Dave TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Dave Tonight

Dave is UKTV’s comedy and entertainment channel, and almost everything it broadcasts belongs to somebody else. The exception is Red Dwarf, which Dave revived in 2009 with the original cast and has been trading on ever since. UKTV became a wholly owned subsidiary of BBC Studios in 2021 and renamed the channel U&Dave in July 2024, when it pushed the whole portfolio under a single “U” brand. Nobody calls it that. Tonight, Friday 7 August 2026, it’s another panel-show evening with a change of gear at the end: Hairy Bikers’ Best of British opens at 6pm, then Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing at 7pm. Two episodes of Would I Lie to You? sit either side of a QI XL at 8:20pm, and then Dave hands the last two hours to new episodes of Magnum P.I. at 10pm and 11pm.

Dave Schedule: Friday 7 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Friday 7 August 2026, on Freeview 19.

What’s on Dave today

Friday daytime on Dave runs on Top Gear and travel documentary repeats, and closes with a Rick Stein double. Two episodes of Rick Stein’s Cornwall run back to back at 5pm and 5:30pm, the first returning to his family home at Trevose Head where he fished with his father, the second visiting a family making Gouda in Britain and tracing the sea shanty back to Mevagissey. The evening schedule takes over at 6pm.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 7 August 2026.

Hairy Bikers’ Best of British — Dave, 6pm

“Islands”, from series two, which is exactly what it sounds like: a tempura dish from the Isle of Man and a cranachan made with Islay whisky.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

Paul and Bob head to Enniskillen after the pike that got away from them in series one. As usual the fishing is the frame rather than the point, and this one has Bob giving Paul a full account of his health along the way.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 7:40pm and 9:20pm

Two different series seven episodes, an hour and a half apart. Rob Brydon hosts both. The first has Greg Rutherford, Kirsty Young, Joanna Scanlan and Henning Wehn; the second brings in Jimmy Carr, Griff Rhys Jones, Dave Myers and Susanna Reid alongside the regular David Mitchell and Lee Mack benches.

QI XL — Dave, 8:20pm

“Ladies and Gents”, from series twelve, back when Stephen Fry was still in the chair. Kathy Lette, Ross Noble and Sue Perkins join Alan Davies for a run at gender, suffrage and public lavatories. The XL edition, so longer than the original broadcast.

Magnum P.I. — Dave, 10pm and 11pm

New to Dave, and a change of register after three hours of panel shows. At 10pm a tycoon asks Thomas to track down an old flame who has just been in touch, which becomes complicated once he learns she died years ago. At 11pm what starts as a missing cat leads him to the murder of another pet owner, an FBI agent.

What kind of shows are on Dave

Panel shows and comedy institutions

This is the channel’s whole personality. Would I Lie to You?, QI, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Mock the Week when it’s in rotation: two decades of British panel comedy, nearly all of it bought in from the BBC and Channel 4 rather than commissioned here. What Dave adds is the scheduling. Episodes come in blocks you can drop into at any point and leave whenever you like, which is a different way of watching television and, on a weeknight, not the worst one.

Sitcoms: archive and revivals

Red Dwarf is the one thing Dave can properly call its own. The channel brought it back in 2009, a decade after the BBC finished with it, and got Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn all to return. Not Going Out is the other long runner, still in production after more than fifteen years.

Factual entertainment and documentaries

A thinner strand of observational and scripted-reality shows fills the gaps: Highland Cops, Meet the Richardsons and similar, mostly parked in daytime. It’s ballast between the comedy blocks.

How to watch Dave

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find Dave across the main UK television platforms:

Dave is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. Channel numbers can vary slightly by region and set-top box, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t match.

Streaming online

Dave streams live and on demand for free on U, UKTV’s streaming service, at u.co.uk and through the U app on smart TVs, iOS, Android and Amazon Fire TV. U was called UKTV Play until the 2024 rebrand. You need a free account, and there are ad breaks, the same ones you’d sit through on a TV set.

Dave ja vu and sister channels

Dave ja vu is the timeshift channel, running the main schedule an hour behind under a pun that has somehow survived since the 2000s. It’s on Freeview 74, and coverage is patchier than the main signal because it shares broadcast capacity with local TV services in parts of the country. Where reception is thin, the U app is the better fallback for anything you’ve missed.

The rest of the family: U&Drama, U&Yesterday and U&W free to air, with U&Gold, U&Alibi and U&Eden behind pay-TV. All of them sit in the same app.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is Dave on Freeview?

Dave is on Freeview channel 19, and Dave ja vu on 74.

What’s on Dave tonight?

Tonight, Friday 7 August 2026: Hairy Bikers’ Best of British opens the evening at 6pm, Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing follows at 7pm, Would I Lie to You? runs at 7:40pm and again at 9:20pm either side of a QI XL at 8:20pm, and new episodes of Magnum P.I. close the night at 10pm and 11pm.

Who hosts QI and Would I Lie to You??

QI is hosted by Sandi Toksvig, with Alan Davies the permanent panellist since 2003. Would I Lie to You? is hosted by Rob Brydon, with David Mitchell and Lee Mack as team captains since the show began in 2007.

Can I watch Dave online for free?

Yes, free on U at u.co.uk or in the U app. You’ll need an account, and it’s ad-supported.

Verdict

The two new Magnum P.I. episodes at 10pm and 11pm are the reason to stay up, and they give the night a shape it would otherwise lack. Everything before them is archive panel show, competently stacked: Would I Lie to You? twice, an XL edition of QI from the Stephen Fry years, and the Hairy Bikers doing islands at 6pm.

The Would I Lie to You? pair are at least genuinely different episodes rather than one shown twice, which is not always the case here. Greg Rutherford, Kirsty Young, Joanna Scanlan and Henning Wehn take the 7:40pm; Jimmy Carr, Griff Rhys Jones, Dave Myers and Susanna Reid the 9:20pm. Gone Fishing at 7pm is the quiet one, and probably the best thing on before ten.

Related: Freeview Channel Guide | Drama TV Guide