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

Published: 20 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. Monday 21 September 2026 opens in the small hours with The Heritage Chart Show with Mike Read just after midnight, then Not Tonight Darling and Sing As You Swing carry the overnight run towards The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Buccaneers and Supercar from 4:30am. The Vise opens the day proper at 6am, then The High Terrace and Double Confession fill breakfast. Railway Murders and Z-Cars carry the late morning towards The Switch at 11:30am, before Cinebox Memories, Richard the Lionheart and The One That Got Away fill lunchtime and early afternoon. The Mail Goes Through, That’s My Boy and Blithe Spirit carry the schedule into the evening, where We of the West Riding 1946, The Footage Detectives, Maigret, The Haunting of Julia and The Woman Who Came Back close out the night. Full breakdown below.

Talking Pictures TV Schedule: Monday 21 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Talking Pictures TV schedule for Monday 21 September 2026, on Freeview 82.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Talking Pictures TV today

Today’s overnight run opens with The Heritage Chart Show with Mike Read just after midnight, then Not Tonight Darling and Sing As You Swing carry the small hours towards The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Buccaneers and Supercar from 4:30am.

The day proper opens with The Vise at 6am, then The High Terrace and Double Confession fill breakfast. Railway Murders and Z-Cars carry the late morning, before The Switch, Cinebox Memories, Richard the Lionheart and The One That Got Away fill lunchtime and early afternoon. The Mail Goes Through and That’s My Boy close out the afternoon towards Blithe Spirit at 4:35pm, ahead of the evening line-up below.

Talking Pictures TV tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Talking Pictures TV primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 21 September 2026.

We of the West Riding 1946 — Talking Pictures TV, 6:35pm

A short archive piece opens the evening, the kind of regional documentary footage from the archive that the channel digs out rather than repeating the obvious classics.

The Footage Detectives — Talking Pictures TV, 7pm

The long-running strand that goes hunting for the story behind rediscovered and found film reels reaches another instalment, still going strong deep into its run (series 1, episode 242).

Maigret — Talking Pictures TV, 8pm

Georges Simenon’s Parisian detective gets another outing from the archive drama shelf, part of a run that’s become a fixture of the channel’s evening schedule (series 5, episode 1).

The Haunting of Julia — Talking Pictures TV, 9:55pm

A late-1970s supernatural thriller starring Mia Farrow, the sort of overlooked horror title the channel has made something of a speciality.

The Woman Who Came Back — Talking Pictures TV, 11:55pm

A vintage black-and-white mystery closes out the night, tucked into the small-hours slot where the channel often surfaces its more obscure finds.

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?

We of the West Riding 1946 opens the evening at 6:35pm, then The Footage Detectives takes the 7pm slot, Maigret follows at 8pm, and The Haunting of Julia airs at 9:55pm. The Woman Who Came Back closes out the night at 11:55pm. 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 runs the channel’s familiar shape: a short archive piece opens at 6:35pm, then The Footage Detectives and Maigret carry the pre-10pm hours, before The Haunting of Julia, one of the starrier archive titles in this week’s schedule, takes the late slot and The Woman Who Came Back closes out the night.

Related: Film4 TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Freeview Films Tonight