Full Sky Arts listings for Tuesday 27 October 2026, with times in London local time.

Sky Arts saves its best for the 9pm slot

See also: What's on tonight across all channels | Wednesday's TV guide

Sky Arts spends the first half of primetime on an hour of Hitchcock and a film about Handel, then opens a miniseries at nine. That is where the evening starts: Amadeus begins at 21:00, billed as a historical drama miniseries, with the first episode given a full hour. It opens against Blue Lights on BBC One and Gogglebox on E4, a bold place to put a period piece, and it is the one thing on the channel tonight that asks for more than a single sitting.

Before it, 19:00 belongs to Alfred Hitchcock Hour, tonight’s episode being “Tender Poisoner”. It is a fixture here, one of the channel’s regular anthology strands, and it fits the early evening well: self-contained, an hour, no homework. Then at 20:00 comes The Handel Scandal: The Making Of The Messiah, a 2026 film running 60 minutes. It is also on at 02:00, so anyone who misses it has a second chance after midnight.

The late slot is the other reason to stay. Harder Than The Rock: The Cimarons Story (2024) takes the 23:00 hour and runs two hours. Locksley Gichie, Bobby Davis, David Katz, Diane White, Tony Platt and Maverick Sabre are all in it. A music film of that length at that hour is for people already settled in.

Straight after, at 22:00, Battle Of The Irish Dancers also starts a new series. It gets the hour between the two bigger commitments, which is a tough place to sit.

My advice: watch Amadeus, and decide at 22:00 whether you have the stamina for the film.


Also on TV tonight at 9pm

  • BBC One: Blue Lights
  • BBC Two: Surgeons: At the Edge of Life
  • ITV1: New: Unbelievable Moments:…
  • Channel 4: The Great British Bake Off (from 8pm)
  • Channel 5: Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild
  • BBC Four: The Normans
  • ITV2: Big Brother
  • ITV3: Vera (from 8pm)
  • ITV4: Junk and Disorderly
  • E4: Gogglebox

Every channel tonight, side by side · Films on TV tonight · Tomorrow’s TV


Frequently asked questions

What’s on Sky Arts tonight?

On Tuesday 27 October 2026, Sky Arts shows Alfred Hitchcock Hour at 7pm, The Handel Scandal: The Making Of The Messiah at 8pm, Amadeus at 9pm and Battle Of The Irish Dancers at 10pm.

Is there a film on Sky Arts tonight?

Yes: The Handel Scandal: The Making Of The Messiah (2026) at 8pm and Harder Than The Rock: The Cimarons Story (2024) at 11pm.

What’s on Sky Arts late tonight?

After 11pm, Sky Arts has Harder Than The Rock: The Cimarons Story at 11pm.

What time does Sky Arts’s evening start?

The evening schedule starts with Tales of the Unexpected at 6pm.

An arts channel that spends its days on suspense

Sky Arts is a British arts channel, on air since 2000, but the title it shows most is a 1970s and 1980s suspense anthology. Tales of the Unexpected aired 191 times across the 34 days we tracked, on every single one of them, often four or five episodes a day. Add Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour and anthology drama takes about a fifth of all airtime, more than painting, music or theatre do on their own.

The arts arrive around those anthologies and take over in the evening. In primetime anthology drops to nothing and music becomes the largest share at 29%, with artist competitions, concert films and music documentaries filling the hours from 7pm.

What a Sky Arts day looks like

The 6am slot is the channel’s most distinctive habit: a different full-length performance almost every morning. In the five weeks we counted it carried La Traviata, Handel’s Messiah, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Peter and the Wolf, Riverdance, Cirque du Soleil, English National Ballet in Paris and orchestral concerts from the LSO, rarely repeating one.

