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

Published: 11 September 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. Saturday 12 September 2026 opens in the small hours with three thrillers, October Moth, Echo of Barbara and Final Appointment, then a Man from U.N.C.L.E. repeat carries the schedule towards breakfast. Daytime works through The Cisco Kid and a run of half-hour adventure series — William Tell, Batman, Hawkeye & the Last of the Mohicans, Captain Scarlet and Supercar among them — either side of the feature-length The Incredible Petrified World and Seven Thunders. The evening opens with the drama serials Dick Turpin, Maigret and The Duchess of Duke Street from 6:10pm, before the film The Driver takes the 9:05pm slot and The Blood of Fu Manchu closes the night. Full breakdown below.

Talking Pictures TV Schedule: Saturday 12 September 2026 (Full Listings)

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

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Talking Pictures TV today

Saturday’s overnight run opens with three thrillers back to back, October Moth, Echo of Barbara and Final Appointment, then a half-hour episode of The Vise and a repeat of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. close out the small hours from 4:30am. The Cisco Kid opens the morning proper at 6am, followed by the animated curiosity Bambi Meets Godzilla 1969 and the quiz show Runaround, then Legend of the Hidden City and William Tell.

Batman, Hawkeye & the Last of the Mohicans, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and Supercar carry the schedule through mid-morning in half-hour bursts, before The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case and an episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood take it to midday. The feature-length The Incredible Petrified World and Seven Thunders fill most of the afternoon, then the short Look At Life The Black Arrows, the drama Whiplash and The Secret Place carry the schedule towards early evening.

Talking Pictures TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

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

None But the Tortoise (1966) — Talking Pictures TV, 6:10pm

A quarter-hour archive short, None But the Tortoise, opens the early evening at 6:10pm.

Dick Turpin — Talking Pictures TV, 6:25pm

Dick Turpin’s second series continues at 6:25pm with its second episode.

Maigret — Talking Pictures TV, 7pm

Maigret runs its twelfth episode at 7pm, part of the channel’s long-running detective drama strand.

The Duchess of Duke Street — Talking Pictures TV, 8pm

The period drama The Duchess of Duke Street continues at 8pm with series two’s eleventh episode.

The Driver — Talking Pictures TV, 9:05pm

The evening’s film slot goes to The Driver at 9:05pm.

EuroTrash — Talking Pictures TV, 10:55pm

The magazine strand EuroTrash airs at 10:55pm.

The Blood of Fu Manchu — Talking Pictures TV, 11:30pm

The channel closes with the cult thriller The Blood of Fu Manchu at 11:30pm.

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?

The archive short None But the Tortoise (1966) and an episode of Dick Turpin open the early evening from 6:10pm, ahead of Maigret at 7pm and The Duchess of Duke Street at 8pm. The film slot goes to The Driver at 9:05pm, before EuroTrash and The Blood of Fu Manchu close the night at 11:30pm. Check the schedule table above for the full day’s listings.

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.

Tonight’s evening leans on drama serials rather than a single film anchor: None But the Tortoise, Dick Turpin, Maigret and The Duchess of Duke Street carry the schedule from 6:10pm before The Driver takes the film slot at 9:05pm. The Blood of Fu Manchu closes out the night at 11:30pm.

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