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

Published: 27 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, Friday 28 August 2026, two Rick Stein’s Fresh Food repeats close out the early evening before Rick Stein’s Taste of Shanghai, a different strand entirely, takes the 6pm hour and Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing repeats its 2:20pm outing at 7pm, Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse after grayling on the River Dee. A Would I Lie To You? double follows at 7:40pm and 8:20pm, running series 10’s seventh and eighth episodes in order, then QI XL takes the 9pm hour, Sandi Toksvig steering a panel that includes Jason Manford, Ahir Shah and Holly Walsh, with Alan Davies still in his usual seat, for an episode built around veggies. Two episodes of Magnum P.I. close out the night from 10pm to midnight, series one’s twelfth and thirteenth instalments back to back. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Friday 28 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Friday 28 August 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Friday’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 Hit Point 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 Fresh Food opens a two-part breakfast pairing 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 its first outing of the day at 2:20pm, Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse after grayling on the River Dee — the same episode that returns in primetime. Speed with Guy Martin: F1 Special and Hairy Bikers’ Best of British take the rest of the afternoon, then Rick Stein’s Fresh Food repeats twice more at 5pm and 5:30pm — rerunning the morning’s 10:20am and 10:50am episodes — before Rick Stein’s Taste of Shanghai, a separate strand, takes the 6pm hour and hands over directly to tonight’s primetime line-up.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 28 August 2026.

Rick Stein’s Taste of Shanghai — Dave, 6pm

A different strand from his Fresh Food outings earlier in the schedule: Rick Stein trades the West Country for eastern China, hunting out street food and family kitchens before Dave’s Friday comedy run gets underway.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse try their luck for grayling on the River Dee. It’s a rerun rather than a fresh trip — this episode already had its first outing on Dave at 2:20pm this afternoon.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 7:40pm

Series 10 resumes with its seventh episode, Rob Brydon working through the usual mix of implausible claims while David Mitchell and Lee Mack try to sort truth from invention.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 8:20pm

The eighth episode runs straight on from the first, so the two half-hours form a genuine back-to-back pairing rather than an arbitrary double bill.

QI XL — Dave, 9pm

The extended cut of this week’s QI is built around the theme of veggies. Sandi Toksvig gets the extra runtime to steer a panel including Jason Manford, Ahir Shah and Holly Walsh, with Alan Davies still fielding the wrong answers from his usual seat.

Magnum P.I. — Dave, 10pm

Two episodes of the classic Hawaii-set detective series close out the night, starting with the twelfth instalment of series one — oddly flagged “New” in the listings data despite carrying no such tag on screen.

Magnum P.I. — Dave, 11pm

The thirteenth episode follows straight on, keeping the pair in their original broadcast order.

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, Friday 28 August 2026, two Rick Stein’s Fresh Food repeats fill the early evening before Rick Stein’s Taste of Shanghai takes the 6pm hour. Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing repeats its 2:20pm outing at 7pm — Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse after grayling on the River Dee — then Would I Lie To You? doubles up at 7:40pm and 8:20pm with series 10’s seventh and eighth episodes back to back. QI XL takes the 9pm hour, and two episodes of Magnum P.I. close out the night from 10pm to midnight.

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

Friday’s daytime is straightforward Dave: Border Force, a couple of Top Gear editions and an early pass at both Rick Stein’s Fresh Food and Gone Fishing before the evening’s proper billing. Nothing here duplicates by accident, which the schedule sometimes does elsewhere on the channel.

Primetime leans on repeats more than it first looks, too. Gone Fishing’s River Dee outing is the same one Dave showed at 2:20pm, not a new episode, though the Would I Lie To You? double at least keeps series 10 moving forward, running episodes seven and eight back to back across 7:40pm and 8:20pm. The evening’s real event is QI XL taking the 9pm hour with Sandi Toksvig’s veggies-themed episode, followed by two straight episodes of Magnum P.I. from 10pm rather than the usual chat-show hour. It’s a solid comedy-led night for a channel that so often just repeats itself.

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