Many thanks for the replies.
I completely accept that it can't record Freely channels, but I would have expected a recording option within the main EPG for those channels that are delivered via the antenna, ie not streamed. Instead, it appears that one has to use a separate EPG which is the crudest I have ever encountered. Really not viable. Unless I am missing something, but I am technically literate. Perhaps the Freely EPG doesn't permit a recording link even when integrated with a Freeview receiver that shows all channels, including those that are recordable?
I also have a Humax HDR-1100S 2TB from 2017 and a HDR-FOX T2 from 2010, both of which have perfectly useable EPG's. I can’t quite accept that Humax have now, sixteen years later, released something so fundamentally flawed. It feels as if Freeview, and recording, have been employed almost grudgingly.