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

Published: 24 August 2026

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 25 August 2026, Rick Stein’s India rounds off the early evening at 6pm before Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing opens primetime at 7pm, chasing a wild carp in Wales. A Would I Lie To You? double follows at 7:40pm and 8:20pm as the channel opens a new series-10 run, then Kevin Bridges takes the host’s chair for Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 9pm. QI XL and Taskmaster close out the evening from 10pm. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Tuesday 25 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Tuesday 25 August 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Tuesday’s overnight stretch opens with Mock the Week at midnight, followed by two more Would I Lie To You? repeats at 12:40am and 1:20am and a QI XL rerun at 2am. Richard Osman’s House of Games and a Parks and Recreation episode carry things to 4am, when teleshopping fills the gap until Top Gear returns at 7:25am.

Two Border Force: America’s Gatekeepers episodes take the back half of the morning, then Rick Stein’s India revisits Lucknow at 10:20am ahead of a Yukon Gold outing at 11:20am. Top Gear runs twice more through the early afternoon before Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing gets a daytime showing at 2:20pm — the same episode that anchors tonight’s primetime. Guy’s Garage and Hairy Bikers’ Best of British take the rest of the afternoon, and Rick Stein’s India returns for a teatime pairing at 5pm and 6pm, handing over directly to tonight’s primetime line-up.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Tuesday 25 August 2026.

Rick Stein’s India — Dave, 6pm

Rick Stein carries on through India, tonight taking in Lucknow and the Punjab in a hunt for what he reckons is the definitive chicken korma.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse head to a river in Wales for series 4’s fifth outing, with a wild carp the nominal target. As ever, the fish is really just the excuse for the conversation.

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

Dave opens a new run of Would I Lie To You? with two fresh episodes back to back. Rob Brydon puts David Haye and Romesh Ranganathan up against Mel Giedroyc and Martin Kemp at 7:40pm, then swaps the panel entirely for Bob Mortimer, Diane Morgan, Nadiya Hussain and Michael Smiley at 8:20pm. David Mitchell and Lee Mack captain both, as they have since the show began.

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

Kevin Bridges takes the host’s chair for this extended, more relaxed sibling of the BBC One original, with Helen Lewis and Chloe Petts joining regular team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. It’s a repeat rather than a fresh recording — this edition first aired back in 2024 — and it has the field to itself tonight, since BBC One is running no version of Have I Got News for You at all.

QI XL — Dave, 10pm

The extended cut of “Vulgar” runs a full hour rather than the usual half, with Chris McCausland, Cariad Lloyd and Neil Delamere on the panel beside Sandi Toksvig and the ever-present Alan Davies.

Taskmaster — Dave, 11pm

Series 5’s “Phoenix” task night. Greg Davies presides over Aisling Bea, Bob Mortimer, Mark Watson, Nish Kumar and Sally Phillips.

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 25 August 2026, Rick Stein’s India rounds off the early evening at 6pm, then Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing opens primetime at 7pm. A Would I Lie To You? double follows at 7:40pm and 8:20pm as a new series gets under way, Kevin Bridges hosts Have I Got a Bit More News for You at 9pm, and the night closes with QI XL at 10pm and Taskmaster 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 daytime is straightforward Dave: Border Force, a couple of Top Gear editions and an early pass at both Rick Stein’s India and Gone Fishing before the evening’s proper billing. Nothing here duplicates by accident, which the schedule sometimes does elsewhere on the channel.

Primetime is where it earns attention. Gone Fishing’s move to a Welsh river for series 4’s fifth episode is worth catching for the company as much as the catch, and the Would I Lie To You? double marks the channel opening a full new run rather than dipping into the archive, with two entirely different panels either side of 8pm. Kevin Bridges’ Have I Got a Bit More News for You is a repeat of a 2024 edition rather than a new recording, and with BBC One running no version of the format tonight, it has the format to itself. QI XL and Taskmaster close things out reliably, as they generally do.

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