It all happens from a small room on the side of a home in Kings Langley, where handwritten TV schedules litter the desk alongside and old wireless while framed newspaper clippings adorn the walls.

It is cute and kitsch and although it may not seem like much, it is the home of Talking Pictures TV who bring an evening at the pictures to 192,000 people every day, at any time.

It is an independent archive film and TV channel, run by Sarah Cronin-Stanley, her husband Neill Stanley and her father, Noel Cronin. She explains to me how their little cinematic empire began.

“Renown Pictures was the first company, that’s been running for about 18 years. It was a small independent production company and the owner of rights to films. My dad used to go and buy libraries and in those libraries of older British films, which we’re predominantly interested in, he would retain the copyrights because not many people were into looking after films from the 30s, 40s and 50s.

“People were interested in the big titles but he wanted to save the smaller, more obscure titles, from getting lost. We own the original Scrooge film and we would rent to out to play on TV. Sometimes companies would buy a film for DVD and then we thought why we don’t give it a go ourselves.”

Sarah and her father began making and selling DVDs of the films they owned, and soon began a film club with ex-members of the industry and fans alike. Then they took the plunge and tried to broadcast the films themselves on TV.

“We wrote business plan after business plan and model after model, but nobody really wanted it. So we thought we’ll put everything into it and do it ourselves. We launched a year ago on Sky, and we’re free to air so we come with any basic package.”

A few months after launching they secured a coveted slot on the Freeview platform – viewers need a High Definiton Freeview box to watch the channel even though the films aren't in HD themselves.

They then secured a channel on FreeSat, which people can access through satellites, allowing them to build a following not only in the UK but anywhere in the world where people can pick up the transmission. They bring a reminder of home to expats across the globe.

“We’re getting there” Sarah tells me. “We’re available to 75 per cent of the country now. The biggest goal would be to get on the main Freeview channels but it costs and we’re such a small company.

“In the last year we’ve had loads of celebrity followers, Vic Reeves is a big fan, so is Matt Lucas, Barbara Windsor and Mark Gatiss. That has helped. Now 700,000 people watch us a week, all from nothing and with very limited marketing.”

I can feel how proud Sarah is, her hard work is slowly paying off. Not only that, the three of them have relationships with many of the old movie stars or their surviving children.

As a result they hold the Renown Pictures Festival of Film in Rickmansworth, which is returning in February 2017 for its third year.

“There will be people selling old films and memorabilia, and we show films in the cinema where people can come and go as they please. In-between all of that the guests will be giving talks,” Sarah tells me, and she runs through the list of speakers.

“Jonathan Kydd is joining us. His father Sam Kydd was in the most British films ever, something like 1,000 but mostly only as the milkman or something.

Later in his career he had bigger parts, Jonathan is always laughing because he puts on Talking Pictures and spots his dad.

“Liz Fraser was huge in her day, she couldn’t walk down the street. Maggie Thatcher was a big fan of hers. Jenny Hanley, who lived in Ricky, her parents Dinah Sheridan (who played the mother in The Railway Children) and Jimmy Hanley – in the ‘50s they were the celebrity couple in the British film industry.”

Details: 01923 290555, talkingpicturestv.co.uk. Available on Freeview 81, Sky 343, Freesat 306, Youview 81.