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

Updated: 17 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. Thursday 17 September 2026 opens in the small hours with the Cream Farewell Concert at 1:30am, then a Star Performance episode and Will You Stop carry the schedule towards Stagecoach West at 4am and a Man from U.N.C.L.E rerun at 5am. The Night We Dropped a Clanger opens the day proper at 6am, then In a Lonely Place fills the rest of breakfast. The Bulldog Breed and Clash By Night carry the late morning into lunchtime, before The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and The Duchess of Duke Street open the afternoon. The Lamp in Assassin Mews, a Cinebox Memories short, That’s My Boy, Julius Hagen Season and The Man In The Mirror carry the rest of the afternoon towards early evening. The evening opens with Strange But True? and The Brothers, then Mark Saber and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club lead into Sapphire at 9:20pm, before The Odessa File closes out the night at 11:05pm. Full breakdown below.

Talking Pictures TV Schedule: Thursday 17 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Talking Pictures TV schedule for Thursday 17 September 2026, on Freeview 82.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Talking Pictures TV today

Thursday’s overnight run opens with the Cream Farewell Concert at 1:30am, then a Star Performance episode and Will You Stop carry the small hours towards Stagecoach West at 4am and a Man from U.N.C.L.E rerun at 5am.

The day proper opens with The Night We Dropped a Clanger at 6am, then In a Lonely Place carries breakfast. The Bulldog Breed and Clash By Night fill the late morning into lunchtime, before The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and The Duchess of Duke Street open the afternoon. The Lamp in Assassin Mews, a Cinebox Memories short, That’s My Boy, Julius Hagen Season and The Man In The Mirror carry the rest of 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, Thursday 17 September 2026.

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

Strange But True? (series 1, episode 32) opens the evening. Michael Aspel’s long-running series looks into a cluster of reported UFO sightings over Scotland in tonight’s edition.

The Brothers — Talking Pictures TV, 6:55pm

The Brothers (series 4, episode 2) follows the 1970s haulage-firm drama. Brian and David offer Martin a seat on the company’s board this episode.

Mark Saber — Talking Pictures TV, 8pm

Mark Saber, the detective series, has a client hiring a hitman then scrambling to call the job off once circumstances change.

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

The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club (series 2, episode 16) revives the working men’s club variety format, with the Karl Denver Trio topping tonight’s bill.

Sapphire — Talking Pictures TV, 9:20pm

Sapphire, the 1959 crime drama, is the night’s film: a police murder inquiry that uncovers racial prejudice running through the town where the victim lived.

The Odessa File — Talking Pictures TV, 11:05pm

The Odessa File closes the night, the 1974 thriller in which a journalist tracks down a former concentration camp commandant living under a new identity.

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.

For an archive channel, the range is remarkable: across 48 days Talking Pictures TV drew 1,088 slots from 577 different titles, making it the second least repetitive channel on Freeview after Film4. our study of repeats on UK television has the full table.

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 Strange But True? and The Brothers from 6:20pm, then Mark Saber and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club lead into Sapphire at 9:20pm. The Odessa File closes out the night at 11:05pm. 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 between archive drama and one genuine film: Strange But True? and The Brothers open proceedings, Mark Saber and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club carry the pre-9pm hour, and Sapphire is the night’s main event at 9:20pm before The Odessa File sees the night out at 11:05pm.

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