Talking Pictures TV
Talking Pictures TV is a British free-to-air vintage film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky. Later it also became available on Freeview, Freesat and Virgin Media.
It is on air 24 hours a day and features mainly older British films, both classics and B-films. The schedule also includes some American films, straight-to-video programmes, cinema shorts, extended interviews with veteran actors and period home movies of British locations.
In July 2018, Talking Pictures TV had an audience share of 0.50%., it had reached an audience share of 0.63%.
Foundation
TPTV is a family business, founded by producer/editor Noel Cronin, and run by his daughter Sarah Cronin-Stanley with her husband Neill Stanley. Films in many genres are included in the schedule. In-house productions are also shown, as are items from the Cronins' own back catalogue, including Noel's Dandelion Distribution, as well as series from the archive of Southern Television, a former ITV contractor, and early American television shows. Movies are usually copied directly from film reels; damaged reels from the catalogue are often replaced by donations, either from online, viewers or available libraries.One of the aims of the founders was to maintain the history of British cinema; it was said to have been in the making since 2007. Older movies, including those made in black and white, were once regularly shown on terrestrial channels, such as BBC and Channel 4, but such programming had declined by the 2000s, with only the best known classic films occasionally being aired.
Cronin-Stanley explained to the Watford Observer in 2016 that "People were interested in the big titles but he wanted to save the smaller, more obscure titles, from getting lost". However, television networks rejected their pitches, unconvinced that it would be of high demand, so they decided to set up the channel independently. Cronin-Stanley later explained that the channel specialises in "the things people have forgotten".
Availability
Talking Pictures TV was initially only available via digital satellite on the Sky platform in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Since 15 September 2015, the channel has also been available on Freeview. It became available on Freesat channel 306 in February 2016, and on Virgin Media on 1 June 2017. On Freeview, it was initially broadcast only in standard definition on a HD multiplex and could be received only by Freeview HD equipment.From 30 November 2017, the channel became available, to those within coverage, on any TV capable of receiving Freeview. In 2018, the channel reportedly had a weekly audience of about 2 million, but BBC News reported that it possibly rose to as high as 6 million in mid-2020.
Broadcast output
Films
A list of selected films shown on Talking Pictures TV:| Film | Year | Genre | Director | Cast |
| A Taste of Honey | 1961 | Drama | Tony Richardson | Dora Bryan, Rita Tushingham |
| An Alligator Named Daisy | 1955 | Comedy | J. Lee Thompson | Donald Sinden, Jeannie Carson |
| Au Pair Girls | 1972 | Comedy | Val Guest | Gabrielle Drake, Astrid Frank |
| Bad Blood | 1981 | Thriller | Mike Newell | Jack Thompson, Carol Burns |
| Ball of Fire | 1941 | Comedy | Howard Hawks | Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck |
| Be My Guest | 1965 | Musical | Lance Comfort | David Hemmings, Steve Marriott |
| The Beach Girls | 1982 | Comedy | Pat Townsend | Jeana Tomasino, Debra Blee |
| Beat Girl | 1960 | Drama | Edmond T. Gréville | David Farrar, Noëlle Adam |
| Bedazzled | 1967 | Comedy | Stanley Donen | Peter Cook, Dudley Moore |
| The Black Book | 1949 | Thriller | Anthony Mann | Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart |
| Blood Mania | 1970 | Horror | Robert Vincent O'Neil | Peter Carpenter, Maria De Aragon |
| Blood of the Vampire | 1958 | Horror | Henry Cass | Donald Wolfit, Vincent Ball |
