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

Published: 15 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. Wednesday 16 September 2026 opens in the small hours with The Claim at 1:40am, then The Directors and a Man from U.N.C.L.E rerun carry the schedule towards Cuckoo Patrol from 6am. A Case for PC 49 leads breakfast, then That Woman Opposite and Assignment K fill the late morning before a Look At Life short leads into The Buccaneers and The Net at lunchtime. A second Look At Life short, Dial 999, That’s My Boy and Snowball carry the afternoon towards early evening. The evening opens with a Rooms double bill at 6pm and 6:30pm, then Out of Town, Dick Turpin and Van der Valk lead into The Odessa File at 9:05pm, before Up Pompeii closes out the night. Full breakdown below.

Talking Pictures TV Schedule: Wednesday 16 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Talking Pictures TV schedule for Wednesday 16 September 2026, on Freeview 82.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Talking Pictures TV today

Wednesday’s overnight run opens with The Claim at 1:40am, then The Directors takes the 4am slot ahead of a Man from U.N.C.L.E rerun at 5am.

The day proper opens with Cuckoo Patrol at 6am, then A Case for PC 49 carries breakfast. That Woman Opposite and Assignment K fill the late morning, before a Look At Life short leads into The Buccaneers and The Net at lunchtime. A second Look At Life short, Dial 999, That’s My Boy and Snowball carry the afternoon towards early evening.

Talking Pictures TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Talking Pictures TV primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 16 September 2026.

Rooms — Talking Pictures TV, 6pm & 6:30pm

Two half-hour episodes of this archive anthology drama open the evening back to back. The first pairs two very different women who turn out to have more in common than either expected; the second has one of them finally levelling with the other after hearing her out. Modest, dialogue-led stuff, and the kind of quiet character drama this channel does better than anyone else on Freeview.

Out of Town — Talking Pictures TV, 7pm

Jack Hargreaves turns his attention to traditional rake-making from ash wood in tonight’s episode, the sort of unhurried countryside footage this long-running series built its following on decades ago.

Dick Turpin — Talking Pictures TV, 7:30pm

Richard O’Sullivan takes the title role in this adventure series, a good deal further from the sitcom parts most viewers know him for than his usual casting.

Van der Valk — Talking Pictures TV, 8:05pm

Tonight’s case has the daughter of a controversial right-wing journalist kidnapped, pulling the Amsterdam detective into the politics behind the story rather than just the crime itself.

The Odessa File — Talking Pictures TV, 9:05pm

Tonight’s film, adapted from Frederick Forsyth’s novel, follows a journalist chasing down the new identity of a former concentration camp commandant. Primetime’s main event, and a rarer thing on this channel than the archive comedy and drama surrounding it: a proper thriller.

Up Pompeii — Talking Pictures TV, 11:40pm

Frankie Howerd’s Roman slave comedy closes the night, with an assassination plot unfolding just as a nearby volcano threatens to cut the whole scheme short.

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?

Tonight opens with a Rooms double bill at 6pm and 6:30pm, then Out of Town, Dick Turpin and Van der Valk lead into The Odessa File at 9:05pm. Up Pompeii closes out the night at 11:40pm. 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 splits fairly evenly between archive drama and one genuine film: a Rooms double bill and Out of Town open proceedings, Dick Turpin and Van der Valk carry the pre-9pm hour, and The Odessa File is the night’s main event at 9:05pm before Up Pompeii sees the night out.

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