From the poster-covered walls to the piles of film lying around, it is a far-cry from what you’d expect the office of a TV station reaching 6million weekly viewers to look like – run out of a shed in a back garden.
But old-fashioned is the name of the game for Talking Pictures TV, a retro channel that resurrects classic movies and cult series and feeds it back to the audience that ‘television forgot’.
Behind the operation is 76-year-old film buff Noel Cronin who works with his daughter from his garden in Chipperfield, Watford, where he uses a pad and pen to put together a schedule from his library.
The channel has proved a winning formula with viewers, and its schedules are dominated by movies more than half a century old, with a high proportion of British films on the mark.
It has a collection of classics including early Alfred Hitchcock thrillers to 1980s cop shows and forgotten masterpieces such as Sydney Poitier’s Cry.
Noel Cronin, a 76-year-old film buff, works with his daughter Sarah to run Talking Pictures TV
Mr Cronin began working in the television industry in 1962 and over the years acquired the rights to libraries of black and white films
Neil and Sarah working from the office in his back garden. Since Covid they are drawing in six million viewers a week
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Way Out West (1937)
Despite the small operation, it has boasted almost a million unique daily viewers and has attracted celebrity fans such as Vic Reeves, Danny Baker, and Robert Powell and even the late Queen.
Mr Cronin began working in the television industry in 1962 and over the years acquired the rights to libraries of black and white films.
The father-and-daughter team repeatedly pitched the idea of a dedicated old movie channel to terrestrial broadcasters, banks and satellite TV companies – but had no success.
‘We had the idea of licensing them to stations or releasing them on video or DVD. But when I brought them forward, no one wanted them’, he recalled.
He continued: ‘I got this feeling at the time when I spoke to them that they were making a big mistake. So, in the end I decided that the only way to prove myself right was to start a channel ourselves.
‘It’s easily said and a hell of a lot harder to do’, he added.
Finally, in 2015, they launched Talking Pictures TV themselves, as a free-to-view channel, in the hope it would be financed with advertising.
Years later, they have a ‘very loyal’ and ‘enthusiastic’ legion of fans.
And that’s what keeps them motivated, Sarah explained. She said: ‘It’s difficult because we’re free – and being free was always very important to us.
‘But the only way we pay our costs is through advertising and that is suffering somewhat. But we’re positive.’
Rolls of film in the office of Talking Pictures TV which only shows vintage movies and TV. Amongst the movies featured are colour versions of ‘King of the Seas’ and ‘Bred to Win’
The channel launched in 2015 and has quickly gained a huge legion of dedicated followers. Pictured are some of the nostalgic films that have helped them gain success
The father-and-daughter team repeatedly pitched the idea of a dedicated old movie channel to terrestrial broadcasters, banks and satellite TV companies – but had no success
Richard Burton starring in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Sidney Poitier and Canada Lee Cry in The Beloved Country – 1951 Director: Zoltan Korda
British actor Alec Guinness (Sir Alec Guinness de Cuffe) and British actress Celia Johnson acting in the film ‘The Captain’s Paradise’. 1953
She continued: ‘We are the only channel dedicated to saving film and saving them from certain eras, and looking after an audience that television forgot.
‘It’s all about saving film history, celluloid and TV history. Young people are also fans of the vintage and that is encouraging.’
As for working together as a father-daughter duo – they make a good team, they both said.
‘We have a good working relationship’, Mr Cronin said.
‘It’s good and we get on well. We all live together as well and while there’s constant pressures we do ok.’
Mr Cronin was recently awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM), for the impact he’s made. It was an ‘amazing feeling’, he explained.
‘I was shocked when I opened a letter with the news. So you do get some recognition. For a working class lad from north London, it’s not bad’ he said.
As for the future, the duo have recently started doing screenings of old films around the UK.
And while the movies continue to get older, the audiences are actually getting younger, Mr Cronin said.
‘We’re becoming retro!’ he explained. ‘It’s definitely attracting a younger audience these days which is very exciting. It’s exciting for the future of what’s to come’.
