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

Published: 13 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, Monday 14 September 2026, is built around one clear centrepiece: the musical Oliver! opens the evening at 6:05pm, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2023) takes the 9pm slot, and Legends of the Fall closes the night from 11:10pm.

Film4 Schedule: Monday 14 September 2026 (Full Listings)

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

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Film4 today

The overnight run opens with Simon Magus at 1:25am, before a long teleshopping block takes the channel from 3:35am through to 8am.

A short strand, LumoTV: Found in Sport, opens the morning, followed by a second teleshopping break until 11am. Three classic films then carry the rest of the day: the melodrama Imitation of Life from 11am, the noir This Gun for Hire from 1:35pm, and the historical drama Anne of the Thousand Days running from 3:15pm into the early evening, ahead of tonight’s line-up from 6:05pm.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 14 September 2026.

Oliver! — Film4, 6:05pm

Ron Moody’s Fagin anchors this musical version of Dickens, still the version most people picture when Oliver Twist comes up in conversation nearly sixty years after its release.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry — Film4, 9pm

Jim Broadbent plays a retired man who sets out to walk the length of England to deliver a letter to an old friend, in Rachel Joyce’s adaptation of her own novel. It’s a quiet film that trusts a small premise to carry real weight, and Broadbent’s restraint is what makes it work.

Legends of the Fall — Film4, 11:10pm

Anthony Hopkins heads a sprawling family drama that spans decades against a Montana backdrop. It leans hard into melodrama, but the scale and the landscape photography have kept it in rotation for three decades.

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?

Oliver! opens the evening at 6:05pm, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry follows at 9pm, and Legends of the Fall closes the night from 11:10pm. Full times for the rest of the day, including Imitation of Life at 11am and Anne of the Thousand Days in the mid-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 built around a genuine centrepiece rather than a mixed bag. Oliver! at 6:05pm is a well-worn choice, but the evening’s real interest is The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry at 9pm, Rachel Joyce adapting her own novel with Jim Broadbent doing the quiet, patient work the story needs. Legends of the Fall closes things out from 11:10pm, a sweeping period drama that’s aged into comfort viewing of its own. Daytime keeps to the channel’s usual rotation: a melodrama, a noir thriller and a historical drama, none of them built to be a centrepiece on their own.

Watch

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