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

Published: 21 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. Tuesday 22 September 2026 opens in the small hours with the 1949 film noir D.O.A., then The Lawless Years and The Punching Preacher run through to 4am, when Glencannon: The Loving Cup, The Veil and an early rerun of The Man from U.N.C.L.E carry the schedule towards daybreak. Sherlock Holmes opens the day proper at 6am, Captain Scarlett fills the rest of breakfast, and Star Performance and Fighting Man of the Plains lead into Crooks In Cloisters mid-morning. Two Scotland Yard instalments bookend William Tell and Lydia over lunchtime, before That’s My Boy and Passport To Treason close out the afternoon, ahead of the evening line-up below. Full breakdown below.

Talking Pictures TV Schedule: Tuesday 22 September 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Talking Pictures TV schedule for Tuesday 22 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 1949 film noir D.O.A. just after 1am, then The Lawless Years and The Punching Preacher carry the small hours towards Glencannon: The Loving Cup and The Veil from 4am, with an early rerun of The Man from U.N.C.L.E at 5am.

The day proper opens with Sherlock Holmes at 6am, then Captain Scarlett fills the rest of breakfast. Star Performance and Fighting Man of the Plains carry the late morning towards Crooks In Cloisters at 10:25am. Two Scotland Yard episodes bookend William Tell and Lydia over lunchtime, before That’s My Boy and Passport To Treason close out the afternoon, 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, Tuesday 22 September 2026.

Look At Life Women in Green — Talking Pictures TV, 6:10pm

A quarter-hour of the Rank Organisation’s old cinema newsreel series, once a fixture ahead of the main feature in British picture houses.

Whiplash — Talking Pictures TV, 6:25pm

An episode of the 1960s adventure series built around a Cobb & Co stagecoach line in colonial-era Australia.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E — Talking Pictures TV, 6:55pm

The Cold War spy series’ Cherry Blossom Affair sends Solo and Kuryakin on their usual globe-trotting brief, the hour before primetime proper.

Buccaneer — Talking Pictures TV, 7:55pm

Another instalment of the 1950s series about a small charter airline and the scrapes its pilots fly into, one of the archive serials the channel dusts off nightly.

Tiger in the Smoke — Talking Pictures TV, 9pm

Tonight’s main film is the 1956 adaptation of Margery Allingham’s novel: an escaped killer stalks fog-bound, Bonfire-Night London hunting for hidden wartime loot while the police close in behind him. It’s the kind of moody post-war noir this channel programmes better than anything else on Freeview.

Zombies — Talking Pictures TV, 10:50pm

A ten-minute archive short ahead of the late-night factual and drama double bill.

Fortean TV — Talking Pictures TV, 11pm

The late-1990s series digging into unexplained phenomena and strange news stories gets its regular Tuesday slot.

Play for Today: Leeds United! — Talking Pictures TV, 11:35pm

The night closes with a repeat of the 1974 Play for Today drama about the 1970 Leeds clothing workers’ strike — nothing to do with the football club, despite the title, and one of the strand’s more acclaimed single dramas.

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?

Look At Life: Women in Green opens the evening at 6:10pm, then Whiplash and The Man from U.N.C.L.E carry early evening, and Buccaneer follows at 7:55pm. The main film, the 1956 thriller Tiger in the Smoke, airs at 9pm. Zombies, Fortean TV and a Play for Today rerun close out the night from 10:50pm. 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 newsreel opens at 6:10pm, then a run of vintage spy and adventure series carries the pre-9pm hours, before Tiger in the Smoke, the starriest title in tonight’s line-up, holds the main evening hour and a Play for Today rerun closes out the night.

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