Let Him Go at 1am, before a long teleshopping block takes the channel from 3:15am right through to late morning.

Four films then carry the whole daytime: the animated adventure Tad the Lost Explorer and the Curse of the Mummy at 11am, the swashbuckling classic The Mark of Zorro from 12:45pm, the 1941 western Western Union at 2:35pm, and the festive comedy Christmas with the Kranks running from 4:30pm into the early evening, ahead of tonight’s line-up from 6:35pm.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 13 September 2026.

Mrs Doubtfire — Film4, 6:35pm

Robin Williams disguises himself as a Scottish nanny to stay close to his kids after a divorce, and the film survives mostly on his improvising rather than the plot underneath it. Over three decades old now, and still the gentlest thing in Film4’s schedule tonight.

Escape from Pretoria — Film4, 9pm

Daniel Radcliffe plays Tim Jenkin, one of two anti-apartheid prisoners who broke out of a maximum-security jail using keys carved from wood. It’s a true story told as a patient, tension-first thriller rather than an action film, and it’s better for it.

Vesper — Film4, 11:10pm

A dystopian science-fiction film set in a world where the natural order has collapsed and seeds have become currency. Bleak, visually distinctive, and a long way from the two films ahead of it tonight.

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?

Mrs Doubtfire opens the evening at 6:35pm, Escape from Pretoria follows at 9pm, and Vesper closes the night from 11:10pm — a lower-key trio rather than a blockbuster night. Full times for the rest of the day, including Tad the Lost Explorer and the Curse of the Mummy at 11am and Christmas with the Kranks 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 genuinely mixed bag rather than a themed run, and it’s honest about it. Mrs Doubtfire at 6:35pm is comfort viewing, carried entirely by Robin Williams rather than anything in the script. Escape from Pretoria at 9pm is the pick of the three, a based-on-fact prison break told with real patience, and Daniel Radcliffe is better in it than the marketing around it ever gave him credit for. Vesper closes things out from 11:10pm, a bleaker, stranger science-fiction film that won’t be for everyone but earns its late slot. None is a Film4 Productions title, and none needs to be to earn its place. Daytime keeps to the channel’s usual mixed-bag habit: an animated family film, a swashbuckling classic, a vintage western and a festive comedy, with no single centrepiece.

Watch

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