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, Tuesday 18 August 2026, a four-episode run of Rick Stein’s Cornwall opens the evening from 5pm, Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing takes the 7pm slot, and two editions of Would I Lie To You? follow at 7:40pm and 8:20pm. Have I Got a Bit More News for You, QI XL and Taskmaster carry the schedule through to midnight. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Tuesday 18 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Tuesday 18 August 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Tuesday’s Dave day opens with Mock the Week at midnight, Hugh Dennis, Ed Byrne, Milton Jones, Zoe Lyons, Nish Kumar and Josh Widdicombe working through the week’s news while Dara O Briain keeps order. A pair of Would I Lie To You? episodes follows from 12:40am: a genuine outing with Aisling Bea, June Brown, Adrian Chiles and Seann Walsh, then an Unseen Bits compilation of material cut from earlier editions at 1:20am. Sandi Toksvig’s visually themed QI XL repeats at 2am with Maisie Adam, Jack Dee, Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Alan Davies, Richard Osman’s House of Games brings on Trevor Nelson, Kimberley Nixon, Des Clarke and Rachel Fairburn at 3am, and a single episode of Parks and Recreation covers both Leslie’s ruined hen party and Ben’s disastrous stag night before teleshopping fills the gap to 7:25am, when Top Gear returns with Clarkson and May trying to turn a Reliant Robin into something that will actually fly into space.

Border Force America’s Gatekeepers doubles up from 8:20am: methamphetamine hidden in a broccoli shipment and an older traveller caught hiding tablets inside a tub of protein powder in the first hour, then cartel cash and firearms found in a car and a van load of exotic reptiles in the second. Rick Stein’s Cornwall gets an early outing too, Rick tracing JMW Turner’s Cornish influences and bidding at Newlyn Fish Market at 10:20am, then visiting a Tamar mausoleum with a grim history and catching up with chef Emily Scott, who once cooked for Joe Biden, at 10:50am — both episodes repeat later in the early evening. A new Yukon Gold follows at 11:20am, Chris managing a run of mine breakdowns while Big Al pauses work to remember his late wife a year on, before two more Top Gear episodes from 12:15pm send the trio round Donington in stripped-out track cars and weigh up racing against the cost of a round of golf, with Slash taking the Reasonably Priced Car for a spin. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing has its first outing of the day at 2:20pm on the River Wye, Bob and Paul swapping their usual barbel stretch for chub further downstream, before Guy Martin joins an RNLI lifeboat crew in his hometown of Grimsby at 3pm and Hairy Bikers’ Best of British closes out the afternoon at 4pm with a look at British beef, from Wagyu farming to the history of tripe. The evening schedule below begins from there.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 18 August 2026.

Rick Stein’s Cornwall — Dave, 5pm to 6:30pm (four episodes)

Four episodes run back to back from 5pm. The first two, at 5pm and 5:30pm, repeat the day’s earlier double bill — Rick tracing JMW Turner’s Cornish influences and bidding at Newlyn Fish Market, then a Tamar mausoleum with a grim history and a reunion with chef Emily Scott, who once cooked for Joe Biden. The 6pm and 6:30pm episodes are new to the day: the story of Cornish villagers taken by pirates and a visit to the fishing fleet at St Mawes, followed by a trip to the quieter Rame Peninsula and a dig into where the Cornish pasty came from.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing returns to the River Wye at 7pm. The Middle Wye and its barbel are old ground for the pair, so Bob and Paul work their way further downstream to the Lower Wye, chub on their minds instead.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 7:40pm and 8:20pm (two episodes)

Two proper episodes air back to back rather than a compilation. Danny Dyer, Jon Richardson, Joe Lycett and Moira Stuart try to bluff their way past team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack at 7:40pm; Bob Mortimer, Gabby Logan, Katherine Parkinson and Steve Backshall take their turn at 8:20pm. Both are archive editions from the show’s ninth series, hosted throughout by Rob Brydon.

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

Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 9pm is an extended repeat with David Tennant hosting, Miles Jupp and Cathy Newman joining regulars Paul Merton and Ian Hislop.

QI XL — Dave, 10pm

QI XL at 10pm is Sandi Toksvig’s visually themed edition, built around a picture-led round. Jack Dee, Maisie Adam and Kiri Pritchard-McLean take the guest chairs, with Alan Davies in his usual seat.

Taskmaster — Dave, 11pm

Taskmaster closes the night at 11pm with series four’s penultimate episode. Greg Davies and Alex Horne set Hugh Dennis, Joe Lycett, Lolly Adefope, Mel Giedroyc and Noel Fielding a French-language obstacle course among the tasks; Hugh ends up wielding a blade and Mel wrecks a mannequin along the way.

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, Tuesday 18 August 2026: four episodes of Rick Stein’s Cornwall run from 5pm, then Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing at 7pm and two rounds of Would I Lie To You? at 7:40pm and 8:20pm. Have I Got a Bit More News for You takes the 9pm slot, QI XL follows at 10pm, and Taskmaster 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

Tuesday’s schedule is repeat-heavy again, but the Rick Stein’s Cornwall run doesn’t just double up on itself the way it can. Only the 5pm and 5:30pm episodes repeat that morning’s double bill; the 6pm and 6:30pm instalments are new to the day, taking in Cornish captives and the fishing fleet at St Mawes. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing at 7pm is a straight repeat of the 2:20pm airing, Bob and Paul’s River Wye trip after chub.

Would I Lie To You? gets two proper episodes rather than a clips show tonight, Danny Dyer’s crowd at 7:40pm followed by Bob Mortimer’s at 8:20pm, both archive editions from the show’s ninth series. David Tennant hosts an extended Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 9pm, Sandi Toksvig’s visual QI XL follows at 10pm, and Taskmaster’s series four run closes the night at 11pm with Hugh Dennis and Mel Giedroyc among the contestants. None of it is new, but a run of two full Would I Lie To You? episodes back to back beats the compilation-and-original split the slot sometimes gets.

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