| Blue Money | 1972 | Drama | Alain Patrick | Alain Patrick, Barbara Mills |
| Brannigan | 1975 | Thriller | Douglas Hickox | John Wayne, Richard Attenborough |
| Can You Keep It Up for a Week? | 1974 | Comedy | Jim Atkinson | Jeremy Bulloch, Sue Longhurst |
| Carry On Admiral | 1957 | Comedy | Val Guest | David Tomlinson, Peggy Cummins |
| Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things | 1972 | Comedy/horror | Bob Clark | Alan Ormsby, Valerie Mamches |
| Child's Play | 1972 | Drama | Sidney Lumet | James Mason, Robert Preston |
| Commuter Husbands | 1972 | Comedy | Derek Ford | Gabrielle Drake, Robin Bailey |
| Crucible of Horror | 1971 | Horror | Viktors Ritelis | Michael Gough, Yvonne Mitchell |
| Cry of the Banshee | 1970 | Horror | Gordon Hessler | Vincent Price, Hilary Dwyer |
| Cry, the Beloved Country | 1951 | Drama | Kellner Zoltán | Canada Lee, Sidney Poitier |
| Curse of the Fly | 1965 | Horror | Don Sharp | Brian Donlevy, George Baker |
| Curtain Up | 1952 | Comedy | Ralph Smart | Robert Morley, Margaret Rutherford |
| Deathdream | 1974 | Horror | Bob Clark | John Marley, Lynn Carlin |
| The Demon | 1981 | Horror | Percival Rubens | Cameron Mitchell, Jennifer Holmes |
| Dentist in the Chair | 1960 | Comedy | Don Chaffey | Bob Monkhouse, Peggy Cummins |
| Down Among the Z Men | 1952 | Comedy | Maclean Rogers | Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine |
| Every Day's a Holiday | 1965 | Comedy | James Hill | John Leyton, Mike Sarne |
| Friends | 1971 | Romance | Lewis Gilbert | Sean Bury, Anicée Alvina |
| Fourteen Hours | 1951 | Drama | Henry Hathaway | Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart |
| The Flying Deuces | 1939 | Comedy | A. Edward Sutherland | Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy |
| The Frightened City | 1961 | Crime drama | John Lemont | Herbert Lom, John Gregson |
| The Frightened Man | 1952 | Crime drama | John Gilling | Dermot Walsh, Barbara Murray |
| Go for Broke! | 1951 | War drama | Robert Pirosh | Van Johnson, Lane Nakano |
| Hell Drivers | 1957 | Crime drama | Cy Endfield | Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom |
| Henry V | 1944 | Drama | Laurence Olivier | Laurence Olivier Renée Asherson |
| His Girl Friday | 1940 | Comedy | Howard Hawks | Cary Grant Rosalind Russell |
| Hobson's Choice | 1954 | Comedy | David Lean | Charles Laughton John Mills |
| Home Before Midnight | 1979 | Drama | Pete Walker | James Aubrey Alison Elliot |
| Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte | 1964 | Thriller | Robert Aldrich | Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland |
| I Remember Mama | 1948 | Drama | George Stevens | Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes |
| Incident in Shanghai | 1938 | Drama | John Paddy Carstairs | Margaret Vyner, Patrick Barr |
| I See a Dark Stranger | 1946 | Comedy drama | Frank Launder | Deborah Kerr, Trevor Howard |
| It's a Wonderful World | 1956 | Comedy | Val Guest | Terence Morgan, George Cole |
| The L-Shaped Room | 1962 | Drama | Bryan Forbes | Leslie Caron, Tom Bell |
| The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | 1943 | Drama | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr) |
| Look Back in Anger | 1959 | Drama | Tony Richardson | Richard Burton, Claire Bloom |
| The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner | 1962 | Drama | Tony Richardson | Tom Courtenay Michael Redgrave |
| Lost in the Desert | 1969 | Drama | Jamie Uys | Wynard Uys Jamie Uys |
| Malibu High | 1979 | Crime thriller | Irvin Berwick | Jill Lansing, Stuart Taylor |
| The Man in the Mirror | 1936 | Comedy | Maurice Elvey | Edward Everett Horton, Genevieve Tobin |
| The Man Who Could Cheat Death | 1959 | Horror | Terence Fisher | Anton Diffring, Hazel Court |
| Marilyn | 1953 | Crime drama | Wolf Rilla | Sandra Dorne, Maxwell Reed |
