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

Published: 21 September 2026

Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated arts channel: live concerts, gallery and biography documentaries, its own painting competitions, and plenty of archive drama besides. It has been free-to-air since 17 September 2020, when it arrived on Freeview and Freesat alongside its existing Sky and Virgin Media carriage. There’s no subscription and no account needed to watch it.

Tonight, Tuesday 22 September 2026, two Tales Of The Unexpected episodes open the evening at 6pm and 6:30pm, then a Hitchcock double bill holds 7pm and 7:30pm ahead of a Steve McQueen documentary double bill: I Am Steve McQueen at 8pm and Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie at 9:45pm. The Movies closes out the night at 11:35pm. Full breakdown below.

Sky Arts Schedule: Tuesday 22 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Sky Arts schedule for Tuesday 22 September 2026, on Freeview 11.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Sky Arts today

Dr. Strangelove: National Theatre Live opens the overnight run at 1:10am, followed by the documentary Punchdrunk: Behind The Mask at 3:05am and The Art Of The Garden at 4:05am. Painting Birds With Jim And Nancy Moir picks up at 5am, before the opera La Traviata fills breakfast from 6am and The Joy Of Painting and two Tales Of The Unexpected episodes run from 8:10am.

Two Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes carry mid-morning, then Discovering: Robert De Niro holds 11am ahead of Sex Pistols: Classic Albums at midday. Two further Tales Of The Unexpected episodes and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour fill early afternoon, before Painting Birds With Jim And Nancy Moir and Discovering: Alain Delon run through to Portrait Artist Of The Year 2025 at 5pm, ahead of the evening line-up below.

Sky Arts tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Sky Arts primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 22 September 2026.

Tales Of The Unexpected — Sky Arts, 6pm

A memory-act performer gets pulled into someone else’s scheme, with the twist landing exactly where the title promises (series 6, episode 2).

Tales Of The Unexpected — Sky Arts, 6:30pm

A second helping half an hour later, this time turning on a contested inheritance (series 6, episode 3).

Alfred Hitchcock Presents — Sky Arts, 7pm

A man tries to pin his own daughter’s crime on somebody else entirely (series 2, episode 1).

Alfred Hitchcock Presents — Sky Arts, 7:30pm

An escaped asylum patient breaks into a family’s house (series 2, episode 2).

I Am Steve McQueen — Sky Arts, 8pm

Monday’s Andre Rieu concert film gives way to a documentary double bill tonight. This half traces McQueen’s career from jobbing actor to the industry’s highest-paid star, built around the flat, watchful screen presence that made him a household name without him seeming to try.

Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie — Sky Arts, 9:45pm

The second half turns to a film McQueen started and never finished, working out from surviving footage and interviews why the project fell apart.

The Movies — Sky Arts, 11:35pm

Tonight’s instalment sticks to the 1980s, pulling in a run of decade-defining titles from the era’s biggest studio hits to its teen classics (series 1, episode 8).

What kind of shows are on Sky Arts

Live concerts and music documentaries

Concerts get the money and the camera crews, from arena nights with Andre Rieu down to something as small as Nicola Benedetti & Friends. Classic Albums goes through a record’s studio history track by track, usually with someone who was there at the mixing desk soloing the parts. The Discovering strand does the same job for careers rather than records.

Its own arts competitions

Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year are the channel’s best-known commissions: amateur and professional painters working against the clock on a real sitter or a real view, judged by a rotating panel that has included Kate Bryan, Kathleen Soriano and Tai-Shan Schierenberg, with Stephen Mangan hosting. The jeopardy is real because the deadline is real, which is more than most competition formats can say. Watercolour Challenge, now running as an archive repeat, is the lighter version: three amateurs, one scene, four hours.

Archive drama and classic film

The two Hitchcock strands and Tales of the Unexpected are anthology drama, built on twist endings rather than continuing storylines, which is exactly why they survive being shown out of order at half past one on a midweek afternoon. The Movies puts short introductions in front of older features so daytime viewers get some context first.

How to watch Sky Arts

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find Sky Arts across the main UK television platforms:

Virgin Media, Sky and Freely channel numbers can vary slightly by region and box, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t match.

Streaming online

There’s no free standalone web player for Sky Arts in the way some other free-to-air channels offer one. Existing Sky TV customers can stream it through the Sky Go app at no extra cost, while anyone can add a NOW Entertainment Membership to watch Sky Arts live plus its substantial on-demand library, though that membership carries its own monthly cost.

Sky Arts streaming and catch-up

The linear schedule is the catch-up service. Sky Arts repeats its concert specials and music documentaries often, usually around an anniversary or whenever an artist is back in the news, so a missed broadcast tends to come round again within a few months. Worth checking the listings rather than assuming it has gone.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is Sky Arts on Freeview?

Sky Arts is on Freeview channel 36, with no subscription or account needed to watch it.

Is Sky Arts free to watch?

Yes. It’s been free-to-air since 17 September 2020, when it launched on Freeview and Freesat. There’s advertising during programmes, but no fee to watch the live channel on any platform.

What’s on Sky Arts tonight?

Two Tales Of The Unexpected episodes open the evening at 6pm and 6:30pm, then a Hitchcock double bill holds 7pm and 7:30pm ahead of a Steve McQueen documentary double bill at 8pm and 9:45pm. The Movies closes out the night at 11:35pm. Full times are in the schedule table above.

Can I watch Sky Arts online for free?

Only through an aerial, dish or existing Sky/Virgin box. There’s no free web stream for a phone or laptop. Existing Sky customers get Sky Go at no extra cost; everyone else would need a paid NOW Entertainment Membership for Sky Arts live plus its on-demand catalogue.

Verdict

Sky Arts earns its keep, mostly. Nothing else on free-to-air British television commissions arts programming at this scale, and the concert strand is the sort of thing a subscription service would happily charge for. The archive drama filling the daytime is comfortable rather than essential, and there is an awful lot of it.

Tonight follows the channel’s usual archive-drama-then-documentary shape: two Tales Of The Unexpected episodes and a Hitchcock double bill carry the early evening, before a Steve McQueen profile and a second film on his unfinished project take 8pm and 9:45pm, and an eighties-themed edition of The Movies closes out the night at 11:35pm. Standard practice for a channel filling twenty-four hours a day on a mix of its own commissions, licensed film and archive drama.

Related: BBC Four TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week