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

Talking Pictures TV is the independent, family-run channel built almost entirely on one man’s private film collection. Noel Cronin spent decades buying up the rights to older British and Hollywood titles through his company Renown Pictures, and in May 2015 he and his daughter, Sarah Cronin-Stanley, turned that archive into a television channel. Eleven years on, nobody else on British free-to-air is attempting anything like it. Wednesday 12 August 2026 keeps to the channel’s usual weekday shape: archive serials and comedies through the day, then John Boulting’s 1947 crime drama Brighton Rock takes the 8:35pm slot.

Talking Pictures TV Schedule: Wednesday 12 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Talking Pictures TV schedule for Wednesday 12 August 2026, on Freeview 82.

What’s on Talking Pictures TV today

The overnight run opens with the 1960 drama The Nudist Story at 12:10am, Ramsey Herrington directing Shelley Martin, Brian Cobby and Natalie Lynn. Orson Welles both directs and stars in the 1946 Oscar-nominated thriller The Stranger at 2am, alongside Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young, as an investigator hunts a hidden Nazi war criminal. A short New Seekers archive clip fills 3:55am, then the 1961 US import Target: The Corruptors brings a case of industrial corruption at 4am (series 1, episode 31), before a fresh instalment of the Film Noir documentary strand opens at 5am.

Vernon Sewell’s 1963 drama A Matter of Choice takes the 6am hour, Anthony Steel and Jeanne Moody caught up in the fallout after two youths cause a man’s death by accident. Death Goes To School, a 1953 crime drama with Barbara Murray and Gordon Jackson investigating a strangulation, follows at 7:40am, then Brian Desmond Hurst’s 1956 drama The Black Tent, starring Donald Sinden alongside Anna-Maria Sandri and Anthony Steel, sends a young man in search of his missing older brother from 8:55am.

Ken Annakin’s 1967 adventure The Long Duel closes out the morning from 10:45am, Yul Brynner and Trevor Howard on opposite sides of a rebellion on India’s north-west frontier. The Buccaneers brings a half-hour of 1950s adventure serial at 1pm (series 1, episode 22), Robert Shaw’s crew stumbling on what might be a ghost ship, before the 2004 family drama Carrie’s War, directed by Coky Giedroyc, sends two evacuee children to wartime Wales from 1:30pm.

Two Look At Life shorts fill the mid-afternoon at 3:20pm and 3:35pm, the first surveying London’s street markets, the second following football fans through a Saturday with Tottenham Hotspur. Dial 999 dramatises a 1958 police case at 3:45pm (series 1, episode 30), before Jack Lee’s 1957 adventure Robbery Under Arms, with Peter Finch leading a bushranger gang through the Australian outback, closes out the afternoon from 4:15pm.

Talking Pictures TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Talking Pictures TV primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 12 August 2026.

Melbourne Cleaners in 1964 — Talking Pictures TV, 6:15pm

A quarter-hour archive curiosity opens the evening. This 1964 short follows Melbourne’s council cleaners at work, the sort of everyday documentary footage Talking Pictures TV specialises in digging out of storage.

Give Us A Clue — Talking Pictures TV, 6:30pm

Michael Parkinson hosts this 1985 edition of the charades game show (series 1, episode 15). Leslie Crowther and Sue Lloyd take one team, up against Ronald Allen, Janet Brown, Hank Marvin and Julie Rogers.

Out of Town — Talking Pictures TV, 7pm

Jack Hargreaves signs off the rural strand Out of Town with its final instalment (series 1, episode 39), a 1981 walk from Parsonage Down on Salisbury Plain along the ridgeway, tracing the roots of English culture.

Travelling Man — Talking Pictures TV, 7:30pm

Leigh Lawson’s wronged ex-con Lomax finally catches up with the man who framed him in this 1985 episode, Last Lap (series 2, episode 7). Gawn Grainger and Tony Doyle complete the cast as the chase plays out.

Brighton Rock — Talking Pictures TV, 8:35pm

John Boulting directs Richard Attenborough as teenage gang boss Pinkie Brown in this 1947 adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel, with Hermione Baddeley in support as Pinkie tries to cover up a journalist’s murder. Still one of the toughest British crime films of its decade.

Up The Chastity Belt — Talking Pictures TV, 10:25pm

Bob Kellett directs this 1971 medieval comedy to close the night. Frankie Howerd’s market trader Lurkalot peddles chastity belts and love potions, with Eartha Kitt, Anna Quayle and Roy Hudd rounding out the cast.

What kind of films and shows are on Talking Pictures TV

Vintage British and Hollywood films

The backbone of the schedule is the Renown Pictures library: British films from the 1930s to the 1970s, plus war pictures, adventure films and the odd Hollywood title bought in to fill a gap. Quality swings wildly from one afternoon to the next, which is part of the deal.

Archive TV drama and detective series

Early evenings lean on serialised drama from the 1950s through the 1980s: Z Cars, Public Eye, Hannay and others of that stripe. Much of it isn’t shown anywhere else on British television, and some of it hadn’t been shown anywhere at all for thirty-odd years before this channel dug it out. If you want to know why people are fond of Talking Pictures TV rather than merely tolerant of it, this is the part of the schedule to point at.

Cult strands, B-movies and magazine shows

Late nights get stranger: horror and cult titles through Caroline Munro’s Cellar Club, oddities like Supernatural, imported curios.

How to watch Talking Pictures TV

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find Talking Pictures TV across the main UK television platforms:

Talking Pictures TV is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. It doesn’t run a +1 timeshift channel, so these are the only live feeds available.

TPTV Encore catch-up

TPTV Encore is the channel’s own free streaming service, launched in December 2021 and run through a browser at tptvencore.co.uk, with an app on Android. Register an email address and recent broadcasts are usually there for about a week.

The better reason to bother with it is what sits behind the catch-up: a deep archive that includes Southern Television material never given a regular slot on the main channel. Those older titles stay free after the catch-up window shuts, but they carry adverts.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on Talking Pictures TV tonight?

Melbourne Cleaners in 1964 opens the evening at 6:15pm, followed by the game show Give Us A Clue at 6:30pm. Out of Town takes the 7pm slot and Travelling Man follows at 7:30pm, before Brighton Rock closes out primetime from 8:35pm. Up The Chastity Belt rounds off the night at 10:25pm.

What channel is Talking Pictures TV on?

Freeview 82, Sky 324, Virgin Media 445 and Freesat 306. It’s also on Freely at channel 36. All are free to watch.

Does Talking Pictures TV have a +1 channel?

No. TPTV Encore stands in for a +1 service, with recent broadcasts available to catch up on demand instead.

Is Talking Pictures TV free to watch?

Yes, entirely. It’s advertising-funded rather than subscription-funded, on the live channel and on TPTV Encore alike.

Verdict

I rate Talking Pictures TV highly for exactly what it is: a small independent operation that still does something none of the bigger channels bother with. Old films and archive television get a proper home here instead of the odd graveyard slot. It won’t be for everyone, and some evenings the schedule reads like a lucky dip. That’s also the appeal.

Brighton Rock is the one to catch tonight. John Boulting’s 1947 adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel gives Richard Attenborough one of his defining early roles as teenage gang boss Pinkie Brown, with Hermione Baddeley in support, and it remains sharper and nastier than most British crime films of its decade. Give Us A Clue brings a lighter half hour at 6:30pm, Michael Parkinson presiding over a starry set of charades guests, and Travelling Man’s manhunt plot makes a decent bridge between the two.

Related: Film4 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week