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, Sunday 16 August 2026, three more editions of Would I Lie To You? run through the early evening before Guy Martin and Pete Wicks take the 7pm and 8pm hours, then Have I Got a Bit More News for You, QI and a Mock the Week double bill carry the schedule to midnight. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Sunday 16 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Sunday 16 August 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Sunday opens at midnight with Not Going Out, Lee and Lucy clearing up after her dad’s building work, then a repeat of Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 12:35am with Angela Rippon standing in as host and Jo Brand and Richard Osman joining regular captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Live at the Apollo follows at 1:35am, Iain Stirling bringing on Harriet Dyer and Maria Shehata, before James May’s Cars of the People looks at the Rolls-Royce at 2:40am and Judge Romesh runs at 3:30am. Two blocks of teleshopping cover the small hours until Top Gear returns at 7:10am, the team swapping their usual cars for vans to roadie for a touring band and Hammond taking on a new rival to the Porsche 911.

Three episodes of Yukon Gold follow from 8am, then two runs of the Red Bull Soapbox Race, Melbourne first and then Oslo, fill the schedule to 1pm. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing has three outings from 1pm, Paul and Bob working the Upper Tamar Lakes, a lough near Enniskillen and the River Ure, and Hairy Bikers’ Chicken and Egg follows with two editions built around Moroccan and American cooking. Would I Lie To You? then takes over from 5pm for three episodes running to 6:20pm, with Kevin Bridges, Bill Turnbull and Greg Davies among the guests across the run, before the evening schedule below begins.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Sunday 16 August 2026.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 6:20pm

The third and last of tonight’s Would I Lie To You? run puts Marcus Brigstocke, Phil Tufnell, Konnie Huq and Greg Davies up against the regular team, closing out a stretch that’s carried the show from 5pm. Rob Brydon keeps it moving, and David Mitchell and Lee Mack argue the toss as usual.

Guy Martin: Proper Jobs — Dave, 7pm

Guy Martin trades engines for the outdoors this week, taking a stint as a wildlife warden on the Calf of Man. Birdwatching and rat-catching turn out to be the easy parts; a beach clean-up ahead of the seal pupping season is the one that tests him.

Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake — Dave, 8pm

Pete Wicks works his first shift at Dogs Trust in the opening episode of the series, meeting a pug booked in for surgery and a pregnant dog seized at the UK border. It’s a gentler register than his usual reality-TV work, and Dave gives it a proper 8pm billing rather than parking it in the afternoon.

Have I Got a Bit More News for You — Dave, 9pm

Angela Rippon takes the host’s chair for this edition of Have I Got a Bit More News for You, with Jo Brand and Richard Osman filling the guest seats alongside team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. It’s one of Dave’s most dependable slots, and topical panel comedy tends to age better than most.

QI — Dave, 10pm

QI turns to bills, Bens and buildings in this series two outing, recorded well back in Stephen Fry’s years as host, with a panel rounded out by Alan Davies, John Sessions, Phil Kay and Clive Anderson. Alan Davies is the only one of that group still on the show two decades later.

Mock the Week — Dave, 10:35pm

The first of two Mock the Week repeats has Dara Ó Briain chairing Romesh Ranganathan, Ivo Graham, Ed Gamble, Ed Byrne, Angela Barnes and Hugh Dennis, an edition old enough to be marking Jeremy Corbyn’s first year as Labour leader.

Mock the Week — Dave, 11:15pm

A second, similarly vintage Mock the Week closes the night, Dara Ó Briain back in the chair as Sara Pascoe, Elis James, Gary Delaney, Rob Beckett, James Acaster and Hugh Dennis pick apart the week’s headlines. It’s a strong line-up on paper, one of the more joke-dense panels the format produced.

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, Sunday 16 August 2026: the last of three Would I Lie To You? episodes finishes at 6:20pm, then Guy Martin: Proper Jobs at 7pm and Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake at 8pm. Have I Got a Bit More News for You takes the 9pm slot and QI follows at 10pm, before a Mock the Week double bill closes the night from 10:35pm.

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

Tonight’s line-up is closer to Dave’s default setting than a serialised binge. Three Would I Lie To You? episodes carry the early evening on repeat strength alone, and the 7pm and 8pm hours go to Guy Martin: Proper Jobs and Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake, factual entertainment rather than another panel show. Have I Got a Bit More News for You and QI hold their usual 9pm and 10pm posts, both older editions rather than anything current, and the two Mock the Week repeats that close the night date back far enough that one references Jeremy Corbyn’s first year as Labour leader.

Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake is the one item that breaks the archive-comedy pattern: an opening episode built around a Dogs Trust shift rather than a script, sitting in a Sunday 8pm slot more often reserved for scripted comedy. Guy Martin: Proper Jobs does something similar an hour earlier, swapping his usual engineering beat for a stint as a wildlife warden on the Calf of Man. Whether either becomes a regular fixture will show up in how they hold an audience against the QI and Mock the Week reruns either side of them.

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