| Mark of the Phoenix | 1958 | Drama | Maclean Rogers | Julia Arnall, Sheldon Lawrence |
| Melody | 1971 | Comedy | Waris Hussein | Mark Lester, Tracy Hyde |
| The Million Pound Note | 1955 | Comedy | Ronald Neame | Gregory Peck, Ronald Squire |
| The New York Hat | 1912 | Silent film | D.W. Griffith | Mary Pickford, Charles Hill Mailes |
| Night Boat to Dublin | 1946 | Thriller | Lawrence Huntington | Robert Newton, Raymond Lovell |
| Night of the Big Heat | 1967 | Sci-fi | Terence Fisher | Christopher Lee, Patrick Allen |
| No Love for Johnnie | 1961 | Drama | Ralph Thomas | Peter Finch, Stanley Holloway |
| Notorious | 1946 | Thriller | Alfred Hitchcock | Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman |
| Once a Jolly Swagman | 1949 | Drama | Jack Lee | Dirk Bogarde, Bonar Colleano |
| Once in a New Moon | 1935 | Sci-fi | Anthony Kimmins | Eliot Makeham, Rene Ray |
| Our Girl Friday | 1953 | Comedy | Noel Langley | Joan Collins, George Cole |
| The Plough and the Stars | 1937 | Drama | John Ford | Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster |
| The Pom Pom Girls | 1976 | Comedy | Joseph Ruben | Robert Carradine, Jennifer Ashley |
| The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | 1969 | Drama | Ronald Neame | Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens |
| Pygmalion | 1938 | Drama | Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard | Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller |
| Radio Cab Murder | 1954 | Drama | Vernon Sewell | Jimmy Hanley, Lana Morris |
| Raffles | 1939 | Drama | Sam Wood | David Niven, Olivia De Havilland |
| Rasputin the Mad Monk | 1966 | Horror | Don Sharp | Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley |
| The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler | 1971 | Sci-fi | Bob Wynn | Leslie Nielsen, Bradford Dillman |
| Richard III | 1955 | Drama | Laurence Olivier | Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson |
| Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse | 1978 | Comedy | Justin Cartwright | Beryl Reid, John Le Mesurier |
| Sapphire | 1959 | Crime drama | Basil Dearden | Nigel Patrick, Yvonne Mitchell |
| Saturday Night and Sunday Morning | 1980 | Drama | Karel Reisz | Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field |
| Say Hello to Yesterday | 1970 | Drama | Alvin Rakoff | Jean Simmons, Leonard Whiting |
| Séance on a Wet Afternoon | 1964 | Drama | Bryan Forbes | Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough |
| Sextette | 1978 | Musical drama | Ken Hughes | Mae West, Timothy Dalton |
| The Skull | 1965 | Horror | Freddie Francis | Peter Cushing, Patrick Wymark |
| Sparrows Can't Sing | 1963 | Comedy | Joan Littlewood | James Booth, Barbara Windsor |
| Suburban Wives | 1971 | Comedy | Derek Ford | Eva Whishaw, Barry Linehan |
| Tarka the Otter | 1979 | Adventure | David Cobham | Edward Underdown, Peter Ustinov |
| Tom Brown's Schooldays | 1951 | Drama | Gordon Parry | John Howard Davies, Robert Newton |
| The Trollenberg Terror | 1958 | Sci-fi horror | Quentin Lawrence | Forrest Tucker, Laurence Payne |
| Tomboy | 1985 | Comedy | Herb Freed | Betsy Russell, Gerard Christopher |
| To the Devil a Daughter | 1976 | Horror | Peter Sykes | Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee |
| The Van | 1977 | Comedy | Sam Grossman | Stuart Goetz, Deborah White |
| Virgin Witch | 1972 | Horror | Ray Austin | Ann Michelle, Vicki Michelle |
| What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? | 1969 | Thriller | Lee H. Katzin | Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon |
| Whistle Down the Wind | 1961 | Drama | Bryan Forbes | Hayley Mills, Bernard Lee |
| White Cargo | 1973 | Comedy | Ray Selfe | David Jason, Hugh Lloyd |
| The Young Ones | 1961 | Musical comedy | Sidney J. Furie | Cliff Richard, Robert Morley |