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

Updated: 17 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, Thursday 17 September 2026, the Bill Nighy and Micheal Ward football drama The Beautiful Game opens at 6:25pm. An Interview Special with Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones and director James Marsh airs at 8:50pm, running straight into the film they’re discussing, The Theory of Everything, at 9pm. The Italian drama Io Capitano closes the night from 11:25pm.

Film4 Schedule: Thursday 17 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Film4 schedule for Thursday 17 September 2026, on Freeview 14.

Overnight

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Film4 today

The overnight run opens with the drama Our Ladies at 1:45am, before a long teleshopping block takes the channel from 3:50am through to 11am.

Two westerns, Gun Fury and Tomahawk, fill the early afternoon, then the Interview Special for The Theory of Everything gets a first airing at 4:05pm ahead of the 1976 adventure Robin and Marian at 4:15pm, running into tonight’s line-up from 6:25pm.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 17 September 2026.

The Beautiful Game — Film4, 6:25pm

Bill Nighy and Micheal Ward lead this football drama, built around a team of homeless players heading to an international tournament.

The Theory of Everything: Interview Special, then the film — Film4, 8:50pm

A brief look back at the Stephen Hawking biopic with its two lead actors and its director, airing at 8:50pm and leading straight into the film at 9pm. Treat the pair as one continuous slot rather than two separate items — the short piece sets up exactly what follows.

Io Capitano — Film4, 11:25pm

This Italian-language drama follows two Senegalese teenagers on the journey to Europe, and picked up an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature.

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.

Film4 is the least repetitive channel on Freeview by a wide margin. When we logged 48 days of schedules across all 32 main channels, only 36.3 per cent of Film4’s slots were a title it had already shown, against 87.9 per cent across Freeview as a whole — the difference being that films are scheduled once or twice rather than stripped across the week. The full comparison is in our study of repeats on UK television.

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 Beautiful Game opens the evening at 6:25pm. An Interview Special for The Theory of Everything airs at 8:50pm, leading straight into the film at 9pm, and Io Capitano closes the night from 11:25pm. Full times for the rest of the day, including The Virginian at 11am and the two westerns in the early 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’s shape is a little different from the usual straight run of films, and better for it. The Beautiful Game at 6:25pm is watchable without being essential. The main event is the pairing at 8:50pm and 9pm: the Interview Special adds real value ahead of The Theory of Everything rather than just padding the schedule, and Redmayne’s performance still holds up on a repeat viewing. Io Capitano closing from 11:25pm is the standout of the night on paper, a serious, well-regarded drama in a slot that often gets something far lighter. Daytime keeps to the channel’s usual rotation of westerns and mid-century adventure, none of it built to be a centrepiece on its own.

Watch

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