Article
Bank holidays on scripted TV and film
The short answer. Working a UK bank holiday pays double time on both long form agreements, dailies included. If you are contracted over a bank holiday but not asked to work it, film pays your daily fee, and scripted TV pays your basic daily rate only on a Band 4 production. On scripted TV, the production base decides which nation's bank holidays count.
On a commercial, a bank holiday is paid like a Sunday and a day you are not asked to work is simply not paid. Long form adds two questions commercials never ask: whether you are paid for a bank holiday you did not work, and which of the UK's bank holidays apply to the job.
What follows is from the Pact and Bectu agreement for scripted TV, effective 1 January 2023, with the joint guidance of 8 December 2023, and the Pact and Bectu terms for major motion pictures, as amended on 5 April 2021.
What does working a bank holiday pay?
On scripted TV, working a UK bank holiday is paid at 2T, whether you are engaged by the week or longer, or as a daily. Overtime that day is at the enhanced rate, double time, still within the £35 floor and £70 ceiling in the TV overtime rules. If the bank holiday is also your sixth consecutive day, the daily rate is 2T in place of the usual sixth day rules, shooting or not.
On a basic daily rate of £300, a worked bank holiday pays £600. In one of the six departments on the additional contracted hour, where the daily rate is £330, it pays £660.
On film, working a bank holiday is paid at 2T for that day, again whether you are weekly, longer term or a daily. The £81.82 maximum overtime rate applies to every hourly rate uplifted under the agreement, bank holidays included. For a lighting technician on the April 2026 film rate of £441.92 a day, 2T is £80.35 an hour, just under the cap. Above a daily rate of £450.01, 2T works out at more than £81.82 an hour, and the cap applies. Travel time on a bank holiday is paid at your ordinary rate, with no uplift.
The film terms leave two things open. They do not say whether overtime on a bank holiday rises to 2T; camera overtime is 2T anyway, but non-camera overtime is normally 1.5T. And they do not say what happens when a sixth or seventh consecutive day falls on a bank holiday, where the TV agreement has a rule.
What if you are not asked to work it?
On scripted TV, it depends on the band. If you are contracted over a period that includes a UK bank holiday but are not required to work that day, a Band 4 production pays you your basic daily rate for it. The agreement gives no such payment on Bands 1 to 3.
The band also decides whether the day can be taken from your holiday. The producer can nominate days on which you take paid leave, bank holidays included, and deduct them from your accrued entitlement. Workers on Band 4 productions cannot be asked to take paid leave on a UK bank holiday. The 5.6 weeks of paid leave in the agreement is inclusive of bank holidays; the holiday pay article sets it beside the APA's.
On film, every crew member contracted over a period that includes a bank holiday, but not required to work it, is paid their daily fee for that day. There is no band test.
Which bank holidays count?
On scripted TV, the joint guidance says all UK bank holidays must be observed, including those in Scotland and Northern Ireland if crew are working there, and that the UK production base is the point of reference for deciding which holidays are observed, regardless of the location. It points to the gov.uk list of bank holidays.
Those two sentences pull slightly different ways: the first mentions where crew are working, the second says the base decides wherever the filming is. The guidance does not reconcile them.
On film, a bank holiday means a UK official public holiday, or a foreign official public holiday where the work takes place abroad. The terms do not say which UK nation's holidays apply.
How is this different from commercials?
The APA terms pay a bank holiday the same way as a Sunday. A basic working day is double your basic hourly rate for every hour worked, with a ten hour minimum. A continuous day is double your daily rate with overtime after nine hours. Prep, recce, build and strike days are eight hours at double hourly. A rest day stays at your flat daily rate, and a travel day at single time with a five hour minimum. The weekend and bank holiday article has the full list.
The APA terms have no payment for a bank holiday you are not asked to work. Bank holiday entitlements are part of the 5.6 weeks of holiday that clause 10 says is already included in what you are paid.
What does TimeMachine do?
Since version 2026.11 the app has a long form mode, in beta, built from these agreements. It keeps three UK bank holiday calendars, one each for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and uses the one for the production base you set for the job. On scripted TV that follows the guidance's second sentence: the base decides, wherever you are filming. The calendars run to 2035; dates to the end of 2027 are checked against gov.uk, and later ones follow the rules for substitute days. Commercials jobs in the app use the same calendars and the same base setting, which the APA terms do not address.
On scripted TV, a worked bank holiday pays twice your daily rate, including the additional contracted hour where you have it, with overtime at double time inside the floor and ceiling. A bank holiday you are contracted over but not asked to work goes in as a rest day: on a Band 4 job it is paid at your basic daily rate, and on other bands it shows as not payable, with the clause. A day off pays nothing, because it means you are not engaged. A sixth consecutive shooting day on a bank holiday is paid at 2T, as the agreement says. A non-shooting sixth day on a bank holiday is the exception: the app prices it by the non-shooting sixth day rule, by hours worked, rather than at the 2T the agreement puts in its place.
On film, a worked bank holiday pays twice your daily rate, and the app does not apply the £81.82 cap to it, so above £450.01 a day it bills more than the capped rate. Overtime that day is at the usual camera and non-camera rates. A sixth or seventh consecutive day that falls on a bank holiday is priced as a sixth or seventh day, so a sixth day on a bank holiday is billed at 1.5T for the hours worked, which on a normal length day is less than an ordinary worked bank holiday pays. A bank holiday you are not asked to work, entered as a rest day, pays your daily fee.
The calendars are UK only, so a foreign public holiday on an overseas film shoot is not picked up.
It is a beta because a few readings of the agreements are still unconfirmed. The app flags them wherever they affect your money, so check your figures against your payslip, and send anything that looks wrong to the feedback address below. Nothing about the beta appears on your invoices or timesheets.
Are these agreements still current?
The scripted TV agreement took effect on 1 January 2023 for a minimum of three years, to 1 January 2026, after which either side can end it on six months' written notice. We have not been able to confirm its status since 1 January 2026, and TimeMachine's scripted TV mode is built on the 2023 agreement. The only joint guidance reflected here is the December 2023 guidance.
The film figures, including the £81.82 cap, date from the 5 April 2021 amendment, and we have not been able to confirm whether a later amendment has changed them. Your deal memo or contract is the document that says which terms your production is using.
TimeMachine is an independent tool for UK film and television crew. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Advertising Producers Association (APA), Pact or Bectu. It references the publicly available APA Recommended Crew Terms and the Pact and Bectu agreements as a reference only. TimeMachine's long form mode is in beta. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.