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

Published: 22 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, Wednesday 23 September 2026, it’s a single evening premiere: the period drama Belle (2013), with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, at 6:45pm, then the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything (2014), starring Eddie Redmayne, at 9pm, preceded by a short interview special with its stars and director. Seven Psychopaths closes the night from 11:25pm.

Film4 Schedule: Wednesday 23 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Film4 schedule for Wednesday 23 September 2026, on Freeview 14.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Film4 today

Overnight, the drama Chevalier opens the day just after 1am, then a long teleshopping block holds the channel from 3:30am through to 11am, broken only by the short This is Film4 strand just after 6am.

Four Westerns and adventure films carry the daytime schedule. Tomahawk, a 1951 story of a Bozeman Trail scout with Van Heflin, opens at 11am, followed by the Rock Hudson western Gun Fury at 12:40pm. Robin and Marian, Richard Lester’s 1976 take on the outlaw in later life with Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn, runs from 2:20pm, and the Paul Newman western Hombre closes out the afternoon from 4:30pm ahead of tonight’s line-up.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 23 September 2026.

Belle — Film4, 6:45pm

Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars in this 2013 period drama, based on the true story of the mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy admiral, raised among the aristocracy, who falls for a lawyer campaigning to end slavery.

The Theory of Everything — Film4, 9pm

Eddie Redmayne plays Stephen Hawking opposite Felicity Jones as his wife Jane in this 2014 biopic, tracing his early academic career, his motor neurone disease diagnosis and his scientific work over the decades that followed. A ten-minute interview special at 8:50pm, featuring Redmayne, Jones and director James Marsh, leads straight into the film.

Seven Psychopaths — Film4, 11:25pm

Colin Farrell stars in Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy thriller, closing out the night.

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?

A single evening premiere runs tonight: the period drama Belle (2013), starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, opens at 6:45pm, and the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything (2014), with Eddie Redmayne, follows at 9pm after a short interview special with its stars and director. Seven Psychopaths closes out the night from 11:25pm. Full times for the rest of the day, including the Westerns Tomahawk and Gun Fury and the afternoon’s Robin and Marian and Hombre, 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 single headline premiere rather than a run of back-to-back titles. Belle at 6:45pm is worth the time on its own, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw carrying a true story that British costume drama doesn’t tell often enough. The Theory of Everything at 9pm is the pick of the night: Eddie Redmayne’s performance holds up on a rewatch better than the film’s fairly conventional biopic structure might suggest, and the short interview special beforehand adds some genuine context rather than padding out the schedule. Seven Psychopaths, closing from 11:25pm, is a sharper, nastier watch for anyone still up. Daytime runs a proper Western afternoon: Tomahawk and Gun Fury either side of lunch, then Robin and Marian and Hombre carrying the mid-to-late afternoon.

Watch

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