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, Saturday 15 August 2026, Dave clears the whole day for a sixteen-episode Would I Lie To You? marathon before handing over to three Gavin and Stacey episodes, three from I’m Alan Partridge, and an out-of-season Not Going Out Christmas special at 11pm. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Saturday 15 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Saturday 15 August 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Saturday’s schedule opens at midnight with Mock the Week (Rob Beckett, Ed Gamble, Milton Jones, Romesh Ranganathan and Tiff Stevenson joining Dara Ó Briain and Hugh Dennis for a run through the week’s news), then two further editions of Would I Lie To You? at 12:40am and 1:20am, the first bringing in Ray Mears alongside Jo Brand, Roisin Conaty and Paul Foot, the second going Christmas-themed with Ray Winstone, Josh Widdicombe, Rachel Riley and Ricky Tomlinson. QI XL follows at 2am, Sandi Toksvig’s “Very Varied” edition with Ross Noble, Sara Pascoe, Sally Phillips and Alan Davies, before Richard Osman’s House of Games, Parks and Recreation and close to three and a half hours of teleshopping see out the small hours.

Top Gear returns at 7:25am with Jeremy Clarkson and the Stig racing two home-built Caterham 7s around a Scottish circuit, and then the day belongs almost entirely to Would I Lie To You?. Sixteen episodes run back to back from 8:20am to 6:20pm, a mix of series 6, 7 and 8 outings pulling in guests from Susan Calman and Carol Kirkwood to Jimmy Carr, Griff Rhys Jones and Claudia Winkleman, with a compilation of series 7 outtakes at 11am and a second Christmas special at 11:40am. The run repeats itself from mid-afternoon, series 6 material resurfacing at 3:40pm through to 6:20pm, before the evening schedule takes over.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave line-up for today and tonight, Saturday 15 August 2026.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 8:20am to 6:20pm (sixteen episodes)

Dave gives over the entire day to Would I Lie To You?, sixteen episodes running back to back from 8:20am to 6:20pm without a break for anything else. The stretch draws from three different series, so a fresh series 8 half-hour can sit next to a series 6 or 7 repeat within the same hour, and it folds in an outtakes compilation at 11am and a Christmas-themed edition at 11:40am. Guests across the run include Susan Calman, Carol Kirkwood, Jimmy Carr, Griff Rhys Jones, Claudia Winkleman and Bruno Tonioli, tested by the regular trio of Rob Brydon, David Mitchell and Lee Mack.

Gavin and Stacey — Dave, 7pm to 8:20pm (three episodes)

Three episodes carry Gavin and Stacey through to the close of series 1. The 7pm instalment sends the Shipmans to Wales for the wedding fayre, where Nessa lets Stacey in on her secret after a trip to church to hear the banns read. The 7:40pm hour covers the hen party and a pair of stag nights, one of which threatens to derail the wedding entirely. By 8:20pm it’s the wedding day itself, Bryn still acting strangely around Stacey’s brother and Nessa weighing up whether to go public with what she knows. The feed’s own episode number for that last slot is wrong, repeating the tag from the 7pm episode, but the synopsis is unmistakably the series finale.

I’m Alan Partridge — Dave, 9pm to 10:20pm (three episodes)

Steve Coogan’s sitcom opens its first series with three episodes in a row. A Room with an Alan at 9pm finds the disgraced radio host angling for a second TV series over a meeting with a BBC commissioner. Alan Attraction at 9:40pm has him distracted by a hotel receptionist while facing down bankruptcy, and Watership Alan at 10:20pm sees him insult Norfolk’s farming community live on air before trying to smooth things over with a promotional film.

Not Going Out: The True Meaning of Christmas — Dave, 11pm

An oddity to close the night: this is a genuine Christmas special, the fifth one the sitcom made, first broadcast on 24 December 2017 and airing here in the middle of August. Lee buys his children the perfect present only to find Lucy’s parents have bought the same thing, and the fallout drags in Frank’s last-minute save and an awkward turn from Toby and Anna. It’s also the final appearance of Keith Barron, who plays the toy shop assistant and died shortly before the episode went out; Dave’s repeat carries the same dedication it aired with in 2017.

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, Saturday 15 August 2026: the Would I Lie To You? marathon that’s run since 8:20am wraps at 6:20pm, then three episodes of Gavin and Stacey close series 1 from 7pm, followed by three episodes of I’m Alan Partridge from 9pm. An out-of-season Not Going Out Christmas special, first shown in December 2017, closes the night at 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

This is a schedule built almost entirely from other channels’ back catalogues, which is Dave’s normal mode rather than a departure from it. Ten hours of Would I Lie To You? is the extreme version of the format the channel is known for: drop in whenever, leave whenever, nothing depends on what came before. Only the Christmas special sitting in August primetime looks like a genuine scheduling quirk rather than a deliberate rerun strategy.

Gavin and Stacey’s three-episode run does something the daytime blocks don’t: it actually finishes something. Starting at the wedding fayre and ending on the wedding day itself closes out series 1 in one sitting, which is a more coherent piece of scheduling than the Would I Lie To You? marathon around it. I’m Alan Partridge’s opening three episodes do the same job in miniature, running Alan’s disastrous run at a second series in broadcast order. Not Going Out at 11pm is the one piece of counter-programming: a proper Christmas Eve story, tinsel and all, shown five weeks before the August bank holiday.

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