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 14 August 2026, the line-up runs from two new Rick Stein’s Cornwall episodes through a repeat of Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, Would I Lie To You? twice either side of QI XL, and a Magnum P.I. double to close the night. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Friday 14 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Friday 14 August 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Friday’s schedule opens at midnight with Mock the Week (Dara Ó Briain and Hugh Dennis joined by Loyiso Gola, Milton Jones, Miles Jupp, Ellie Taylor and Josh Widdicombe, with Andy Murray pulled out of the audience to join in), then two further editions of Would I Lie To You? at 12:40am and 1:20am, the first putting Kelly Hoppen and Rhod Gilbert’s stories to the test, the second bringing in guest captain Greg Davies alongside Richard Osman and Phill Jupitus. Detective drama Hit Point airs at 2am, Leo and Bella working a heist that doesn’t quite add up, before Richard Osman’s House of Games (Stephen Bailey, Amanda Lamb, Nick Moran and Crystelle Pereira), Parks and Recreation and the best part of three and a half hours of teleshopping see out the small hours.

Top Gear returns at 7:25am with an unlikely caravanning holiday in Dorset and the Stig testing how fast you can drive indoors. Two episodes of Border Force America’s Gatekeepers follow from 8:20am, a fake fentanyl shipment intercepted first, then a consignment of wet wipes hiding something else inside. Rick Stein’s Cornwall gets its first outing of the day at 10:20am with the tale of the Mermaid of Zennor, and again at 10:55am with the story of Thomas Hardy’s little-known Cornish love affair. Yukon Gold airs at 11:25am, Ken and Guillaume racing to get sluicing before Ken leaves for the birth of his son, ahead of a Top Gear double from 12:20pm: Richard Hammond compares F1 and NASCAR in the US while Jeremy and James dig into China’s car industry in Beijing, then Clarkson and Hammond take charge of a car chase on the set of the Sweeney film, Ryan Reynolds among the guests. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing gets an early airing at 2:20pm as Paul and Bob return to the Hampshire Test, the river where they first fished together after Bob’s heart surgery. Guy Martin: Proper Jobs sends him training as a firefighter in Grimsby at 3pm, and Hairy Bikers’ Best of British closes the afternoon at 4pm with a tribute to the humble spud, before the evening schedule takes over.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 14 August 2026.

Rick Stein’s Cornwall — Dave, 6pm

Episode six sends Rick out from Newquay in search of king crab before a detour up to Bodmin Moor, where explorer Robin Hanbury is waiting. It’s the first new instalment in this early-evening run, after two straight repeats of the Zennor and Hardy episodes.

Rick Stein’s Cornwall — Dave, 6:30pm

From Penzance the trip moves out to the Scilly Isles, where Rick uncovers the story behind one of the Navy’s costliest shipwrecks and meets someone trying to bring back a honeybee unique to the islands.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer head back to the Hampshire Test, the river where the pair first cast a line together after Bob’s heart surgery. Dave already ran this one at 2:20pm, so it’s a second helping rather than a new episode.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 7:40pm

Rob Brydon puts Lee Mack and David Mitchell’s teams through their paces with Paul Foot, Roisin Conaty and Jo Brand filling the guest chairs, plus naturalist Ray Mears trying his hand at bluffing.

QI XL — Dave, 8:20pm

Sandi Toksvig’s extended “Very Varied” edition brings Sally Phillips, Sara Pascoe and Ross Noble alongside the ever-present Alan Davies for a longer run through the format’s usual mix of tangents.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 9:25pm

A second helping arrives with a Christmas theme dropped into the middle of August: Rachel Riley, Josh Widdicombe, Ricky Tomlinson and Ray Winstone try to catch each other out over festive fibs.

Magnum P.I. — Dave, 10pm

A new episode, Die He Said, has a dying man asking Thomas to trace his estranged brother, a search that drags up an old SEAL mission gone wrong.

Magnum P.I. — Dave, 11pm

The Ties That Bind follows straight after, also new, with Thomas drawing on his own time as a prisoner of war to help track down a kidnapped teenager who managed to break free from her captors.

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 14 August 2026: two new episodes of Rick Stein’s Cornwall run from 6pm, Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing repeats at 7pm, then Would I Lie To You? airs twice, at 7:40pm and 9:25pm, either side of QI XL at 8:20pm. Two episodes of Magnum P.I. close the night from 10pm.

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 Magnum P.I. double at 10pm and 11pm carries the night’s only new-to-Dave episodes; everything else in primetime is a repeat, though not always of something already shown today. The 6pm and 6:30pm run of Rick Stein’s Cornwall is new to today’s schedule, moving on from the Zennor and Hardy episodes replayed at 5pm and 5:30pm to king crab off Newquay and a Royal Navy shipwreck story off the Scillies. Gone Fishing at 7pm is itself a repeat of the 2:20pm slot, the same trip to the Hampshire Test.

Both Would I Lie to You? slots carry fresh series 8 outings, separate from the pair repeated overnight. Ray Mears is the surprise booking on the 7:40pm panel, alongside Jo Brand, Roisin Conaty and Paul Foot; the 9:25pm edition is Christmas-themed, an odd fit for August, and brings in Ricky Tomlinson, Rachel Riley, Ray Winstone and Josh Widdicombe. QI XL sits between the two at 8:20pm, Sandi Toksvig’s “Very Varied” edition with Sally Phillips, Ross Noble and Sara Pascoe. Magnum P.I. closes the night with a two-parter: a dying man’s search for his estranged brother at 10pm, then Magnum drawing on his own time as a prisoner of war to help find a kidnapped teenager at 11pm.

Related: Freeview Channel Guide | Drama TV Guide | Films on TV This Week