LEGEND Brings ‘Deathwatch’ and ‘The Deer Hunter’ to Freeview

Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter will headline LEGEND’s June 2025 slate, as the classic war film makes its debut on the free-to-air genre channel. Scheduled for its first airing on Saturday 28 June, the five-time Academy Award winner will anchor a month of premieres that spans decades and genres, from prestige Hollywood dramas to high-concept science fiction and British cult films.

Originally released in 1978, The Deer Hunter stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep, and is widely regarded as one of the most significant American films of the 20th century. Set before, during and after the Vietnam War, the film traces the psychological and emotional impact of conflict on a group of steelworkers from Pennsylvania. Cimino’s ambitious and often divisive work won Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars and remains a key title in any examination of American post-war cinema.

LEGEND’s line-up throughout June offers a mix of celebrated features and underseen genre entries. Among the Hollywood offerings is Moby Dick (1956), directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab. Adapted from Herman Melville’s novel, the film captures the scale and fatalism of the source material and will air on Wednesday 25 June. Also making its debut is The Brink’s Job (1979), a Boston-set heist film from William Friedkin, airing on 11 June, which sees Peter Falk lead a cast of unlikely criminals in a dramatisation of a true-life robbery.

British content features prominently in the schedule, including WWI-set horror Deathwatch (2002), which screens on Friday 13 June. Directed by M. J. Bassett and featuring Jamie Bell, Matthew Rhys and Andy Serkis, the film blends historical war drama with supernatural horror, depicting a unit of British soldiers trapped in a haunted trench on the Western Front. Also screening are The Vengeance of She (1968), a Hammer fantasy adventure, and Yangtse Incident (1957), a dramatisation of the real-life Amethyst Incident during the Chinese Civil War.

In the action and science fiction categories, LEGEND brings Virtuosity (1995) to the channel for the first time. The futuristic thriller, starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, follows an ex-cop released from prison to capture a virtual reality killer composed of hundreds of criminal profiles. Also included are Kickboxer: Retaliation (2018), with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mike Tyson, and King Arthur (2004), a reimagined historical epic starring Clive Owen, Keira Knightley and Mads Mikkelsen.

Science fiction crime thriller Alien Nation (1988) will also premiere, revisiting a future Los Angeles populated by 300,000 extraterrestrial immigrants. The film pairs James Caan and Mandy Patinkin as mismatched detectives in a procedural that examines social integration through a genre lens.

Rounding out the line-up is Inside Out (2011), a crime drama starring WWE’s Triple H, Bruce Dern and Parker Posey, and Posse (1975), a politically charged Western directed by and starring Kirk Douglas, airing on 26 June.

The June line-up demonstrates LEGEND’s commitment to a broad range of genre cinema, combining war films, science fiction, action and horror from both the UK and the US. While titles such as The Deer Hunter and Moby Dick carry historical prestige, the inclusion of lesser-seen genre titles offers a balance for viewers seeking both classic and unconventional content.

You can catch LEGEND in the UK on TV: Sky 148 / Virgin 149 / Freeview 41 / Freesat 137
For more information, visit: legend-tv.co.uk/