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

Published: 26 August 2026

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. Thursday 27 August 2026 runs 20 programmes through the day, and the evening turns from archive television to film late on: a 1949 Ealing anthology picture holds the last stretch of the afternoon and the first third of the 6pm hour, four archive strands then carry the channel through early evening and into primetime, and the night closes with a Hammer horror and a 1953 prisoner-of-war drama back to back from 9:20pm. Full breakdown below.

Talking Pictures TV Schedule: Thursday 27 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Talking Pictures TV schedule for Thursday 27 August 2026, on Freeview 82.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Talking Pictures TV today

Thursday’s overnight stretch opens at 12:55am with I Am A Camera, a two-hour slot, followed by Fighting Mad at 2:55am. Two archive strands carry things towards breakfast: Stagecoach West (4am, series 1, episode 24) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E (5am, series 1, episode 8).

Lily of Killarney opens the day proper at 6am, followed by Father’s Little Dividend from 7:35am.

Kill Me Tomorrow fills the late-morning slot from 9:15am, then The Leather Boys runs a two-hour-ten stretch from 10:50am into the early afternoon.

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot continues its run at 1pm (series 1, episode 25), ahead of The Duchess of Duke Street from 1:30pm (series 1, episode 1). Operation Diplomat takes the 2:35pm slot, the short Cinebox Memories fills 3:55pm, a That’s My Boy episode follows at 4pm (series 1, episode 4), and Train of Events, the channel’s main afternoon film, takes over from 4:35pm and runs to 6:20pm, holding the first third of the 6pm hour before the schedule turns to archive telly.

Talking Pictures TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Talking Pictures TV primetime line-up for tonight, Thursday 27 August 2026.

Train of Events — Talking Pictures TV, 4:35pm

Train of Events (1949) closes out the afternoon and holds the first third of the 6pm hour, running through to 6:20pm. The Ealing anthology film links four flashback stories to a train racing towards a stalled petrol tanker at a level crossing, with directing duties split three ways between Sidney Cole, Charles Crichton and Basil Dearden. Jack Warner heads the cast.

Strange But True? — Talking Pictures TV, 6:20pm

Strange But True? picks up once the film clears, at 6:20pm (series 1, episode 29). Michael Aspel fronted this 1990s ITV series on ghost sightings, near-death experiences and other reports of the unexplained, built around eyewitness accounts and reconstructions rather than studio debate.

The Brothers — Talking Pictures TV, 6:55pm

The Brothers follows at 6:55pm (series 3, episode 12). The BBC’s 1970s Sunday-evening saga centres on Hammond Transport Services, a family road haulage firm thrown into disarray after its founder’s death, and is often cited as an early British stab at the kind of boardroom-and-bedroom drama Dallas made global a few years later.

Mark Saber — Talking Pictures TV, 8pm

Mark Saber opens primetime at 8pm (series 3, episode 47). Donald Gray, himself an amputee, plays the one-armed London private detective in this 1950s series, with cases stretching from home turf out to Paris and the Riviera.

The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club — Talking Pictures TV, 8:30pm

The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club takes the 8:30pm slot (series 2, episode 13). Granada rebuilt a working men’s club inside its Manchester studio for this 1970s variety show, tables, beer and singalong included, and used it to give early television exposure to the likes of Cannon and Ball and Paul Daniels.

Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell — Talking Pictures TV, 9:20pm

Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) takes over at 9:20pm for just short of two hours. It was Terence Fisher’s final film and Hammer’s last word on the character, with Peter Cushing back as the Baron for a send-off that leans bleak rather than nostalgic.

Albert R.N. — Talking Pictures TV, 11:15pm

Albert R.N. (1953) closes the night at 11:15pm. Lewis Gilbert’s prisoner-of-war drama follows British inmates who build a dummy, nicknamed Albert, to fool the German guards at roll call during a run of escape attempts, with Jack Warner and Anthony Steel top-billed.

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?

Archive telly dominates the run-up to primetime tonight: Strange But True? and The Brothers fill 6:20pm and 6:55pm once Train of Events, a 1949 Ealing picture, clears the schedule. Mark Saber and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club open the 8pm hour, then Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, Terence Fisher’s last film for Hammer, takes over at 9:20pm. Albert R.N., a 1953 prisoner-of-war drama, closes the night from 11:15pm.

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.

Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell is the one to catch tonight, from 9:20pm. It closed out Hammer’s Frankenstein cycle, and Peter Cushing plays the role for the last time with a coldness that suits the material better than nostalgia might. Train of Events earlier in the afternoon is the pick if portmanteau drama is more your speed, and Mark Saber at 8pm gives the night a slice of 1950s detective television before the schedule turns from archive telly to film.

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