After that the anthologies settle in. Artist of the Year: Masterclass or The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross often takes 8.30am, and then Tales of the Unexpected and Alfred Hitchcock Presents alternate in pairs of half-hours through the late morning and early afternoon, typically from 9am to 11am and again from 1pm to 3pm. Midday tends to be music: Classic Albums held around noon on 23 days, with Discovering Music in the same slot on others. Discovering Film, a run of profiles of film stars and directors, aired 58 times, mostly in the late morning and at 4pm. Bill Bailey’s Master Crafters takes 3pm on some days, and Portrait Artist of the Year or Landscape Artist of the Year usually fills 5pm.

The 6pm to 10.30pm evening starts on suspense and ends on the arts. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour holds 7pm, in the same slot on 16 evenings, with Alfred Hitchcock Presents there on others. From 8pm the channel finally behaves like its name: Portrait Artist of the Year on six evenings, Guy Garvey: From the Vaults on four, Stories from the National Portrait Gallery, André Rieu specials, The Directors and concert films such as The Rolling Stones: Welcome to Shepherd’s Bush. Late night and the small hours are mostly concerts and music documentaries, from ELO to Blur to the Pet Shop Boys.

Weekends tilt hard towards music. Its share doubles, from 13% of weekday airtime to 27%, while fine art falls from 13% to just 3%. A weekend day can open with five Tales of the Unexpected in a row and close with a run of concert films.

Films are occasional and mostly about music: Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who, Concert for George and Pavarotti: The Lost Concert. The odd drama slips in, such as Three Days of the Condor and Murder by Decree.

Popular shows on Sky Arts

Tales of the Unexpected is the British anthology series that began on ITV in 1979 and ran to nine series and 112 episodes. Sky Arts shows it every day, usually several times, and it is the single most-aired title on the channel.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents is the American anthology series that started on CBS in 1955, seven seasons and 361 episodes long. It aired 100 times in the window, mostly in the late morning and early afternoon.

Alfred Hitchcock Hour is the longer-format companion, aired on 31 of the 34 days and the channel’s usual 7pm programme.

Portrait Artist of the Year is a British painting competition series made for Sky Arts itself, 41 episodes long, at 5pm through the day and at 8pm on some evenings. Landscape Artist of the Year runs in the same 5pm slot on other days.

The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross is the gentle painting tutorial that turns up early in the morning, 21 times in the five weeks.

Classic Albums is a music documentary series, each episode built around the making of one record, a midday regular on 23 days.

How to watch Sky Arts

Sky Arts is free to watch on Freeview channel 36 and Freesat 143. On Sky it is channel 122 (123 in Scotland), and on Sky Glass 112 (113 in Wales). It is on Virgin Media 123. On Freely it is channel 24, which needs an aerial. NOW and Sky Go stream it for NOW and Sky customers. Watching any channel live needs a TV Licence.

Sky Arts and its sister channels

Sky Arts sits in a family with Sky Mix, Sky One, Sky Atlantic and Sky Witness, none of which we cover with a guide page of their own.

Outside the family, Talking Pictures TV is the nearest match for the daytime half of Sky Arts: archive drama and old anthology series, though built around British films rather than suspense. BBC Four is the other free channel that leans on archive music in the evening, with Top of the Pops a regular.

Who it’s for

Sky Arts is two channels for two kinds of viewer. In the daytime it is for someone who likes a short, twisty half-hour of suspense and is not bothered that they may have seen it before. In the evening, and especially at weekends, it is for music fans and anyone who likes watching people paint against the clock. Early risers get a full opera or ballet at 6am. If you came for gallery tours and art history all day, there is less of it than the name suggests.

What channel is Sky Arts on Freeview?

Sky Arts is on Freeview channel 36. It is also on Freesat 143, Sky 122, Virgin Media 123 and Freely 24.

Is Sky Arts free to watch?

Yes, it is free on Freeview and Freesat, and on Freely with an aerial. Watching it live needs a TV Licence, as with any channel.

Why is Tales of the Unexpected always on Sky Arts?

Because it fills most of the daytime. It aired 191 times across the 34 days we tracked, on every one of those days, usually alongside Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

What’s on Sky Arts most evenings?

Usually the Alfred Hitchcock Hour at 7pm, then music and arts programmes from 8pm: artist competitions, concert films and music documentaries.