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

Dave is UKTV’s panel-show and archive-comedy channel, built around a rotating stack of QI, Would I Lie to You? and Taskmaster repeats alongside factual filler like Top Gear and Rick Stein’s Cornwall. Find it on Freeview 19, or stream it free through the U app.

Wednesday 19 August 2026: a four-episode run of Rick Stein’s Cornwall opens the evening from 5pm, then Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing settles in at 7:05pm ahead of back-to-back Would I Lie To You? at 7:40pm and 8:20pm. QI XL takes the 9pm slot, Have I Got a Bit More News for You follows at 10pm, and a Taskmaster repeat closes the night at 11pm.

Dave Schedule: Wednesday 19 August 2026 (Full Listings)

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

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today: the daytime schedule

Teleshopping fills the small hours from 4am, a standard gap-filler on a channel that doesn’t broadcast fresh programming before breakfast, before Top Gear returns at 7:20am with an older run (series 9, episode 5). Border Force America’s Gatekeepers gets a double bill from 8:10am, tracking US customs officers rather than the UK version the title might suggest, and a pair of Rick Stein’s Cornwall episodes follows from 10:15am.

Yukon Gold rounds off the late morning at 11:20am, a Discovery-style gold-mining format that sits a little outside Dave’s usual comedy lean. The afternoon then leans back into familiar territory: two hours of Top Gear from 12:20pm, an episode of Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing at 2:20pm, Guy Martin: Proper Jobs at 3pm and Hairy Bikers’ Best of British closing out at 4pm.

Early evening belongs entirely to Rick Stein, with four back-to-back episodes of Rick Stein’s Cornwall running from 5pm through to 7:05pm, when Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing returns for its own second outing of the day and the evening’s comedy line-up gets under way.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s what’s on Dave this evening, Wednesday 19 August 2026.

Rick Stein’s Cornwall — Dave, 5pm

Rick Stein works his way round the county’s coastline and kitchens for four episodes in a row, opening the evening with a run that plays more like a mini box set than four separate bookings.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7:05pm

Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse cast off again for this series-four opener, the pair’s gentler, more reflective spin on the celebrity-fishing format that’s earned Dave some of its warmest reviews.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 7:40pm

The first of two episodes back to back tonight, with Rob Brydon in the chair and David Mitchell and Lee Mack captaining their teams as usual, sorting fact from elaborately staged fiction.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 8:20pm

A second helping straight after, moving the panel show on to episode four of its ninth series without a break in the schedule.

QI XL — Dave, 9pm

Alan Davies takes his usual seat as the show’s longest-serving panellist, with Michelle Wolf, Mark Watson and Aisling Bea rounding out tonight’s line-up for the extended cut of series 22’s sixth episode.

Have I Got a Bit More News for You — Dave, 10pm

The extended, uncut edition of the week’s Have I Got News for You, restoring material trimmed from the BBC One broadcast for a later watershed.

Taskmaster — Dave, 11pm

A repeat from series four closes the night, well before Greg Davies and Alex Horne’s current-series episodes, but still one of the format’s stronger early runs.

Popular shows on Dave

Comedy panel shows

Would I Lie to You? and QI are the channel’s backbone, stripped across the schedule multiple times a week and still good for a laugh a couple of decades into their runs. Have I Got a Bit More News for You gives Dave something the original BBC One broadcast doesn’t: the fuller, later-watershed cut of each week’s episode.

Taskmaster

Dave built its reputation as a comedy destination partly on the back of Taskmaster before the show moved to Channel 4, and it still leans hard on the archive, cycling through earlier series long before the current run reaches terrestrial screens elsewhere.

Archive sitcoms and factual filler

Parks and Recreation turns up in the small hours as reliable overnight comfort viewing, while Red Dwarf’s revival episodes get regular outings when the schedule needs a change of pace. Factual strands such as Top Gear, Rick Stein’s Cornwall and Guy Martin: Proper Jobs fill the daytime hours between the comedy blocks.

How to watch Dave

Channel numbers

Dave is free-to-air on all of these platforms, with no subscription required.

Streaming on U

Dave streams live and on demand for free through U, UKTV’s streaming service (renamed from UKTV Play in 2024). Head to u.co.uk or download the U app on smart TVs, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV and most connected TV platforms, register a free account, and you can watch the live channel or dip into box sets of Would I Lie to You?, QI, Red Dwarf and Not Going Out. The service is ad-supported.

Dave ja vu

Dave ja vu carries the main channel’s schedule an hour behind on Freeview 74, standing in for a conventional “+1” service. Its Freeview coverage is patchier than Dave’s main signal in some areas because it shares capacity with local TV services, so the U app is often the more dependable catch-up route if Dave ja vu doesn’t reach you cleanly.

Frequently Asked Questions

What channel is Dave on Freeview?

Dave sits on Freeview channel 19, with the hour-behind Dave ja vu on channel 74. Both are free to air with no subscription needed, though Dave ja vu’s Freeview reach is smaller in places because it shares capacity with local TV services.

What channel is Dave on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat?

You’ll find Dave on Sky channel 111, Virgin Media channel 127 and Freesat channel 157, all free to watch. Numbers can shift slightly by region or box, so check your own on-screen guide if any of these don’t line up.

What’s on Dave tonight?

Rick Stein’s Cornwall runs four episodes back to back from 5pm, before Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing takes the 7:05pm slot and two editions of Would I Lie To You? follow at 7:40pm and 8:20pm. QI XL airs at 9pm, the extended Have I Got a Bit More News for You follows at 10pm, and a Taskmaster repeat wraps things up at 11pm.

Who hosts QI and Would I Lie to You??

Sandi Toksvig has hosted QI since 2016, taking over from founding host Stephen Fry, with Alan Davies the only panellist to have sat in on every episode since the show began in 2003. Would I Lie to You? has been fronted by Rob Brydon since it started in 2007, with David Mitchell and Lee Mack captaining opposing teams throughout.

Can I watch Dave online for free?

Yes, through U, UKTV’s streaming service. It’s available at u.co.uk and via the U app on smart TVs, iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV and most connected televisions. Signing up is free, and the service carries advertising in place of a subscription fee.

Is Dave free to watch?

Yes. Dave broadcasts free to air on Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat, funded by advertising rather than a subscription, so expect regular ad breaks.

What is Dave ja vu?

It’s Dave’s timeshift channel on Freeview 74, replaying the main schedule an hour later instead of using a standard “+1” label. Coverage is more limited than the main channel in some parts of the country because it shares broadcast capacity with local TV services, which is where the U app comes in as a backup.

Who owns Dave?

UKTV owns Dave, and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of BBC Studios since 2021. The channel started out in 1998 as UK Gold Classics, went through a UKTV G2 phase, and settled on the Dave name in October 2007. When UKTV rebranded its channels and streaming platform under the “U” banner in 2024, Dave stayed put as the standalone name alongside sister channels U&Drama, U&Yesterday, U&W, U&Gold, U&Alibi and U&Eden.

Verdict

A comfortable, familiar Wednesday for Dave, built almost entirely from returning favourites rather than anything new. The four-strong Rick Stein’s Cornwall run gives the early evening an easy rhythm, and the panel-show double bill of Would I Lie To You? into QI XL at 7:40pm and 9pm is as safe a pairing as the channel has.

Nothing tonight breaks new ground, but that’s rarely the point on Dave. The extended Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 10pm and an archive Taskmaster to close at 11pm round out a night aimed squarely at viewers who already know what they like.

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | Dave TV Guide | Films on TV This Week